The racial state: Nazi society 1933-9 (The Nazi Volksgemeinshaft) Flashcards
What three key elements was Nazi ideology based on when developed in the 1920s?
Racism
Nationalism
Authoritarianism
What did Hitler claim National Socialism was?
More than just a political ideology
What did National Socialism aim to do?
Transform German society
What did National Socialism reject?
Rejected the values of communism, liberal democracy and Christianity
What did National Socialism promoted in the place of what it rejected?
Promoted the concept of Volksgemeinshaft
The people’s community
What was the vaguest element of Nazi Ideology, thus difficult to define precisely?
Volksgemeinshaft
What are the two different takes on Volksgemeinshaft by historians?
Those who see it as pseudo-psychology built on image along
Those who see it as a more concrete movement with genuine support
What was the essential purpose of the volksgemeinshaft?
To overcome the old German divisions of class, religion and politics and to bring about a new collective national identity by encouraging people to work together
What did the new social attitude aim to do?
To bring together the disparate elements and to create a German society built on the Nazi ideas of race and struggle
Unite traditional German values with the new ideology
What were ‘outsiders’?
Ideological, biological and asocial groups who did not conform to the Nazis’ dream
What was the ideal German image?
Classic peasant working on the soil in the rural community
How was the ideal German image exemplified?
In the Nazi concept of Blut and Boden and by upholding the traditional roles of the two sexes
What were the 6 aspects of Nazi Volskgemeinshaft?
Social Darwinian
Traditional German values
Integration of class, religion and political groups
Exclusion of outsiders
Role of genders
Blut and Boden
