“LIFE UNDER ADOLF HITLER” Video Transcript
Germany at the end of January 1933…President Von Hindenburg, backed by the army and powerful
conservative politicians, had failed to find a Chancellor powerful enough to command a majority of deputies in
the nation’s parliament, the Reichstag. In desperation, the job was offered to Adolf Hitler, leader of the National
Socialists, or NAZIs. Hitler’s Nazis commanded over 33% of German votes. Hindenburg’s political allies
thought that they could control Hitler and add the Nazi voting strength to their own.
Hitler would always boast that he had gained power constitutionally. As Chancellor, he took steps to
ensure that no one could ever claim that power back. His first step was to arrange new national elections for
March 1933. This time the Nazis employed all the resources of government in their effort to win a majority of
Reichstag seats. They used State radio, the official press, even the police. In Prussia, the Nazis enrolled 50,000
sympathizers as police helpers to keep order and to force their opponents off the streets.
But Hitler still sought more power, more control. Several weeks before the elections, the Reichstag
building itself was mysteriously set on fire and burnt down. The Nazis immediately blamed the Communists that
stirred up such a fear of violent revolution that President Hindenburg signed a decree for the protection of the
people and the State. This gave Hitler the power to suspend individual and civil liberties throughout Germany:
freedom of the press, rights of assembly, and the independence of the states were all suspended. In effect, the
Nazis were given a free reign to legally gag, arrest, and suppress their opponents. Meanwhile the Nazi media
convinced many Germans that they had been saved from a Communist takeover.
At the March elections that followed, the Nazis won an all-time high of 43.9% of the vote. It was the best
result Hitler would ever achieve in free elections, but it was still not a clear majority. So, Hitler conceived a
simple, and perfectly legal, way to gain absolute power. At the first meeting after the election, he simply asked
the Reichstag to pass an Enabling Act giving his own Nazi Cabinet exclusive legislative power for four years.
Packaged as a firm way out of Germany’s problems, this Act, in reality, would give Hitler dictatorial powers he
had always wanted. Weakened by arrests, intimidated by uniformed Storm Troopers parading in the aisles,
influenced by Hitler’s policies and threats, the Reichstag voted for the Enabling Act 441 to 93. The Act then
became the legal basis for Hitler’s dictatorship and all that followed.
Having gained political power, the Nazis reasoned that the best way to hold on to it was by gaining power
over every other aspect of German life. That way, no one could ever challenge the will of the Fuhrer again. And
so the Nazis introduced a policy called Gleichschaltung, which simply meant the complete coordination of
all activity by the National Socialist regime. Every element of German life was affected by
Gleichschaltung. Every German was involved in it, with no exceptions, and no opposition.
Gleichschaltung would become the basis of Nazi totalitarian rule.
POLITICAL POWER was Hitler’s first interest in establishing control and a one-party system had been
his first aim. Now that he had won political control, Hitler began to eliminate all remaining opponents. Already
the Communists had been banned. One by one, the other political parties followed them…so did church
groups…youth groups…union groups…in fact, ANY groups which were big enough to oppose Nazi policy.
Within a fortnight of becoming Chancellor, Hitler suspended the power of German state governments,
placing Berlin firmly in control for the first time in German history. Within a month, he had approved the
creation the Gestapo, the secret State police, whose mere reputation kept most people in line. Within four
months, he had abolished all of Germany’s trade unions, and within six months, in July 1933, he completed the
job and made the Nazi Party Germany’s only legal party. The millions of Germans who had belonged to other
parties either quit politics for good, went into hiding, or joined the Nazis themselves. In fact, so many Germans
wanted to join the Nazis that Party Headquarters was forced to suspend new applications—they simply couldn’t
handle the rush. In six months, Germany had become a Nazi dictatorship and was well on the way of becoming a
totalitarian state.
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But the very speed of his victory led many of Hitler’s men to act with dangerous arrogance. Of particular
concern was the behavior of the Party’s own Nazi army, the SA, or Storm Troopers. In the early days of struggle
and street fights, these men helped carry their Fuhrer to victory. Now victory had come, they wanted their
reward in loot and good jobs. When these were slow to arrive, the SA grew restless. There was talk of a second
revolution that would sweep away the old, established institutions, including the German Army, and replace
them with loyal SA men. Since the SA were almost twenty times larger than the German Army, such talk was
taken seriously. And Hitler, proud of his constitutional victory, became fearful that his rowdy SA might force the
army to act. Hitler knew the Army was the one force left in Germany with the power to overthrow him. That had
to be prevented at all costs, and the cost for Hitler was a secret pact with Germany’s military leaders. In
exchange for Army support in the future, he agreed to curb the power of his SA. At the end of June 1934, Hitler
fulfilled his part of the bargain. In a sudden strike over one week-end, hundreds of SA leaders throughout
Germany were arrested and executed in a blood purge known as the “Night of the Long Knives.”
