HIST2134
The Third Reich through Documents,
1933-1945
Lecture 4:
Domestic policies of the Third Reich,
1933-39
19 February 2013
Consolidation/coordination of power
in Federal States, 1933:
• Sandwiched: SA terror + NS pressure
• Taken over: Police forces partly by SS
• Dismissed: democratic states’ governments
• Replaced: Appointment of special
commissioners (= Reichsstatthalter = NSDAP district
Gau leaders)
Dualism of State and Party
→ Gau leaders (NS district leaders) in dominant
position in federal states
→ Permanent conflicts: States’ administrations ≠
regional & local NSDAP branches
→ Growing rivalry in ‘even working better for Hitler’
► Increasing dualism of state + NSDAP
= First Step into Polycracy
Polycratic system (1)
Rivalling Power groups:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
NSDAP: ‘The Party’ (Die Partei)
SA (Sturmabteilung): Storm Detachment
SS (Schutzstaffel): Defence Unit/Elite Guard
SD (Sicherheitsdienst): Security Service
Army (Wehrmacht)
Big Business
Higher levels of government offices
Polycratic system (2)
Gradual power shift of rivalling groups:
• SA ☻→ SS ☺ + Army ☺ (1934)
• Bureaucracy ☻→ NS Special
Administrations ☺
• Judiciary + Police ☻→ SS ☺
• Big Business: peace years ☺ → war ☻
Polycratic system (3)
• Hitler not mediator between rivalling power groups
• H. as divider by issuing often impulsive, uncontrollable,
separate dictatorial orders (Führerbefehle)
→ ‘Social Darwinism’: “Survival of the fittest”
→ NS state constitution not achieved until 1945
= “Unity of Party and State”: NS propaganda
= Improvisation, conflict, bureaucratic chaos: NS
reality
Polycracy: Reasons
Integrated school / approach:
e. g.: Ian Kershaw (Hitler, 1998):
• H’s chaotic style of government →
bureaucratic chaos
• H’s dialectic interplay with structures
= H’s mainly responsible for creating ‘political
climate’ of NS dynamic-destructive activities
NS ‘Economic Miracle’ (1)
•
World-wide economic recovery
‘Policy of deficit financing’ (J.M. Keynes):
1)
2)
3)
4)
Capital investments into key sectors
Tax relieves for key sectors
Labour programs (Labour Service = RAD)
Loans for female staff to quit their jobs
= domestic market oriented strategy
NS ‘Economic Miracle’ (2)
‘Policy of autarky’ (H. Schacht’s New Plan
1934:
• 1) Promotion of German exports
• 2) Quotas on foreign exchange trade to
reduce imports
• 3) Strictly bilateral trade + payments
= foreign markets oriented strategy
NS ‘Economic Miracle’ (3)
• Short-term economic policy to resolve the
economic crisis ?
OR
Long-term economic policy to support
rearmament ?
► Interdependent process with emphasis on
rearmament to prepare for war
NS ‘Economic Miracle’ (4)
• Drastically drop of unemployment figures
• Strong rise of heavy + light industry
• Less rise of consumer good industry
A miracle?
→ World-wide economic recovery
→ Labour Service + compulsory military service
→ Rearmament as stimulus
Four-Year Plan (1)
• Centralized control of German economy
• Aimed to make army + economy ready for war
• 4 priorities:
1) Increase in agricultural production
2) Retraining of labor force in key sectors of
industry
3) Import + export regulation
4) Self-sufficiency in raw materials
Four-Year Plan (2)
• Hermann Göring as ‘economic dictator’
• New NS bureaucracy to control economy
• Founding of NS holding enterprises
(‘Reichswerke Hermann Göring’)
• Limited freedom of private enterprises
= Centrally regulated market economy
Four-Year Plan: Results
• Difficult balance of consumer good +
armament production, 1936-42
• Autarky partly achieved in 1939
• Only short ‘Blitz Wars’ possible, 1939/40
• Long war only possible by expansion +
occupation + plundering, since 1941