2) How did the business of government operate within the Nazi dictatorship in the years 1933-45?

Question 1

In January 1933, what was Hitler, and what did he still have to do?

Answer 1

in January 1933, Hitler was Chancellor of Germany, but he still had to operate within the Weimar system - and von Papen was still convinced he could manage Hitler

Question 2

By August 1934, what was Hitler in complete control of?

Answer 2

he was in complete control of the German political system, with no chancellor or president - just Hitler as Fuhrer, leading a one-party government.
-he managed this by a combination of persuasion, intimidation and moving rapidly.
-having learned the lesson of the failure of the Munich Putsch, he could also argue that he had achieved this legally

Question 3

How did Hitler rise to power?

Answer 3

Hitler rose to power using the problems inherent in the Weimar Constitution.

Question 4

Who was the largest single party in the Reichstag during the year of 1933?

Answer 4

the Nazis were the largest single party in the Reichstag, but they only had about one-third of all Reichstag seats, not a majority

Question 5

Did Hindenburg trust Hitler?

Answer 5

no

Question 6

Out of the 12 cabinet member, how many were Nazis?

Answer 6

only 12

Question 7

What were people expecting Hitler to do, and what did he do instead?

Answer 7

-people expected Hitler to settle in, to work to get more Nazis into the cabinet, to take a long-term view of the situation.
-instead, he took advantage of the dramatic events of 27 February and moved fast

Question 8

What was the event of 27 February?

Answer 8

-the Reichstag was deliberately burned down.

Question 9

Who was blamed for the fire?

Answer 9

-a young Dutch communist, Marinus van de Lubbe, was caught by the Nazis supposedly carrying evidence that he had set the fire.
-it is possible that he had done this, but it is also possible that it had been set by the Nazis and that van de Lubbe was the scapegoat.

Question 10

What were the huge benefits that the Reichstag fire created for the Nazis?

Answer 10

-the Nazis got the credit for catching the arsonist
-the Nazis were able to stir up anti-communist propaganda
-the Nazis gained not only from political but also financial support; German industrialists contributed generously to Nazi funds as their fear of communism rose
-Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to declare a state of emergency. This meant he gave Hitler control of the police and the power to govern Germany by decree without the Reichstag (with Hindenburg’s consent to the measures). His decree for the Protection of the People and the State suspended the civil rights of German citizens, so he could legally arrest political opponents and ban opposition newspapers
-Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to call an election for 5 March. Thanks to his (legal) use of his emergency powers to arrest some opponents and to the violent (illegal) campaign tactics of the Nazis, the Nazis’ 17.5 million votes won them 288 seats in the Reichstag. Hitler used his emergency powers to ban the 81 communists from taking their seats. The support of the DNVP (52 seats) gave the Nazis a majority.

Question 11

What did the Nazi management of the March election show?

Answer 11

shows how they used the law to get what they wanted, but running alongside this was a violent, illegal elimination of opponents.
-this became increasingly visible as the Nazis legally acquired power and no longer needed help to keep it.

Question 12

After the Reichstag fire, when did Hindenburg and Hitler open the new Reichstag together? Who formed the military guard during the ceremony and what did this show?

Answer 12

Hitler and Hindenburg opened the Reichstag together on 21 March 1933 in a ceremony at the Potsdam Garrison Church where the army and the SA formed the military guard together. This, and the audience of Nazis and members of the old gov, under both Nazis swastikas and flags of the old empire, was meant to stress Hitlers acceptance by the old members of the government and the continuity between the Nazi Party and earlier governments. It made the Nazis look respectable in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of the Reichstag members.

Question 13

On 24 March 1933, what law did the Reichstag pass?

Answer 13

the Reichstag passed the law for the Removal of the Distress of the People and Reich (The Enabling Act) by 444 votes to 84 (all of the SPD voted against it)

Question 14

what did the Enabling act passed on 24 March 1933 give Hitler the right to do?

Answer 14

It gave Hitler the right to pass laws without the Reichstag (in theory, only for four years).
-it was renewed in 1937 and after that it was ignored because Hitlers dictatorship was clearly established.

Question 15

What did the Enabling act do to the Weimar constitution?

Answer 15

it tore up the Weimar constitution.
-in theory, Hindenburg might still have stopped Hitler at this point, but he was old, ill and able to see that even if he did stop Hitlers rise it would only be temporary.

Question 16

What did Hitler use the powers he gained from the Enabling act for?

Answer 16

he used his power to get rid of parties in the Reichstag, one by one, until on 14 July 1933 a law banned all remaining parties and made the country a one-party state.

Question 17

When Hindenburg died, what was Hitler able to do?

Answer 17

When Hindenburg died, Hitler was legally able to combine the roles of president and chancellor into that of Fuhrer, and the plebiscite he held to confirm this made Hitlers action more acceptable abroad.