Some weeks after the blood purge, 87-year-old President Hindenburg died, and Hitler immediately took
over the Presidency, using the title Fuhrer, or “leader,” and Reich Chancellor. The military now kept their part of
the bargain and every German soldier promptly swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. He was now the
unchallenged leader of the Reich, with full legal power, with the backing of a loyal army, and with complete
political authority. He had reached the pinnacle of success. With unchallenged power in their hands, the Nazis
could now complete their transformation of Germany into a totalitarian state according to the Fuhrer Principle,
as interpreted by leading Nazis.
Of immediate concern to Nazi leaders was German ECONOMIC STABILITY. The Great Depression
was still raging worldwide, and Germany was suffering from huge overseas debts, a feeble industrial base, and
six million unemployed. The Nazis quickly and effectively solved Germany’s economic problems by mobilizing
labor, by vigorous programs of public works, and by rearmament. The Nazi’s public work programs involved
huge building projects, such as public housing, new bridges and railways, and a vast system of national
highways, the Autobahns. These super-highways would later have a military use, but for now, they created
thousands of new jobs and 2,400 kilometers of major roadways that spanned the nation and were the wonder of
Europe.
In keeping with their policy of Gleichschaltung, the Nazis had forbidden all strikes and banned all trade
unions. In their place, the Nazis established Workers Fronts, which controlled all German workers, and
encouraged the dignity of labor, the ethic of service, and the value of quality work. Life as a worker in Nazi
Germany lacked bargaining power, but in many cases, it meant access to special medical clinics, special
holidays, and special savings plans. One of these promised every German worker a “People’s Car.” The war
intervened before any cars were delivered, but the world has Adolf Hitler to thank for the Volkswagen.
Another Nazi scheme was the German Workers Front, the DAF, which drafted young Germans for a
year’s compulsory labor. The Nazis saw this as an excellent way for young Germans to learn discipline, become
fit, and serve their country with a pick-ax and shovel. Indeed, the shovel was the symbol of the DAF.
True to his promise to the military, Hitler also began an intense rearmament program. This became a
major factor in economic recovery, reducing unemployment, revitalizing heavy industry, and indirectly offering
all Germans an increase in economic activity and a surge in national pride. As a result of the Nazi economic
policy known as Autarky, or “self-sufficiency,” Germany became the first European nation to advance out of the
Great Depression.
As money flowed into the German economy and conditions improved economically, the Nazis turned their
attention to social conditions throughout the country. Here again, the Nazis put emphasis on Gleichschaltung as
a means of controlling and directing the SOCIAL LIFE of the nation. From birth to death, Germans were
encouraged to join Nazi organizations, which attended to every aspect of life. There were Nazi small gardeners
organizations, Nazi teacher organizations, Nazi student organizations, Nazi organizations for doctors, professors,
farmers, fishermen, tram drivers, secretaries…In fact, the Nazis even created a National Reich church in 1936.
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For young people, the Nazis created the German Youth Movement and absorbed into it every other youth
organization in Germany. Every German youth was expected to join and activities filled the whole week. Since
these took precedence over any formal education, some kids preferred them to school and even to their family.
The Nazi Party became a young person’s family and Hitler became a father figure. Young boys were directed
into the Hitler Youth, where the emphasis was on fitness, obedience to the will of the Führer, discipline, courage,
and military skills. Hitler loved to call its members “swift as Greyhounds, tough as leather, and hard as steel.”
Young women had the League of German Girls, which encouraged its members to study home economics,
motherhood, and racial purity. The Nazis laid great stress on motherhood and encouraged women to become
German housewives, raise German children, and lead a loyal German family.
