History Essay

SevaKarpauskaite

Evaluate the successes and failures of Hitler as the ruler of Germany up to 1939

The idea of struggle is as old as life itself, for life is only preserved because other living things perish through struggle If you dont fight for life, then life will never be won1. Adolf Hitler did struggle ruthlessly and according to him, all means, however brutal and treacherous they would be, are legitimate to succeed. Therefore he used every opportunity to gain the power and did it successfully, by rising up in the Nazi Party, using the Reichstag Fire to diminish political opponents and passing the Enabling Law, which granted him dictatorial powers.Adolf Hitler was appointed as the Chancellor in January, 1933 and after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August, 1934, he also took the title of Fhrer. Both titles meant that he became the only ruler of Germany. Hitler managed to obtain the power and influence, which led him to yet another struggle - the fulfilment of the aims he had. Therefore this essay evaluates the success and failuresof Hitler as the ruler, divided into three aspects political, social and economic in the period of 1933-39.

One of the most important aims of Hitler was to establish Gleichshaltungor co-ordination, meaning an attempt to control political and social life in Germany. It began with the change in political life: in the spring and summer of 1933 it was the co-ordination of Germanys political system which was in the real focus of attention, for the continued existence of the federal states, the political parties and an independent labour movement were totally at odds with Nazi political aspirations2.The correction of these odds started at once and was successful on several levels. Firstly, the Nazi Party had to become the only legal party in Germany, which was proclaimed in the Decree in July, 1933. This was achieved by step by step elimination and weakening of all the other parties. The Communist Party was actively persecuted since the Reichstag Fire, the Social Democrats were banned on June 22nd, theZentrum Party was dissolved in July 5th as the Concordat was negotiated with Catholic Church: The Catholic authorities proved to be willing

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p. 32 and 116 A.Hitler Mein Kampf, p.44, G. Layton, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-45

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to abandon their political party, in return for a Concordat guaranteeing their religious activities3. Secondly, Hitler managed to possess a supreme power both political and militaristic, as the passage of the Enabling Act in 1933, March 23rd, provided legal foundation for creating the dictatorship, becausenow the Reichstag was eliminated from any active role in German politics, and the administration had won unlimited freedom of action4. Then the co-ordination of the armed forces was reached with the help of the Oath of Allegiance, which gave Hitler physical power, as the new oath demanded unconditional obedience from the army5. Thirdly, the aim to unify Germany was done by eliminating the federal principle of the government. This was done in steps and began with the centralisation laws, that were passed in April 1933 and these laws established 18 Reich governors with full powers in the provincial parliaments. The process was finished by the abolishment of these provincial parliaments in January 1934, which meant that federal system no longer existed, from now on federal system of government was as good as dead6.Fourthly, the trade unions must have been dissolved as they werea huge amount of diverse institutions and all them resulted in apowerful unit with vast membership, active role and connections with socialism and Catholicism.The co-ordination of trade unions was done by replacing them with a new Nazi organisation, the Nazi Labour Front.

To ensure that the reached aim of Gleichshaltung, would stay in place, all possible opposition had to be eliminated. The animosity could be seen among the closest supporters, as there was a wish among them for second, more radical revolution. For example, from the SA with their leader Ernst Rhm, whose clear opposition and disrespect for Hitler can be seen in one of the interviews in 1934 with Party member Rauschner where he says: Adolf is a swine. He will give us all away. <> whats coming must be new, fresh and unused. The basis must be revolutionary. Moreover, the Army and the SA were competing for power, Hitler sensed the threat and in June 30th 1934, known as the Night of the Long Knives purge of the party was carried out. It was mainly aimed at the SA, as E. Rhm and other leaders of the SA were shot, it
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p.166, J.Noakes and G.Pridham, The Rise to Power 1919-1934: a Documentary Reader p. 410, J.C. Fest ,Hitler 5 p.636, J. Noakes, Nazism 1919-1945 6 p.44, G. Layton, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-45
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is estimated that 400 people were murdered7. Also other possible threats were eliminated: Schleicher (former Chancellor) and Strasser(the leader of socialist wing of the Nazi Party) were both killed. The purge and the elimination of the opposition can be seen as success of Hitler, as he secured his political dominion and the discouraged forces that tried to oppose him were given no opportunity to compose themselves and regroup their ranks8. The terror played a very important role while establishing this position, as it was expressed by Dick Geary, the government rested upon what can be legitimately be described as institutionalized terror9. It can be seen with the expansion and growing importance of the Gestapo from 1933 to 1939: Its budget climbed from 1 million to 40 million Reichsmarks10, whose task was to destroy clerical and political opposition. The possible political failures of the Nazi can be seen in the incoherent nature of Nazi aims and chaotic nature of government and administration11. It happened, as two strong trends in the structure of politics occurred. First one was the disintegration of the government, because Hitler was quick to create new offices and agencies without establishing clear lines of demarcation and responsibility with existing government departments12. This naturally led to struggle for power and influence between these institutions inside the government and the chaos flourished, as responsibilities were no longer clearly defined. Second tendency was further weakness of governmental institutions, as the power was consolidated in the hands of individuals: power and authority were concentrated in the leader or Fhrer and were then delegated by him to individual followers who regarded themselves as his personal delegates rather than the members of a corporate government13. This condition became more unstable when Hitler started to disregard his role in decision making process and was not willing to involve himself in constant government activity, as he preferred to let events take their course rather than intervene14. This led to members of the party competing between themselves even more and establishing many
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p.48, G. Layton, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-45 p. 387, J.C. Fest ,Hitler 9 P.41, D. Geary, Hitler and Nazism 10 p.182, M. Burleigh, The Third Reich A New History 11 p.59, T. Kirk, The Longman Companion to Nazi Germany 12 p.1, J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945 13 p.1, J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945 14 p.25, D.G.Williamson, The Third Reich

