The Nazi State Handout
Dualism Between State and Party
- State Institutions
Reich Chancellery
Coordinated the government
Led by Lammers
Drew up government legislation
Executive organization for the government
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Government Ministries
Controlled certain aspects of society
Included Transport, Education, and Economics
These state institutions felt extreme Nazi influence
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Judiciary
Judiciary was pro-right wing, so the courts remained mostly free of Nazi influence
That being said, in 1933 Special Courts were created for political offenses (without a jury)
Additionally, the People’s Court was created in 1934 to try high treason with a jury of Nazi Party members
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Regional State Governments
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- Party Institutions
Party Structure
· This structure was designed for building power, and once the Nazis took control the party was splintered, dominated by Fuhrerprinzip and the Gauleiters’ desire to please Hitler and keep their own power
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Specialized Party Organizations
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Hess and Bormann
These two men saw issues with the Party bureaucracy (disorganization, lack of control)
Mandated civil service employees to be Nazis
Department for Internal Party Affairs, Department for Affairs of State
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Ultimate ‘battle’ for control between party and state was never won
Party never able to fully control existing state institutions
Internal strife within the party
The Debate on the Functioning of the Third Reich
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Intentionalist Interpretation
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Functionalist Interpretation
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1. Hitler's role
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Strong dictator; can implement his will
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Weak dictator; depends on competing organizations
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2. Structure of the state
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Obedience to the dictator
“Divide and Rule”
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Rivalry of offices in spite of the dictator
Four competing and relatively independent power blocks: economy, army, Nazi party/SS, state administration
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3. Implementation of policies
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Hitler's will
Long-term planning
Realization of long-term goals
Primacy of ideology
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Spontaneous initiatives of organizations, improvisation, primacy of opportunism
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4. Critique
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Too personalistic, too much centered on Hitler, too rational, too apologetic of Germans in general
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Ignores deliberate policies and the popularity of Hitler, overestimates independence of single organizations and apparatuses, too much focused on anonymous structures
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Was Hitler an effective dictator?
Hitler was nationally loved and had his goals, but gave no true direction for following
Hitler relied on the initiatives of the organizations around him, and the SS to clean up and execute the rules
Implemented his will whenever he chose to
Himmler and the SS
- Heinrich Himmler
Born in 1900 in Bavaria and was an early member of the NSDAP
1929 - Appointed leader of the SS
1934 - Organized the Night of the Long Knives
1936 - Became the Reichsführer SS and Chief of all German Police
1943 - Appointed Minister of the Interior
1944 - Commander-in-Chief of the Volksstrum (Home Army)
- Structure of the SS
The Police State
The Gestapo was able to:
access documents that listed names of German people who were suspected of being “enemies of the state”
have those arrested sign an “order for protective custody” that basically equated to an agreement to a prison sentence
utilize the Gestapo Law that made all activities of the Secret Police free from review by a court of law
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Heydrich and Himmler:
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Consequences of arrest:
torture
interrogation
concentration camps
execution
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Political “threats” or scapegoats formed by the Nazi Party:
increased nationalistic views of the German people
gave “evidence” for proof of a superior race
Hitler’s version of Social Darwinism prevailed
created a common enemy
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