At school, young Germans found that every aspect of their education was soon under Nazi control. From
primary school right up to university, the Nazis controlled the teachers, the classrooms, and the subjects taught
in them. Nazis had strong ideas about what was right and what was wrong in education. Unfortunately, their
ideas were often based on racial prejudice, which led the Nazis to encourage odd ideas such as racial biology,
and empty gestures such as book burning. The Nazis staged their first book burning in May of 1933, just months
after coming to power. One hundred years earlier, the German writer Heinrich Heims said, “If first you burn
books, it will not be long before you burn people.”
Books represented more than education to the Nazi Party—they also represented culture. Promoting
German culture in its Nazi form became the responsibility of Germany’s new Minister of Public Enlightenment
and Propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels. Appointed soon after Hitler gained power in March 1933, Goebbels soon
controlled every form of German cultural life—art, music, theater, film, literature, all forms of media, and even
sport. Under the Nazis, clubs sprung up to cater for every type of sport, on land, at sea or in the air. Clearly,
these had military applications, but they also showed a simple Nazi appreciation of the benefits of a healthy body
and mind. Dr. Goebbels showcased this at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and expanded the occasion to show the
world how happy Germany was under Nazi rule. In truth, the images of happy, smiling Germans were not all
propaganda. Most Germans did seem happy with Nazi rule in the mid-30’s, although negative aspects of the
regime had been carefully hidden from the world press.
Dr. Goebbels also went to great lengths to encourage other forms of Nazi entertainment, particularly
where they had a political purpose. He organized mass rallies and displays on a giant scale such as people had
never seen before. The Nazi Party rallies at Nuremburg made headlines throughout the world. So did other Nazi
events, such as around-the-world zeppelin flights. From the Nazi’s point of view, magnificent events like these
were designed to trumpet the benefits of Nazi rule and promote a sense of German superiority. Most Germans in
the 1930s accepted that the Nazis had brought stability and work and income, and a social order which gave
them pride in themselves and hope in the future. “Blood and Land,” said another Nazi slogan. The party
propaganda machine made sure that Hitler received full credit for this, encouraging Germans to support the
Führer cult and Hitler worship.
But no matter how hard the Nazis waived their benefits in public, it was hard to ignore the DARK SIDE
OF NAZI RULE. Many shrugged when political parties were banned; many agreed when opponents were
beaten off the streets. Many accepted the end of trade unions…the start of conscription…the regimentation of
youth… all of these had their benefits. But the fear of visits from the Gestapo…the neighbor who vanished into a
concentration camp…the Jew whose shop was smashed and picketed by Party thugs…these were common
experiences that became more common as time passed.
Although Nazi racial policies expanded to other races and even to mentally-ill Germans, it was the Jews
who suffered most. They were persecuted from the very beginning of Nazi rule, at first in small ways, but
always in growing ways, until in September 1935, the Nazis passed their infamous Nuremberg Race Laws.
These deprived German Jews of their citizenship and forbade them to marry good Germans (that is, non-Jews).
A dozen supplementary Nazi decrees eventually outlawed Jews completely, depriving them of their rights as
human beings, and leading to the so-called “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,” which meant the death
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camps and mass murder. Many Germans were repulsed by these events, but the Nazis had made dissent an
offense dealt with by the Gestapo, who were placed “above the law” in 1936. Terror tactics in the camps could,
after all, be used on anyone. Most Germans found it wisest and safest to say nothing and see nothing and to
survive.
Meanwhile most Germans could at least live with the less pleasant manifestations of totalitarian rule, a
Nazi obsession in Germany. And as compensation, many found that life continued to improve and provide
opportunity and excitement in Hitler’s Third Reich.
Rearmament had given Germany a new and vigorous military machine and a new and vigorous foreign
policy to go with it. Hitler had set about making Germany strong again. Lebensraum, or “living space,” became
a new catch-cry in a new and expanding Germany. In March 1936, Hitler ordered the army to reoccupy the
Rhineland. In March 1938, he ordered them into Austria and declared its union, or Anschluss, with Germany. In
October, they occupied the Sudetenland. In March 1939, they invaded Czechoslovakia. And in September, they
invaded Poland, and triggered World War II.
The aggressive nature of the Nazi’s totalitarian policies had kept Germany subdued for thirteen years, and
then kept the world at war for another five. What started as bright, shining hope eventually made the Swastika a
symbol of international devastation and suffering. Millions died, and Germany would be divided for almost fifty
years. As with so many regimes of a totalitarian nature, in the end, life under Adolf Hitler proved to contain the
seeds of its own destruction.
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