Fichas
Controversy: How efficient was the Nazi Regime?
Fichas del conjunto (53)
- 1Who was the Head of State in Nazi Germany?Hitler - He was the Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor (combined after Hindenburg's death in 1934)
- 2Which 2 positions came below the Head of State?Office of the Deputy Fuhrer
Secretary to the Fuhrer and Chief of the Party Chancellery - 3What were the 4 sections of the regime under the Deputy Fuhrer and Secretary/Chief of the Party Chancellery?1) Government departments
2) The armed forces
3) Supreme Reich Authorities
4) Main Nazi Party Organisations - 4Give some examples of the government departments. Which new ones were created in 1933 and 1934?Agriculture
Defence
Economics
Transport
Foreign Office
Justice
Interior
Labour
Created in 1933: Aviation, Church Affairs, Education and Propaganda & National Enlgihtenment
Created in 1934: Forestry - 5What was the Armed Forces made up of?Wehrmacht (army)
Luftwaffe
Kriegsmarine (navy) - 6What were the Supreme Reich Authorities?General Inspectorate of th German Road System - 1933
Reich Labour Service - 1934
Office of the Four-Year Plan - 1936 - 7What were the main Nazi Party organisations?SS
SA
Hitler Youth
NSDAP - local structure
Gauleiter (region)
Kriesleiter (district)
Ortsgruppenleiter (town)
Zellenleiter ('Cell', 200-500 households)
Blockleiter (street blocks, 40-60 houses) - 8What happened to the 1919 Constitution?Suspended through the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act
It was not replaced with a new Constitution - 9What happened to the Weimar political institutions?Cabinet and Reichstag survived, but meetings were increasingly rare and had no real purpose
- 10How was the early years of Nazi government technically a coalition?Some government posts were retained by non-Nazi conservatives who had come into office as Papen's 'cabinet of barons'
They stayed until the later 1930s - 11Give an example of how there was no clear division between the state institutions and the Nazi institutionsHimmler's SS was a party organisation, but by the mid-1930s, the SS empire included state institions, like the Gestapo
- 12What is 'administrative pluralism'? Give some examples of this in Nazi GermanyMultiple office-holding at national and local levels
E.g..
Goebbels' - Minister for Propaganda and Gauleiter of Berlin
Rust - Education Minister and Gauleiter of South Hanover-Braunschweig - 13Which multiple office-holder outdid all the others?Goering, by 1936 he was the:
Director of the 4-Year Plan
Chief of the Prussian Gestapo
Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe
Reich Forestry Minister
Reich Hunting Minister
President of the Reichstag - 14Why was multiple office-holding a source of inefficiency in the Nazi state?Because it led to individuals being over-stretched with jobs
Power-hunting individuals
Turf battles
Overlapping jobs - 15How did Hitler respond from 1937 onwards to those non-Nazi conservatives who were concerned about the pace of rearmament?Nazified the government further
1937 - Economics Minister Schacht resigned, leaving Goering as Germany's economic supremo
Wehrmacht brought to a heel: Blomberg and Fritsch pressured into resigning (sexual allegations); 16 generals retired and 44 depromoted; Defence Ministry abolished - Hitler completely in control
Foreign Minister Neurath dismissed and replaced by Nazi, von Ribbentrop, in 1938 - 16What are the two views of Hitler's role in the Nazi state?Intentionalists - monocratic, Hitler-centred state
Structuralists - polycratic state - 17What two quotes sum up the rival interpretations?Intentionalists - Norman Rich "Hitler was master in the Third Reich"
Structuralists - Hans Mommsen "Hitler was in some respects a weak dictator" - 18What policy do intentionalist historians argue that Hitler pursued?Policy of 'divide and rule'
- 19What word is used to describe what the party was structured around from the mid-1920s?"Fuhrerprinzip" - a 'leadership party'
Subordinates expected to obey the commands of Hitler without question - 20Why were there no serious rivals to the Nazi regime?Left-wing banned and suppressed
Rohm and Gregor Strasser may have been serious rivals, but were eliminated in the Night of the Long Knives
Chief Lieutenants posed no threat - Goebbels, Himmler and Goering viewed Hitler with adulation - 21Who said in the 1936, "Our constitution is the will of the Fuhrer"A leading Nazi lawyer, Hans Frank
- 22How did defendants at the post-war Nuremberg trials support the internationalist argument?They said that Hitler was a dominant figure whose decisions could not be questioned
- 23Who was able to have the all-important close contact with Hitler? Who did not?Goebbels, Himmler and Speer went out of their way to ensure they have regular face-to-face contact with the Fuhrer
Agriculture Minister, Darré was unable to break into Hitler's inner circle - 24Which historian said, "Alone Hitler planned, alone he decided, alone he ruled"?Eberhand Jackel (1969)
- 25Historians who question the idea of a Hitler-centred state point to Hitler's 'bohemian lifestyle'. ExplainHitler did not work hard - got up late, had some afternoon appointments then watched films (mainly Disney cartoons)
Rarely stayed in one place for long
Did not like paperwork; virtually wrote nothing himself
Left details to his subordinates
Increasingly detached from domestic politics - 26What was Hitler's view on in-fighting and empire-building?Tolerated, and even welcomed it
Believed he should remain above politics and not be involved in political squabbles
Believed struggle was natural - 27What did one of his Gauleiter's say about his view on in-fighting and empire-building?"He lets things take their course until the stronger man has won the day"
(Hitler strongly believed in the Social Darwinist theory) - 28Hitler's 'hands-off' approach in domestic politics led to what?Powerful and competing bureaucratic empires
The rise of polycracy - 29What concept does Ian Kershaw say is the key to understanding Hitler's role in the Nazi state?Concept of 'working towards the Fuhrer'