Question 18

alongside the ‘legal’ process of removal, what else did Hitler run? who did these include? and what did this become known as?

Answer 18

he also run the violent, illegal, ruthless elimination of opponents.
-these included not only obvious political opponents but also prominent Nazis.
-Ernst Rohm and the SA had helped Hitler to power. But the SA had always been seen as thugs so they were bad for the Nazi image, and they were loyal to Rohm who was increasingly critical of Hitler’s ‘conciliation’ of the old government, the army and industrialists. Hitler, having the SS and the Gestapo to do his bidding, did not need the SA any more and he feared Rohm might try to seize power.
-on 30 June 1934, Rohm and other senior SA officers were arrested in what became known as ‘The Night of the Long Knives’. They were shot the next day.
-over the next few days, several hundred people were murdered by the SS. Many were SA members, but the dead included General von Schleicher (the ex-chancellor) and his wife.

Question 19

what problem did the Nazi one-party state solve?

Answer 19

it solved the problem of election majorities and coalitions at a stroke.

Question 20

did the Reichstag remain when the Nazis were in power?

Answer 20

yes it did, but only passed seven laws between 1934 and 1945. The Nazi government made and enforced laws.

Question 21

did Hitler keep much of the existing bureaucracy of government?

Answer 21

yes he did.
-the civil service had been purged of Jews and opponents in 1933. Many clerks had been Nazis even when there were other parties to choose from. Hitler also kept ministers who were not Nazis before the one-party system. They provided a useful level of continuity; officials and citizens felt they understood the system.
-however, this was illusory. Not all ministries had the same amount of power. E.g Hitler kept the foreign minister and many German ambassadors after he came to power. However, from 1934 the Bureau Ribbentrop operated alongside the foreign ministry and it was either Ribbentrop or another loyal Nazi who was entrusted with important foreign diplomatic missions as ‘special envoy’

Question 22

what else did Hitler also set up?

Answer 22

Hitler set up several other ministries and ‘authorities’. Some took over the responsibilities of established ministries, others were entirely new (e.g. the Reich Propaganda Ministry, headed by Joseph Goebbels)

Question 23

what did Hitler often leave vague?

Answer 23

Whether deliberately (as some historians suggest) or because detail bored him and he delayed decision-making hoping things would sort themselves out (as other historians suggest), Hitler often left the details of who was responsible for what vague - this could create a good deal of overlap, duplication of work and confusion. If deliberate, it could have been done to introduce a spirit of competition among various ministries and departments - keeping people of their toes and reminding them they should not feel too settled in their position and that they owed their situation, ultimately, to Hitler.

Question 24

what principle did the Nazis work on? what does it mean?

Answer 24

they worked on the principle of Volksgemeinschaft.
-it literally means, ‘peoples community’. It was the idea that the whole nation would work together for the common good.

Question 25

what were the 5 basic features of the Nazi government?

Answer 25

1)Leadership: Hitler as Fuhrer had ultimate power.
2)Decision-making: it was impossible for Hitler to make every decision involved in running the country. He hated paperwork and left most of it to others.
3)Administration: this was largely done by the civil service under their new minister Wilhelm Frick in the Ministry of the Interior.
4)One nation: the Nazis were against the division of Germany into Lander. They wanted a centralised state, with centralised administration.
-Control: the Nazi state also established tight levels of control over ‘political’ matters by using the Gestapo.

Question 26

what policy did the whole Nazi state operate on?

Answer 26

on the policy of the Fuhrerprinzip, a strict hierarchical order, where every area of life had someone in charge to tell the people what to do.
-this was essential in order for people to work together and not make their own decisions; initiative was frowned upon. It was important to work as a nation and think only of the good of the nation.

Question 27

What did everyone need to be aware of when it came to decision-making in the government?

Answer 27

everyone needed to be aware of the broad principles of what Hitler wanted and to run their sphere accordingly, ‘working towards the Fuhrer’.

Question 28

what were those who were loyal to Hitler and got him the results he wanted given?

Answer 28

they were often given more power and more responsibility.
-in this way, trusted individuals such as Goebbels in the Ministry of Propaganda could become very powerful.

Question 29

why did Hitler do his best to stop groups of people from working together to form policy?

Answer 29

as this made it easier for opposition groups to form.
-E.g. he kept the cabinets of ministers from the previous government. However, he abolished cabinet meetings. Ministers worked individually and sent draft laws and policies to each other on paper.

Question 30

Who did Frick’s civil service frequently come into conflict with?

Answer 30

it frequently came into conflict with the Reich Special agencies and other ministries as well as Nazi Party officials, despite a slew of Nazi ‘policy clarifications’ that insisted that the Nazi Party would only intervene in civil service matters where there were gaps in the civil service provision.

Question 31

Who regularly overruled civil service decisions?

Answer 31

civil service decisions, taken after a significant amount of planning, were regularly overruled by ‘Nazi principle’ or whatever was seen as the prevailing opinion of the time.