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SevaKarpauskaite

separate institutions within the Party: In the Third Reich each of the Party bosses, Grings, Goebbels, Himmler, and Ley, created a private empire for himself, while the Gauleiters on the lower level enjoyed the control of their own local pashaliks15. All this can be seen as a failure to have a strong and organised government, which can dictate to the state and have a full control over it. This makes question Hitlers ability to have a coordinating role over all happenings in the state, as he never showed any inclination to co-ordinate the government16. The second part to fulfil co-ordination, required social change, as Hitler promised: to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and co-operation17. Gleichshaltunginsocial life can also be viewed as a success for many reasons. Firstly, all the parts of German society were controlled and brainwashed by the Nazi Party. These parts include press and education (along with government and trade unions that have already been discussed). The education was concentrated on indoctrinating the youth with Nazi ideology, therefore Adolf Hitler Schools and organisations such as, the Hitler Youth, were established: By 1939 almost all of the 9 million or so of Germans between ages of 10 and 18 were member of one of these Nazi organisations. 18. The means of propaganda were used to reach all the masses and the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was formed in March 1933 by Josef Goebbels. The Ministry was structured in a way that shows how broad propaganda apparatus was and how it touched all parts of social life: it was divided into seven departments: I Budget and Administration; II Propaganda; III Radio, IV Press, V Film, VI Theatre; VII Popular Enlightenment19. One of the abundant examples, how the regime used social living sphere to indoctrinate people could be the censorship and banning of dangerous literature, which started in 1933 with the first manifestation of Burning of Books in May, which was attended, therefore supported, by Goebbels. The censorship was successful and expanded, as we can see that already in 1939 there were 576 authors on the index whose works were under total ban20. Most of these social control policies were successful; nevertheless Hitler was unable to control the Christian
p. 312, A. Bullock, Hitler, a Study in Tyranny p.101, G. Layton, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-45 17 Hitler, taken from p.388, J.C. Fest ,Hitler 18 Eunice Price, Handout on Hitler 19 p.382, J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945 20 p.405, J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945
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churches, the Army and big businesses21, as they have never been fully complied with the regime. The propaganda had to help to reach the success in implementing other aims of Hitler. The Nazi ideology included such aims, as Germany for Germans, which resulted in policies of racial purity, deformed role of women and the anti-Semitism. The aim to achieve racial purity was based on idea that Germany was weakened by unfit people. This science was called Eugenics and These eugenists were concerned about what they saw as a threat to the health of the German race posed by the genetically diseased who, it was claimed, tended to breed faster22. Thus as soon as Nazis came to power in 1933, the Law of Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring was passed and the measures of selection of the unfit people and their sterilization were introduced. Only the Catholic Church expressed strong objections, others endorsed this drastic policy. Other policies such as Lebensborn, an organisation that was set up by the SS leader Heinrich Himmler, that provided maternity homes, where the SS members, their wives and unmarried women were encouraged to have children, were introduced. The nation of German was described as being Aryan and the increased births of Aryans had to be achieved. Therefore, the role of women was limited to motherhood, as the right German women had to produce a sufficient amount of offspring for the Germany. This was enforced through the establishment of the advice centres, financial support, the discouragement of women labour and propaganda. Despite a very harshly promoted policy, these social changes failed, the policies to create a pure German society were not fulfilled and the goal of increasing births of Aryans was not met. Therefore the social revolution, to reach Volksgemeinschaft (equal community of German people regardless of background, religion or role in the society) failed as well, as it can be concluded thatno accelerated social transformation in Germany between 1933 and 1945 was reached. Only the German were to be equal, other nations were to be exterminated. The anti-Semitism campaign started with the boycott of the Jews in April 1933: boycott of Jewish civil servants

