Making of a totalitarian state: Hitlers policies.

It is important to understand the events that transpired during and after the Mu nich Putsch in order to fully grasp the rise of the Nazi party, the rise of Hitl er and the making of Hitlers Germany. By 1923, Germany was in a crisis. The count ry was suffering from hyper inflation and around 1.25 million people were unempl oyed. Dissatisfaction with the Weimar government was rising. Hitler and the Nazi party decided that the time had come for them to take over the government. Stor m troopers attacked official buildings and proclaimed their governance. However, the government soon retaliated and Hitler was jailed. While serving his time, H itler realized that the government could not be destroyed from the outside using force. For a person to gain power, he had to destroy the system from within. He wanted to use democracy to get elected but once in power, he would annihilate t he system of governance. This thought process in Hitler is particularly importan t. From now on, his goal would be to win over the people of Germany. His policie s would be in favour of pure blooded Aryans whom he considered to be pure German s. The economic depression that started in 1929 proved vitally important for the Na zi party. By this time they had gathered a large following of peasants and farme rs who agreed with many of the partys traditional beliefs. Unlike Britain, a larg e percentage of German populations livelihood came from agriculture. They shared no profits that the Weimar government provided to mainly the industrial workers. Hitler promised them the introduction of modern technology and to bring back th e importance of German peasantry if he won. The depression worsened the German economy which was slowly becoming stabilized greatly. Unemployment rates skyrocketed and soon people lost faith in their gove rnment. The Nazi party which had been a fringe party until recently saw this as the time to unleash their potential. They captured peoples imagination. They pers onified order in a time of great disorder and chaos. They held recruitment drive s and started youth organizations. They impressed people with their enthusiasm a nd energy. They made policies which were well received by the public. If the pub lic did not like it, the policy was removed! The Nazi party and the German popul ation was by this time fed up with democratic Germany which seemed unable to han dle the problem of the depression, the growing popularity of western culture and the communist threat which made the party gain industrialists as loyal followers as well. People who did not support Nazi policies but share their fears or disli kes became followers of the party too. Propaganda is the art of persuasion - per suading others that your side of the story is correct. Propaganda might take t he form of persuading others that your military might is too great to be challen ged; that your political might within a nation is too great or popular to challe nge etc. Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Hitlers minister for enlightenment and propaganda m ade this possible. Propaganda played a very important part in Hitlers rise to pow er. It helped spread the party message far and wide, garner support and influenc e people to support and join the Nazi party. The party spread the message that p eople wanted to hear, promised to do what was best for Germany. Through propagan da, they also succeeded in gaining the support of different classes of the socie ty like the industrial workers. To Goebbels, Hitler was a messiah of the people and the best thing that ever happened to Germany. He took it upon himself to spr ead Hitlers message throughout Germany. In the early years, the Nazi party popula rity increased solely because of propaganda. Hitler made countless speeches, hel d rallies and distributed posters and literature about the greatness of Germany, his people and the party. In Neidenburg in East Prussia, Nazi support rose from 2.3% in 1928 to over 25% in 1931! One of the main ways in which the party sprea d propaganda was through the Nuremberg rallies held each year. They were held ev ery summer, included thousands of Germans and proved an important vehicle to spr ead party messages and convince people of the power of the state. Goebbels reali zed that this was a way to give people what they wanted- order and a sense of be longing to a glorious Germany once again. Hitler, by this time had become chance llor of Germany and in his speeches never failed to recollect the pat achievemen ts of Germany and the amazing future he was about to take it to. He gathered mor e and more loyal supporters by appealing to their national pride and creating an

ger about the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles. It was important to him to have a large supporter base that placed unconditional trust in him as this woul d mean very little resistance to his plans and actions. Goebbels also had a strict control of the media. No books could be published wit hout his prior knowledge. He controlled what was shown in theatres. Everything h ad to have pro Nazi messages. He banned jazz music as Nazis considered black peo ple an inferior race, and had anti-Nazi newspapers shut down. Jewish editors and journalists were fired. Radio stations were kept in strict control and listenin g to anything not pre approved was an offence. The speeches made by Nazi officia ls and Hitler were played over and over again until the ideas expressed in them were believed by the German people. Although there was dissatisfaction, these po licies were generally accepted by people, who did not mind giving up their polit ical freedom in order to develop their life or to develop Germany. Under the Weimar government, women enjoyed a great deal of freedom and importanc e. By 1933 there were 100000 women authors, 3000 women doctors and 13000 women m usicians. However, Hitler and the Nazi party had very traditional views on the b ehaviour and role of women in society. As soon as the party came to power, all w omen were let go from posts in the government and political parties. At this tim e, many of the partys supporters (peasants) agreed with the partys image of what w omen should have been like and did not offer any resistance. Women were encourag ed to marry and produce large number of children and stay at home to take care o f them. Posters, radio broadcasts and newsreels celebrated the image of the Germ an woman and the government provided incentives for women to stay at home and be ar children. Loans were given out and didnt have to be repaid if the couple had a certain number of children. Medals were also given out to women who had large f amilies on Hitlers mothers birthday. Women were overcome with emotion for Hitlers p olicies, believing that they would take Germany to new heights. Even though, the re was a little dissatisfaction from women who had gotten used to their position in the Weimar government, most were in favour of giving birth to the new genera tion of Germans who would take Germany forward. Having peoples support was extrem ely important to the party and Hitler and his policies set about a new agenda fo r women- to be good German mothers and wives. It was Hitlers aim to control the lives of German citizens. He wanted the youth o f Germany to believe and support the party and trained them from a young age to respect his ideals. Children were taught German history and were made to join yo uth organizations meant to instil a sense of national pride and build athleticis m. They were taught to hate Jews and pledge undying loyalty to the fatherland ev en placing it higher than their parents. The youth movements soon lost momentum and in an effort to keep everyone involved, membership was made compulsory by 19 39. There were two distinct anti Nazi youth groups namely, the swing movement an d the Edelweiss pirates who were more liberal and westernized than the Nazis and criticized their policies. Although they were not political threats to the Nazis , they resented the amount of control the party placed on their lives. Young sup port proved important for the Nazis as it ensured support in the future and a re ady army in case of emergency. The treatment of minorities under Hitler was appalling. The Nazis believed in t he superiority of the Aryan race and as soon as they came to power, they began p rosecuting minority communities such as Jews, gypsies, the mentally instable and homosexuals. The party was anti Semitic and believed that Jews were responsibl e for the countrys downfall after WW1. Slowly, they began alienating Jews from th e community, shutting down their businesses and sending them away to ghettos and concentration camps. The night of the broken glass in November 1938, finally re vealed the extent of intolerance when 91 Jews were murdered, synagogues burnt an d their businesses torched. Soon after, concentration camps were put in to place , German citizenship was taken away from Jews and they were sent to work to deat h in the camps. Several companies such as Volkswagen and Mercedes started their own labour camps where Jews were used as slaves. Almost 1 in 5 poles died fighti ng the racial policies between 1939-45. One of the main reasons there was no protest in Germany even though strict contr ol had been placed on peoples lives was because of the economic policies brought