Question 32

On 30 January 1934, what happened to the Lander?

Answer 32

On 30 January 1934, the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich officially terminated all of them, saying that the German people now had a unity that overrode regional differences, so the Lander were no longer needed.

Question 33

what did the Gestapo and SS develop and extend?

Answer 33

they developed and extended their own judiciary that ran alongside the existing court system for ‘political’ offences.

Question 34

What were some of the social changes which the coming of the war escalated?

Answer 34

-women, who had been discouraged from working, were urged to take on war work.
-the SS took over more of the government administration. Anyone who worked for the government, in any capacity, had to join the Nazi Party or lose their job.
-the Gestapo and SS stepped up their control of the population. SS numbers rose from 240,000 in 1939 to over a million in 1944.

Question 35

during the war time, what did the SS run? Meanwhile, what was formed?

Answer 35

the SS ran Hitlers ‘racial policy’ of getting rid of non-German races from the Reich , through expulsion, isolation, forced labour and murder.
-meanwhile, 13 ‘military districts’ were formed from the German regions, and their Gauleiters were made Reich Defence Commissioners (RVKs). As such, they ran all the Home Front activities in the local areas, including civil defence, rationing and the Volkssturm (Home Guard)

Question 36

what was each of the armed forces given?

Answer 36

each of the armed forces was given its own ministry to co-ordinate supplies, troops, and so on. Their work was co-ordinated by the new high commander of the armed forces, Wilhelm Keitel.

Question 37

on 30 August 1939, what council was set up? what was it supposed to co-ordinate? Was Hitler on the council? who was the chairman of the council? Did the council last long?

Answer 37

the Ministerial Council for the Defence of the Reich was set up.
-it was supposed to co-ordinate domestic affairs to support the war effort.
-Hitler was not on the council, but it did report to him.
-it was chaired by Herman Goering and its members were very important Nazi officials.
-no, it did not last long, as it fell as a victim to Hitlers dislike of group meetings.

Question 38

As the German army marched east and took over more land during WW2, who was in charge of clearing out the land from ‘undesirables’? And who’s job was it to allocate the land to incoming Germans and of running the land as part of Germany?

Answer 38

-it was the SS who was in charge of clearing out the land
-it was the job of 11 new Reichsgau (regional governments) run by Reichsstatthalter

Question 39

out of all the land taken over by the Germans in WW2, in which country was the Germanisation programme the most heavy-handed?

Answer 39

it was in Poland.
-firstly, Hitler made it clear that all Poles were untrustworthy and were to be used for hard labour only. Polish leaders were to be shot so that they did not become a focus for resistance.
-Southern Poland was treated as a ‘colony’ (not part of the Third Reich) called the General Government, administered by Hans Frank, its governor general. It was used as a dumping ground for all Poles and undesirables from other parts of the Reich, most of whom lived in appalling conditions and were used as slave labour.
-other parts of Poland were absorbed into the Third Reich and Germanised.

Question 40

about how many Germans went to the Warthegau area of Western Poland?

Answer 40

over half a million, while a similar number of Poles were deported east to make room for them.

Question 41

what did Germanys growth during WW2 mean? Who became increasingly powerful?

Answer 41

it meant that there was much more land to govern and centralised government became harder.
-Gauleiters became increasingly powerful. From 1942, following the start of British bombing raids, they were given control of all civil defence measures, including firefighting, bomb damage clearance, rehousing and rationing, using various Nazi Part organisations such as the NSV welfare organisation.

Question 42

in 1944, which decree was passed and what did it give the Gauleiters?

Answer 42

the decree ‘For the Implementation of Total War Mobilisation’ was passed.
-if gave the Gauleiters control over the local bureaucracy, not just Nazi Party officials, and gave them significant powers over local businesses

Question 43

on the 22 June 1941, what did Germany do? was it a smart idea?

Answer 43

it turned on her ally, the USSR, and invaded.
-no, it was a huge mistake. When the Soviet Red Army and people did not collapse as the Nazis had assumed they would, the German army had to fight a war on two fronts. Then, in December, the USA joined the war. From this point on, the German forces were badly overstretched and Germany began to suffer.

Question 44

towards the end of WW2 after Germany invaded USSR in 1941, give some examples which show how badly Germany was struggling to fight.

Answer 44

-boys as young as 16 were conscripted in large numbers by 1944. There were even some soldiers at the end of the war as young as 12.
-rationing became tighter. At first Germans had been shielded from shortages because food, fuel and other necessities were brought from the captured lands.
-the policy of ‘total war’ meant that shops that did not contribute to the war effort were banned (for example, cake shops, sweet shops, etc), as were professional sporting events.
-children were evacuated from the cities. As it became harder to convince people that the army was invincible, and as German families lost their men and struggled with more difficult living conditions, the gov lost support and resistance grew.