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p.45, G. LaytonGermany: The Third Reich 1933-45 p.1, J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945

History Essay

SevaKarpauskaite

and intellectuals was implemented within months of Hitlers accession to power23. This was done to atomize them socially: to cut them off from the rest of German society24 and gradually it led to the Holocaust, the genocide of approximately 6 million Jews across the Europe. However sad it would be the policy was pushed through successfully and even though, the full extermination during the discussed period was not reached, successful steps towards it were taken, such as theNuremberg Laws, which discriminated the Jews and took away their citizenship: Jews forfeited German citizenship, becoming state subjects, <> The second law prohibited the marriage and sexual intercourse between Aryans and Jews, <> the hosting by Jews of either German flag25. It is not surprising that the economic condition was one of the main pre-occupations of Hitlers policy and it started with Undoubted economic recovery which took place in Germany after 193326. The first main component of their economic programme was a goal to reach autarky, or economic self-sufficiency. This led to other campaign of the creation of a large economic area27 and the need for Lebensraum.Second component of their economic policy wasthe deficit financing, which meant that the employment opportunities were created and the state intervention was supported. These goals were to be met in the period of 1933-36, whenHjalmar Schacht was appointed to be the President of Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, he directed the investment towards work creation schemes, which led to the decrease in unemployment. In 1934 he introduced New Plan, which provided a comprehensive control by the government of all aspects of trade and currency exchange28. These policies seemed to be very successful, but beginning from 1935 the German economy could no longer sustain demands for food and for rearmament, therefore he tried to block emergency request to import large quantities of butter, vegetable oil and fodder, arguing instead that rationing should be introduced29. The suggestion was against Hitlers conviction that both butter and guns should be of equal economic
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p.47, J. Laver, Nazi Germany 1933-45 p.218, W.S. Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power 25 p.295, M. Burleigh, The Third Reich A New History 26 p. 309, C.Culpin and R. Henig Modern Europe 1870-1945 27 p.259, J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945 28 p.57, G. Layton, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-45 29 p.30, D.G. Williamson, The Third Reich

History Essay

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importance. Therefore Schacht was overruled by Hermann Gring, who introduced the Four Year Plan in the period of 1936-39, the plan had to increase the agricultural and heavy production, full employment, regulation of imports and exports and the autarky, and Through the introduction of the Four Year Plan, Germany was economically pushed towards the direction of expansion and war30. Thus rearmament, ignoring the Versailles Treaty, was also one of the main economic priorities and by 1938 17 per cent of Germanys gross national product was spent on rearmament, which was a sum far greater than any other European power was spending on armaments31. It is difficult to fully evaluate the extent of economic success, as within the period that is being discussed the goals were achieved. Firstly, the employment policies were effective, as Rearmament, public works, the discouragement of female labour, and a general improvement in world trade, all helped to abolish unemployment by 193932. Secondly, the war industry was huge, as in order to wage war successfully it was vital fully to mobilize a nations economic and social resources and, by 1939, Germany was far better prepared for war than it had been in 1914.33.Despite all that in 1939, at the beginning of the war Germanys economy was still was still a long way short of being fully mobilised34, thus the ultimate goal was not achieved. To conclude, it is quite clear that Hitler was successful and most of his aims specifically in this period were fulfilled. He himself believed so: In all areas of our national, political, and economic life, our position has been improved Germany has regained its honour, found belief again, overcome its greatest economic distress and finally ushered in new cultural ascent35. Even though the goals were met in this period, long-term ones failed - Germany lost the WWII and the evil done by the regime was stopped.

p.18, I. Kershaw, Hitler 1936-45: Nemesis p.31, D.G. Williamson, The Third Reich 32 p.19, J. Laver, Nazi Germany 1933-45 33 p.2, J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945 34 p.60, G. Layton, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-45 35 Hitler, taken from p.35, I. Kershaw, Hitler 1936-45: Nemesis
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The Bibliography: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. J. Noakes Nazism 1919-1945 I. Kershaw, Hitler 1936-45: Nemesis G. Layton, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-45 J.C. Fest ,Hitler D.G. Williamson, The Third Reich C.Culpin and R. Henig Modern Europe 1870-1945 W.S. Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power M. Burleigh, The Third Reich A New History T. Kirk, The Longman Companion to Nazi Germany

10. A. Bullock, Hitler, a Study in Tyranny 11. J. Laver, Nazi Germany 1933-45 12. D. Geary, Hitler and Nazism,