- 30How does Kershaw summarise this concept?-Hitler the only link between the component parts of the Nazi system
-Hitler operated by inviting subordinates to anticipate his wishes and initiate things without explicit prior approval
-If subordinates correctly guessed wishes, allowed the carry on; if did not guess correctly, Hitler intervened
-Therefore, Hitler was a dicatator who did not have to dictate - 31What were the main reasons for inefficiency in the Nazi state?Empire-building
Turf battles
Lack of coordination - 32Who was the most successful empire-builder in Nazi Germany?Himmler
1936 - controlled all policing in Germany
Later 1930s - Formation of the Waffen-SS
1941 - responsible for the 'Final Solution'
Later stages of war - control over sprawling empire that controlled much of Nazi-occupied Europe - 33What were 'turf battles'?Struggles for control over particular areas of policy between Hitler's subordinates
- 34What 3 factors made turf battles inevitable?1 - Scale of ambitions of Nazi bosses, e.g, Himmler, Goebbels and Goering
2 - Hitler's detachment from everyday politics
3 - Lack of clearly defined and understood division of responsibility between the various government and Nazi agencies - 35Explain the turf battle over policing, 1933-1936Between Frick (Interior Minister), Himmler (head of SS) and Goering (Hitler's deputy)
1933 - Frick had overall control of policing
Power-hungry Himmler - given control of police in Bavaria in 1933
Goering involved in policing as Prussia's Interior Minister; formed Gestapo in 1933
Within 3 years, Himmler saw off his rivals and had control of policing all over Germany - 36Explain the turf battle over economic policy.1936, Goering made head of the Office of the Four-Year Plan - make Germany economically self-sufficient
Collision course with Schacht, Minister of Economics, and also the Ministers of Agriculture, Transport and Labour
Goering won - Schacht resigned - 37Who said "Hitler was on the whole a non-interventionist dictator as far as government administration was concerned"Ian Kershaw, 2008
- 38Why was there a lack of coordination between the different parts of the government?No machinery was established to ensure coordination, and Hitler showed no inclination to coordinate policy himself
- 39Who was left as the only coordinating link between Hitler and the government agencies after the Cabinet withered away?Hans Lammers - Head of Reich Chancellery
- 40What was Hans Lammers' main task?Supervise the making of new laws by circulating proposals prepared by one department to other departments for their approval
- 41Hitler put off making decisions, but when he did, he intervened swiftly and ruthlessly. Give some examples.Night of the Long Knives of 1934
Blomberg-Fritsch affair of 1938 - 42Assess the Nazi state-Not a well-oiled, smoothly functioning machine but not hopelessly inefficient due to polycracy and chaos
-People mattered as well as organisational structures
-Supreme Reich Authorities were generally effective, e.g. Todd's Roads Inspectorate
-Nazis ran elaborate propaganda and internal security operations, and built up a formidable military machine, so in some respects, the Nazi regime was efficient - 43How did Carlton Hayes describe Germany?As a totalitarian dictatorship in which the will of the Fuhrer was imposed on society through a highly disciplined Nazi Party
(Top-down interpretation of the Third Reich - Intentionalists) - 44How do historians from the 1960s and 1970s look at Nazi Germany?From the bottom-up/grassroots
Explored the structures of government and society
Structuralists - 45Who is Martin Broszat?Structuralist historian
- 46Give some quotes of Martin Broszat's work."Hitler practised no direct and systematic leadership"
"...ignored them [departmental heads] or left them to carry on without a decision"
"growing system of rival power centres" - 47What do the critics of structuralist interpretations say?The depictions of a semi-detached Fuhrer mistakenly displaces Hitler from the centre of the Third Reich
- 48Who said, "None dared carry out a policy that did not accord with Hitler's will"?Lucy S. Dawidowicz
- 49Why does Dawidowicz criticise Broszat's interpretation?She said he fails to take account of ideas and intentions... "for history begins in the minds of men and women, in the ideas they hold and the decisions they take"
- 50On what points do intentionalists and structuralists agree?1) Both accept that the Nazi state contained political empires, such as those headed by Himmler, Goebbels and Goering
2) Both recognise Hitler often failed to communicate his intentions clearly
3) Both accept that the Nazi state was chaotic, disorderly and inefficient in many respects - 51Differences 1/3: What is the difference in the interpretations of Hitler's ideas and intentions?Structuralists - Hitler's ideas and intentions were vague
Intentionalists - Hitler had definite plans and intentions in domestic and foreign policy - 52Differences 2/3: What is the difference in the interpretations of how they explain the events of the Third Reich?Structuralists - events cannot be explained solely in the terms of Hitler's intentions. Competition between the subordinates was a major factor in the Nazis' adoption of more radical policies
Intentionalists - Events are best explained in terms of Hitler's personality, ideology and intentions. Ultimately, the state was responsive to Hitler's will - 53Differences 3/3: What is the difference in the interpretations on the main agents of change in history?Structuralists - social and economic factors are the main agents of change in history
Intentionalists - the role of human agency as a factor bringing about historical change is not to be underestimated
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- Flashcards for A2 Edexcel Germany; Part B question - controversy on the efficiency of the Nazi Regime
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