1933-1945 Nazi Germany: The
Big Questions.....
How did Hitler become dictator of
Germany?
• Reichstag Fire Feb 1933
• Enabling Act March 1933: makes Germany a one party
state
• Regional governments abolished
• Trade unions removed
• Secure relationship with Army
• Propaganda
• Terror
• Weakness of opposition
• Death of Hindenburg
• Gleichschaltung
How did Hitler prepare Germany for
war?
• Four Year Plan: 1936: Germany must be
prepared for war, increase production of raw
materials, develop ersatz (substitute)
products, increase agricultural production
• Guns vs Butter debate
• Autarky
• Increase military expenditure
Social Policy: Traditional or Radical?
• Traditional: gender roles
• Traditional view of women, appearence
• Stressed in education
• Radical: removal of non-Aryans
Image vs Reality
• Image of Hitler as a strong leader
• Reality: badly organised, lazy, focus on foreign
policy
• Image of Gestapo as all seeing all powerful
body
• Reality: few Gestapo officers, bogged down in
bureaucracy
Image vs Reality
• Image: Strong, Organised government
• Reality: Chaotic, over lapping ministries, Four
Year Plan// Ministry of Economics. Polycracy:
system of overlapping ministries. Cabinet
meetings became more infrequent.
72 times in 1933, 4 times in 1936. After 1938 it
didn’t meet at all.
Was the style of government
intended?
• No: evidence of Hitler’s lack of organisational
skills
• Yes: belief in Social Darwinism would reward
the most committed. Hitler wanted to keep
leading Nazis on their toes: Goering kept out
of policy meetings after 1941, Hess adopted
deputy because he wasn’t a threat to Hitler.
Intentionalists vs Structuralists
• Intentionalists: Polycratic nature of the Third
Reich was deliberately extended by Hitler, partly
in order to ‘divide and rule’. “Hitler was the
master of the Third Reich”
• Structuralists: Hitler was indecisive, lazy and
easily manipulated. As a result, the chaotic
nature of National Socialism spiralled into
criminal brutality and lawlessness. “ Hitler was a
weak dictator”
How did the Holocaust happen?
• Anti Semitism existed in Germany before 1933
1. 1933 April: Boycott, removal of Jews from teaching
posts, lawyers. Anti-Semitic propaganda and
education
2. 1935 September: Nuremberg Laws: Reich Citizenship
Act and Law for the Protection of German Blood and
Honour
3. 1938 November: Kristallnacht
4. 1939: Creation of the Reich Central Office for Jewish
Emigration
5. 1942 January: Wannsee Conference: Final Solution.
Chaired by Eichmann
How did the Holocaust happen?
• Initial arrangements were haphazard and the
Nazis did not have any clear programme to
deal with the Jewish question until 1941
• No written order for killing the Jews from
Hitler has ever been found.
• Probably around autumn 1941 it was decided
by the top Nazi leadership to launch an
extermination policy, this was agreed at
Wannsee.