History IGCSE Paper 4: Germany, 1918-1945: Nazi Ru
History iGCSE Paper 4: Germany, 1918-1945: Nazi Ru
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History iGCSE Paper 4: Germany, : Nazi Rule
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History IGCSE Paper 4: Germany, 1918-1945: Nazi Ru
How important was the Nazis' use of force and terror as means of controlling the German people? Explain your answer.
IT WAS IMPORTANT, BECAUSE...
Opposition to the Nazi rule which risked influencing the German people was completely eradicated...
- Previously, the SA had used terror to silence op...
how important was popular support in explaining th
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History iGCSE Paper 4: Germany,
1918-1945: Nazi Rule
How important was the Nazis' use of force and terror as means of
controlling the German people? Explain your answer.
IT WAS IMPORTANT, BECAUSE...
Opposition to the Nazi rule which risked influencing the German
people was completely eradicated...
- Previously, the SA had used terror to silence opposing politicians
or anti-Nazi journalists, by disrupting their meetings or beating
them up on their way home
- This was continued, as the co-ordinating branches of the SS worked
together to capture any opposing politician or anti-Nazi journalist
to avoid their opinions influencing or spreading to the German people
- The SD, a plain-clothed intelligence core, would gather information
that would then be handed over to the Gestapo, a second police that
captured, interrogated, tortured and sent suspects to concentration
camps, which were run by the Death's Heads unit
The German people were scared into silence...
- Thanks to the system into which the country was organised, the
largest unit being a 'Gaue' (region), led by a Gauleiters, and the
smallest unit being a 'Blöcke (block), led by a Block Leader, they
were under constant surveillance
- The Block Leaders were average, Nazi-supporting citizens that
reported information about their neighbours to the Nazis, allowing
any suspicious activity such as a mother not allowing her child to
join the Hitler Youth to be recorded and acted on
- Additionally, the Nazi takeover of the judicial system by
establishing of the 'People's Court' in 1934 saw the number of
executable deaths rise from 3 to 46, including telling jokes about
Hitler
- This frightened the population into keeping quite about any
dissatisfaction they had with the Nazi rule, resorting to simply
accepting it
This allowed the Nazis to carry out the more unpleasant parts of
their doctrine...
- As the German people learned to simply accept the Nazi rule, the
more unpleasant party of their doctrine could be carried out without
,fear that they would cause significant protest or opposition
- Although people realised that Jews were being transported out of
the country, they remained silent on the subject as they knew that
speaking out would only result in joining them in the concentration
camps
- This shows that the use of force and violence provided total
control of the German people, to the point at which they even
controlled who was allowed to be a German citizen and who wasn't
IT WASN'T IMPORTANT, BECAUSE...
The Nazis' effective use of mass media also helped to control them...
- Anti-Nazi, left-wing, liberal and democratic newspapers were shut
down and the Nazis owned 67% of news publishings by 1939
- Goebbels created the 'People's Receiver', a cheap radio with short
range that not only ensured that people of all social classes and
wealth could listen to Hitler's regular broadcasts, but also that
they were unable to listen to foreign radio
- The Nazis were one of the first political parties to make use of
film, such as 'The Triumph of the Will', a documentation of the 1934
Nuremberg Rally
- Book burnings began to take place from 1933 onwards, replacing
books that went against Nazi values or broke their portrayal of war
(such as 'All Quiet on the Western Front'). Instead, books like
'Michael', a glorified, nationalistic tale of a World War I soldier
written by Goebbels published in 1929, were spread
This constant stream of propaganda indoctrinated Nazi values in the
minds of the German people...
- Goebbels, who was made Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment in
1933, understood the importance of propaganda in spreading the Nazis'
message and silencing opposition
- He realised that this constant exposure to Nazi values would cause
them to become normalised in the minds of the German people,
especially as all other opinions that risked influencing them were
gotten rid of
- He also used propaganda to create the 'Hitler myth', by focussing
on Hitler and portraying him as, more so than the simple leader of
the Nazi Party, a strong yet charismatic, almost godly figure that
was the saviour German needed
- This helped to further indoctrinate Nazism in the minds of the
German people, as Hitler came first and his views and ideology, which
must unquestionably be morally right, came second
Arguably, the control over the German people was not even that
, important to the Nazi rule at all...
- Many of the Nazis' policies were already incredibly successful: the
destruction of the Treaty of Versailles, so widely hated throughout
Germany, the overthrowing of the Weimar government, which had
repeatedly failed to prove itself a worthy system and under which
there had been a lot of suffering, and the restoration of German
pride
- The most popular policy of theirs was the miraculous recovery of
the economy and increased employment through large organisation like
the RAD, which offered unemployed men the chance to work on massive
construction projects for 6 months, building highways ('autobahns'),
chopping down forests, etc. and the DAF, which set state-wide hours,
wages and rules (no trade unions and no strikes), and the army
- In general, many supported the Nazis and they were therefore
willing to condone some of the more unpleasant parts of their
doctrine (such as the extermination of Jews and asocials) after their
lives had improved so much under them
How important was the Nazis' use of culture and the mass media as
means of controlling the German people? Explain your answer.
IT WAS IMPORTANT, BECAUSE...
Mass media was used as a means of propaganda...
- Anti-Nazi, left-wing, liberal and democratic newspapers were shut
down and the Nazis owned 67% of news publishings by 1939
- Goebbels created the 'People's Receiver', a cheap radio with short
range that not only ensured that people of all social classes and
wealth could listen to Hitler's regular broadcasts, but also that
they were unable to listen to foreign radio
- The Nazis were one of the first political parties to make use of
film, such as 'The Triumph of the Will', a documentation of the 1934
Nuremberg Rally
- Book burnings began to take place from 1933 onwards, replacing
books that went against Nazi values or broke their portrayal of war
(such as 'All Quiet on the Western Front'). Instead, books like
'Michael', a glorified, nationalistic tale of a World War I soldier
written by Goebbels published in 1929, were spread
- Culture was equally used as proof of the righteousness of Nazis;
for example, the German tradition and culture of spending time in
nature was a big part of the Hitler Youth, which organised camping
trips away from home in nature
- In this way, the Nazis not only used culture as a means of
promoting their values but also as a means of justifying it; Nazism
must obviously be Germany's destiny as it fit in with its long-
standing traditions and culture
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