about by Hitler. When the Nazis came to power, they promised to solve two major p roblems the country was suffering from- unemployment and a crisis in German farm ing. There were 5 million people unemployed in 1933 and Dr. Hjalmer Schacht orga nized Germanys finances to fund a program of work creation. They started public w orks projects, built railways and autobahns, reintroduced conscription in to the army, invested in public expenditure and most importantly, started rearming. Re armament was a quick way to reduce unemployment and produce arms to make Germany a militarily strong state as wanted by Hitler. As well as bringing economic rec overy, these policies brought about national pride in the fact that Germany was finally recovering from the humiliation done by the treaty of Versailles , a cor nerstone for the Nazi party who from the beginning had justified their ideals by national pride. Initial supporters of the party were farmers and Hitler introdu ced policies to ensure their livelihood. In 1933 the Reich Food Estate was intro duced which guaranteed market for farmers goods at guaranteed prices. The Reich Entailed Farm Law gave peasants security for their farms. Banks could not take t heir land away if they did not pay their mortgage. However, banks were unwilling to give farmers loans due to this. Also, only first born child could inherit th e farm. This lead to rural depopulation (3% per annum in the 1930s.)- the exact o pposite of what the Nazis wanted! Economic recovery was almost entirely funded b y the state rather than from the Germans investing their own savings. Despite th is, unemployment dropped steadily and by 1939, Germany was actually short of wor kers. Another reason why there was no protest was because of the creation of police st ate. German police strictly monitored the flow of information in the state. The SS were loyal followers of Hitler who were responsible for the killing of Jews a mongst others. Along with the police and courts and the Gestapo (secret police) people lived in a constant fear that any intolerance of Hitlers regime would be m et with dire circumstances. The police were even known to sit and spy on people, looking for those who spoke against the regime. Propaganda and economic recover y also made it seem like the situation in the country was not very dire. Officia ls masked the situation beneath cloak of good will and never let the people get too suspicious of what was really going on. This fear helped keep up the Nazi re gime for longer than possible. Even though some were willing to give up their fr eedom due to the good changes brought about, the dissatisfaction felt by many we re hidden due to this fear. To a large extent, Hitlers policies were successful, especially propaganda. Goebb els ensured the success of this. By making nothing else available to the people other than Nazi approved material, he drilled in to them a strong loyalty toward s and a faith in the Nazi party. Both Hitler and the party knew the importance o f propaganda and complete involvement and dedication in the scheme ensured that these policies were successful. Huge numbers of young people joined the Hitler Y outh. And many became firm believers in Nazi ideas. During WW2 some of the fierc est fighting that US and British soldiers faced in the battle for Normandy, in F rance, in 1944 was against SS soldiers from the Hitler Youth Division. But the s ituation was complicated. Youth groups were popular before 1933 and when Hitler came to power all of these youth groups, apart from the Catholic Youth Movement (which was banned in 1939) were dissolved. Many children were later forced to jo in the Hitler Youth but it is hard to say how prepared they were to believe Nazi ideas. There is evidence that by 1939 about 40% of German young people failed t o regularly attend Hitler Youth meetings. There was quite a big difference betwe en the Nazi ideal of women staying at home and the reality of improving the Germ an economy and rearming for war. There were serious shortages in the number of w orkers and therefore women were employed in increasingly large numbers as time w ent on. Indeed, by 1939 women made up 37% of the German workforce. During the wa r itself, women were increasingly called to fill positions left vacant by men wh o had gone to fight. Therefore, German policies towards women and children can b e seen as mildly successful. Hitlers economic policies brought about a reduction in unemployment. But, they also had a lot of adverse effects. Workers working co nditions remained poor, trade unions were abolished, and they were forced to wor k under harsh conditions. Some even complained of worse living standards than in

the great depression. His rural policies also caused rural de population, the e xact opposite of what the Nazis wanted. Even though unemployment levels were dow n, women and minorities were not included when calculating this figure and there fore, although his policies seemed good on paper, in application they proved ard uous and complicated, often leading to harsh consequences. Finally, other succes ses in Hitlers regime included his treatment of minorities and his creation of a police state. Strict control of the people and an intolerant nature of governanc e kept citizens in a constant state of fear and submission. In conclusion, Hitler along with the Nazis started a step by step takeover of Ge rmany starting with its policies and then its people, till they were the model o f a totalitarian state: no more opposition.

The making of a totalitarian state: Hitlers policies

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