Analysis Of 'The Nazis: Chaos And Consent'

Hans Mommsen’s book, From Weimar to Auschwitz, presented an interesting look at Hitler within the Nazi Party. The overriding themes in the chapter “Hitler’s Position in the Nazi System” were the stubbornness and charisma of Hitler and the chaos within the Nazi Party. The weak leadership of Hitler along with the inability to concentrate power to one position helped lead the Third Reich to be a very frenzied and unorganized government.

There have been countless atrocities committed throughout history. Most of these atrocities are justified and developed from ideas and false realities. The most infamous atrocity of all history, the holocaust is no exception. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany from 1933 until his suicide at the end of WWII, was directly responsible for the deaths of over 12 million people. Alan Bullock in his book Hitler a Study in Tyranny dispels any notion that any of Hitler’s ideas were original. Bullock proposes that Hitler and his rise to power was a product of other political ideas and a knack for exploiting the timing of events to extend his influence. According to Bullock Hitler’s coming to power was the product the political ideals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which he was exposed to, the world post-WWI, and a knack for exposition events to his favor. He used his gifts of using propaganda and his organizational skills to use politics as a means to achieving power.

Finally, there were Army leaders to be dealt with. They were to be taken into consideration for the army was one of the potential groups who was powerful enough to over through Hitler. These, however, were at the moment quite pleased with Hitler’s actions so far, for they shared conservative, antidemocratic and authoritarian views; but still a matter for their concern and distrust was the SA, a paramilitary army run by the Nazi Party which had a bad reputation for being badly disciplined, and particularly their leader being a heavy drinker, openly homosexual who was in charge of an army over 4 million men, and who was presumed to intend to make the SA a second German army and, what’s more, he was also believed to have plotted to over trough Hitler. To grant full support by the army leaders, Hitler sent the SS on a mission to kill Röhm and arrest SA leaders on what was known as the Night of the Long Knives. He made it look as if he had sacrificed a personal friend of his own

Guida Diehl was the founder and leader of the Newland Movement, which pre-dated the Nazi Party by at least six years. She came from a nationalist and anti-Semitic family, and only joined the Nazi Party in August 1930. Following the advice of Adolf Stocker, who hated Jews and supported the emancipation of unmarried women, she attended social-work school and later worked as a teacher of social work in Frankfurt. Diehl constantly preached a spiritualist, quasi-Christian, and nationalist message, that went against the postwar values of Americanism, materialism, and mammonism, which threatened to overpower Volk, God, and fatherland.

The Totalitarian Aspects of Nazi Germany The government of Nazi Germany was a fascist, totalitarian state. They ruled in Germany ever since Hitler became chancellor in 1933, to 1945. Totalitarianism was a form of government in which the state involves itself in all facts of society, including the daily life of its citizens. It penetrates and controls all aspects of public and private life, through the state's use of propaganda, terror and technology.

Hitler was “content” with disputes between his subordinates and on occasion, “actively furthered rather than tried to hinder governmental chaos”. Bracher is correct in arguing, “institutional antagonism was resolved by the key position of the Fuhrer”. Through distancing himself from disputes, Hitler transcended governmental chaos and emerged as the ultimate decisive force. Rival agencies competed with each other to win Hitler's favour: the only source of political legitimacy. Furthermore, although leading Nazi figures were given considerable autonomy in creating policy, they were required to work within the framework of Hitler’s ideology and to remain loyal to him. As Overy maintains, power should not be confused with responsibility; although responsibilities were delegated to individuals, there were “no other power centres separate from the will of the central figure”. Hitler dealt ruthlessly with any threat to his position. Rohm, commander of the SA, was executed in 1934, whilst Goering was condemned to death by Hitler in the final days of the war, for suggesting that he should take over government. Although, Hitler distanced himself from daily administration, this apparent neglect stemmed not from an inability to do so, as Broszat suggests, but from a lack of interest in administrative affairs. Numerous examples prove the ultimate executive power of

Ernst Rohm a professional soldier and once a close friend of Adolf Hitler was a major threat against Hitler’s power and reign. Rohm was a natural rebel who had strong revolutionary

The government of Nazi Germany greatly resembled the Party, the government in 1984. Both operated similarly and had similar aims. Anything either government did was an action for maintaining power. Both the Nazis and the Party maintained similar ideologies, controlled mass media, educated children in their beliefs, had a secret police force, and had forced labor camps. Both governments used each of these methods maintain power and control over the people.

