Jacob Katz: German Culture & The Jews

● German Jews were basically outcasts

○ Had no social group other than themselves (no place on social hierarchy, "new middle
class")
● Restricted themselves to most jew-jew relationships
● Focused mainly on ​Bildung (edu.)
● Big theatre and music go-ers
○ It was their way of still feeling like part of the whole society
● "Juden im deutschen Kulturbereich"
○ Defend Jewish honor against Nazi rhetoric
○ Basically set guidelines on how to be successful as a German jew at the time
● Jews were looked at as objects of ridicule
● Opinions based on feelings and not facts
○ Anything Jewish = bad
● Jewish contribution to German culture was acceptable during the liberal era so long as it did not
consist of anything Jewish.
○ Jews = bad, Jew opinions = bad, jew contribution is unnecessary if pertaining to Jewish
promotion

Ian Kershaw: The Führer Myth How Hitler Won Over the German People
● Support for Hitler was not necessarily as widespread as the Nazis claimed
○ Some people didn’t like Hitler and the Nazis, some people liked Hitler, but refused to
support the Nazi party
■ Proof of the power of Hitler’s personality
■ while there were some people who opposed him, what mattered was that the
Nazis cultivated this image of Hitler being universally supported, making him
politically untouchable
● Hitler claimed sole responsibility for restoring Germany
○ “I have accomplished all this, as one who 21 years ago was still an unknown worker and
soldier of my people, by my own efforts.”
Talked about about restoring order, getting rid of unemployment, national unity
→ made the Nazis seem not that bad, but (as Kershaw claims), this was a platform
for their more radical goals (war, extermination of the Jews)
-these achievements were built upon eliminating political opponents and “racial enemies”
● Those who used to be workers in Nazi Germany still remember it in a somewhat positive light,
according to Kershaw
● For many Germans, Hitler personified a lot of “positive changes” in Germany. The “Führer Myth”
was that Hitler was the source of order, jobs, morality, and safety in Germany
● Persecution of minorities and homosexuals was portrayed as part of Hitler’s efforts to keep Germany “strong”
○ While many people were anti-Semetic to some degree, most were not as much as Hitler
○ Driving the Jews out of society was also materially beneficial to Germans, so they were willing
to overlook what the Nazis did to the Jews
Fulbrook: The Collapse of Democracy and the Rise of Hitler
-Election of Von Hindenburg represented the perceptions of the German electorate that a more leader-centric system
that could potentially carry them out of the economic collapse following WW1
-Weimar Republic’s inherent weakness led to continuous turnover in power, leading to an effective power vacuum
That couldn’t be filled by any stalwart coalition during its existence
-As the Weimar ZRepublic continually dissolved its government, the Nazi party would continually gaine votes
until they were the largest party in the Reichstag
-There was a belief that Hitler could be controlled when he was offered the Chancellorship, hemmed in and
outnumbered by elites from the agrarian and industrial members of Government, but his Nazi coalition
successfully threw down democracy once Hitler was in power

Discussion Questions
Why do you think Hitler’s personality propaganda (that is, attributing everything as his own accomplishment)
was so effective?

Kershaw mentioned that those who used to work in Nazi Germany still remember it with some fondness.
Why do you think they feel this way, despite the fact that the world now knows what crimes the Nazis committed?

Why do you think many Jewish people still decided to attend theatre and musical productions when their people
were ridiculed? Would you still attend an event like this, just to feel apart of society?

What is meant by “Bildung”?

Fulbrook states that even as early as 1918 (end of WWI), there was significant military opposition to the
Democratic Weimar Republic. With this early opposition and resentment, followed by the recession, do
you think Democracy was doomed to fail in post WWI Germany?

While Hiter of course bears the heaviest burden for installing the Third Reich and tearing down democracy
in Germany, the governmental elites and military also deserve some blame, being positively inclined towards
a less democractic system and by capitulating to the pressure of the Nazi party. Was this submission made
out of genuine belief in Hitler, or do you think that different economic and social circumstances might have
caused a different outcome?