HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 12

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HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 12

• Everyday Life and the Possibility of Resistance

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Discussion Questions

• Was the NS regime a totalitarian dictatorship?
• What is resistance?
• How useful are the categories victim, resistor,
  and collaborator in describing people who lived
  under the Third Reich?

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Control of Information
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Ministry of Propaganda

• I view the first task of the new ministry of
  Propaganda as being to establish co-ordination
  between the Government and the whole people . . .
  It is not enough for people to be more or less
  reconciled to our regime, to be persuaded to
  adopt a neutral attitude towards us, rather we
  want to work on people until they have
  capitulated to us, until they grasp ideologically
  that what is happening in Germany today is not an
  end in itself, but a means to an end.
• Josef Goebbels, 15 March 1933

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Themes

• Anti-Semitism
• Anti-Bolshevism
• Awakening of the German people
• Superiority of the Aryan race
• Mastery of Central Europe (Lebensraum)
• Volksgemeinschaft (Peoples community)
• Hitler myth

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Broadcasting

• 1933 Reich Radio Company established a single
  state broadcaster controlled by the government.
• In 1932, only 25 of German households owned a
  radio (Volksempfänger, Peoples Receiver). By
  1939 70 of German families have access to a
  radio, and announcements broadcast by
  loudspeakers in public places.
• Radio Wardens made sure that people tuned in to
  Nazi propaganda.

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The Press

• Germany had nearly 5,000 different daily
  newspapers in 1933.
• Eher Verlag (Nazi publisher) bought up papers
  it owned 2/3 of the German press by 1939.
• The Government controlled news stories at source
  through the state news agency, DNB.
• Editors Law (Oct. 1933) made editors
  personally responsible for content.

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Culture and the Arts

• Key themes expressing Nazi ideology
• Anti-Semitism
• Militarism the glorification of war
• Nationalism
• The purity and superiority of the Aryan race
• The cult of the Führer
• Anti-modernism
• Neo-paganism

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Nazi cinema focused on propaganda films,
historical epics and feel-good musicals
and comedies
Sculpture by Josef Thorak (1937)
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Education and Youth

• Co-ordination of education system
• Politically unreliable teachers sacked.
• Curriculum brought into line with Nazi ideology.
• Youth Organizations
• Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young People, DJ)
  Boys aged 10-14.
• Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) Boys aged 14-18.
• Jungmädelbund (League of Young Girls) Girls
  aged 10-14.
• Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls,
  BDM) Girls aged 14-18.

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Religion

• National Socialism fundamentally anti-Christian.
• The German Faith Movement attempted to introduce
  a kind of völkisch neo-paganism.
• July 1933 Concordat with the Vatican promises
  religious freedom for Catholics in exchange for a
  promise to keep out of politics.
• Attempts to co-ordinate the Protestant
  churches
• The German Christians sought to merge
  Protestantism with Nazi ideology.
• July 1933 new church constitution introduced and
  Ludwig Müller appointed Reich Bishop.

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The Nazi Calendar

• 30th January The Seizure of Power
• 24th February The refounding of the Party
  (1925)
• First Sunday in March Heroes Remembrance Day
• 20th April Hitlers Birthday
• 1st May National Day of Labour
• Second Sunday in May Mothering Sunday
• September Annual Nuremberg Party Rally
• 9th November Munich Putsch (1923)

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NS Party Organization and Leadership
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The Role of Hitler

• August 1934 Posts of President Chancellor
  combined. Hitler formally adopted the title
  Fuhrer.
• He was Head of State Head of Government, as
  well as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces,
  head of the civil service, and party leader.
• In theory he had unlimited power.
• One of the central debates on the functioning of
  the Third Reich surrounds Hitlers role.

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The Schutzstaffel (SS)
Group photo of an SS wedding in the grounds of
the Main Office for Race and Settlement (1936).
Himmler stands to the right of the bride.
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Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945)
SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich
(1904-1942)
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• I swear by God this sacred oath I will render
  unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the
  Führer of the German nation and people, Supreme
  Commander of the armed forces, and will be ready
  as a true soldier to risk my life at any time for
  this oath.
• Military Oath of Allegiance

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The Historiography of Resistance

• Used to legitimize post-war states
• East German historians presented Communist
  resistance as the only anti-Fascist force in
  Germany.
• West German historiography concerned with
  accusations of collective guilt presented
  resistance as based on high moral and ethical
  values, the individual standing up against
  tyranny.
• 1960s Hans Mommsen argued that
  national-conservative resistance rooted in the
  anti-democratic right of the 1920s.
• 1970s Peter Hüttenberger Martin Broszat
  resistance in everyday life.
• Broszat Resistenz (immunity) people retain
  their moral ethical values without actively
  challenging the regime.
• Mommsen Widerstandpraxis (Resistance Practice)
  resistance was a process encompassing different
  forms of dissent as individuals came to reject
  the regime in its entirety.
• Ian Kershaw Two approaches to the study of
  resistance Fundamentalist (dealing with those
  committed to the overthrow of the regime) and
  Societal (dealing with dissent in everyday life).

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Forms of Opposition and Dissent

• Organising a coup
• Attempting to assassinate Hitler and other
  leaders
• Going on strike
• Helping victims of Nazism
• Spying for foreign governments
• Deserting from the armed forces
• Committing suicide
• Emigrating
• Distributing anti-Nazi leaflets
• Underachieving in the workplace
• Absconding from work
• Publicly criticising the regime, telling
  anti-Hitler jokes
• Listening to American jazz and the BBC
• Not giving the Hitler greeting
• Refusing to join Nazi organisations
• Reading banned Nazi literature

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George Elser (1903-1945)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
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Hans Scholl (1918-1943)
Sophie Scholl (1921-1943)
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Plots against Hitler, 1938-45

• May-September 1938 Army plot to depose Hitler.
• November 1939 George Esler attempts to
  assassinate Hitler during the annual
  commemoration of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.
• 13 March 1943 Attempt to blow up Hitlers plane.
• March 1943-March 1944 Various military plots to
  assassinate Hitler orchestrated by Colonel
  Henning von Tresckow and General Friedrich
  Olbricht.
• 20 July 1944 Plot to kill Hitler with a bomb
  planted in his military headquarters in East
  Prussia.