Hitler’s rise to power was the result of many factors, but Hitler’s ability to take advantage of Germany’s poor leadership and economical and political conditions was the most significant factor. His ability to manipulate the media and the German public whilst taking advantage of Germany’s poor leadership resulted in both the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler and the nazi party. During the early 1920s, Germany was struggling with economic instability and political uncertainty. Germany, after being defeated in the Great War, was forced to sign the unforgiving treaty of Versailles, which the Weimar Republic was held responsible for. This brought forward feelings of fear, anger and

In the beginning Adolf Hitler couldn 't run all of germany by himself so he elected officials to take charge while he was worrying about taking over the world. “Heinrich Himmler who was appointed Reichsfuhrer- SS in 1929 and from its very inception he saw the SS as an elite force, as an elite unit, the party 's "Praetorian Guard," with all SS personnel selected on the principles of racial purity and unconditional loyalty to the Nazi Party” (Holocaust Education). Himmler took his job very seriously, he took barely trained bodyguards and turned them into an elite force who was know as “Schutzstaffel or SS “. There was nothing that Himmler didn 't do that impress the fuhrer,”Thanks to his control of the police Himmler was able to build up the concentration camps, in order to provide “protective custody” for political suspects.” Since Hitler and Himmler were

1) Germany before the Fuhrer. Germany’s defeat at the end of World War I left the nation socially, politically, and economically shattered. The reparation agreements inflicted upon Germany without its’ consent at the end of the war meant that the nation was in complete financial ruin. In the wake of Germany’s defeat, public decent climaxed on the 9th November 1918 during the revolution that took place on Berlin’s Postdamer Platz. This revolution transpired as a result of the public’s culminating discontent towards the imperial monarchy, and lasted up until August 1919, which saw the establishment of the Weimar Republic. In attempts to guide Germany out of economic

Shortly after the end of WWII, British Intelligence officer Hugh Trevor-Roper was given the task to establish the facts of Hitler's end, and thereby to prevent the growth of a myth. His report, later published as “The Last Days of Hitler”, draws on Allied intelligence's interrogations of survivors who spent time in the bunker during the last ten days of Hitler's life. Trevor-Roper organizes his book chronologically, but it's more a series of character sketches than a strict time line of events. We see a raving, physically broken, nearly insane Hitler contemplating both his heroic death and the complete and

Starving. You are starving. According to Germany during the Great Depression you would have been out of work and hungry for many years now. You take your trillion marks down to the corner store, wait in line, claw and fight your way for the last couple of items and then find out when you get to the cashier that due to the ever growing inflation your trillions of marks won’t be enough for a single loaf of bread, as is life in Germany in the late 20’s and early 30’s. According to Commanding Heights: The German Inflation most people especially the young have grown up in these terrible conditions were it was more cost effective to take the German marks and burn and use them as wallpaper than as actual money. Around this time you hear about a

The reasons for the rise of the Nazi Dictatorship of the 1930’s and 40’s have been a topic much debated upon by historians for decades. Arguably the most prominent theory is the idea of a “Sonderweg” or special path taken by Germany that “deviates from the normal path to modernity… the British way, the first and therefore classical model.” There is ample evidence of a “Sonderweg” throughout Wilhelmine/Bismarckian Germany, from the lack of a real democracy in 1871 to attempts to repress threats through policies such as Kulturkampf and the anti-Socialist laws. There is also evidence in Weimar Germany, such as the structural weaknesses of the constitution, for example proportional representation and Article 48. There is, however, evidence

The leaders of the Nazi party made it one of the most infamous groups to lead a nation in history. The horrible things done under their rule and with their stamp of approval has made the term Nazi one of the worst possible. The amazing thing about the Nazi party is that many of the main aspects of their ideology existed in Germany even before they formed or came to power. Some of the major aspects of Nazi ideology such as antisemitism, the desire to expand the German empire, and the belief in the strength of the Aryan race existed in Germany years before Adolf Hitler was a name anyone in Germany would recognize.