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Dissolution of the Nazi Party and its Affiliated Organizations: (July 22, 1944)

Herbert Marcuse

in Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort

This chapter proposes the dissolution of the Nazi Party and its affiliated organizations. The reports suggests When the Allies march into Nazi Germany, they will probably find the regime in a state ... More

This chapter proposes the dissolution of the Nazi Party and its affiliated organizations. The reports suggests When the Allies march into Nazi Germany, they will probably find the regime in a state of disintegration. Some of the agencies and institutions of Nazism may still be functioning, but the key positions of political control and terror will have been abandoned. The occupying authorities are committed not only to safeguarding the security of the Allied forces and to maintaining public law and order, but also to the destruction of Nazism. Nazism can be eliminated only through an internal political movement in Germany. The first step in this undertaking would be the dissolution of the National Socialist Party as well as its affiliate and controlled organizations, and the removal and apprehension of all officials who participated in the formulation of policy or had considerable responsibility in carrying it out.Less

Intelligence and the National Socialist Gleichschaltung, 1933–1936

PETER JACKSON

in France and the Nazi Menace: Intelligence and Policy Making 1933-1939

This chapter discusses the political situation of Germany constructed by French intelligence, which emphasized the growing control Hitler and the National Socialist party exercised over all levels of ... More

This chapter discusses the political situation of Germany constructed by French intelligence, which emphasized the growing control Hitler and the National Socialist party exercised over all levels of German society. Intelligence officers judged the average German intellect to be ‘lacking faculties of critical and independent thought’ which served as a manifestation of widely held assumptions that the average German was deficient in intellectual vivacity.Less

Adolf Hitler: The Political Emotionasaurus Rex

KEITH KEITH

in The Arts of Leadership

This chapter's focus is on Adolf Hitler, as well as his Aryan race, who did more than anyone else to bring the twentieth century to its knees through mass destruction and genocide. It notes that the ... More

This chapter's focus is on Adolf Hitler, as well as his Aryan race, who did more than anyone else to bring the twentieth century to its knees through mass destruction and genocide. It notes that the irony of Hitler's leadership is that mass voluntarism, not just systemic coercion, and freedom of choice, not just the limits of choice, lie deeply buried within the Nazi system. It examines the Weimar Republic and the Versailles Treaty and the National Socialist Worker's Party. It also talks about Hitler's expansion through Poland and the war against the Jews that began when von Rath, a German diplomat, was murdered by Herschel Grynszpan, a Polish Jew expelled by the Nazis. It explores the war in Europe, the Soviet Union, and the war in Germany.Less

The Third Reich

Peter M. R. Stirk

in Twentieth-Century German Political Thought

The twelve years of the National Socialist Third Reich have received more scholarly attention than any other period of similar duration for the obvious reasons of the brutality of the regime, its ... More

The twelve years of the National Socialist Third Reich have received more scholarly attention than any other period of similar duration for the obvious reasons of the brutality of the regime, its novelty, its instigation of the Second World War, and above all, the Holocaust. The pace of change, economic recovery and rearmament, anti-Semitic persecution, the hollowing-out of the legal system by the security apparatus, the increased if erratic state intervention in the economy, and expansion and war all forced theorists to attempt to grasp the nature of the regime in the light of the most recent developments. The union with Austria in 1938, in whose authoritarian constitution of 1934 some had seen the only alternative to National Socialism, the occupation of the Czech lands in 1939, and the occupation of most of Europe in the Second World War opened up new perspectives that further challenged the viability of traditional concepts.Less

Faustian Descents

Alexander Rehding

in Music and Monumentality: Commemoration and Wonderment in Nineteenth Century Germany

In Goethe’s Faust II, the protagonist, Faust, was sent to the realm of the Mütterwhere he encountered abstract maternal forces and the embodiment of the Eternal-Feminine. Through this experience, ... More

In Goethe’s Faust II, the protagonist, Faust, was sent to the realm of the Mütterwhere he encountered abstract maternal forces and the embodiment of the Eternal-Feminine. Through this experience, Faust was able to realize his human nature because of how he reacts to such a sublime presence. Faust’s character initially symbolized the archetypal “German character,” and this view was altered as Oswald Spengler declared in 1918 the end of the Faustian Age. This scene, however, is said to depict the situation of musical literature and musical thought during the National Socialist regime, wherein the “mothers” came between the 1930s and the 1940s. This chapter shows how certain arguments such as Moser’s illustrate certain attributes of the romantic metaphysics of absolute music through association with Faust’s character.Less

Weimar in the Weimar Republic: 1918 to 1933

Michael H. Kater

in Weimar: From Enlightenment to the Present

This chapter focuses on Weimar as the seat of the Weimar Republic's provisional national assembly, and how the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler entrenched themselves in the city and all of ... More

This chapter focuses on Weimar as the seat of the Weimar Republic's provisional national assembly, and how the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler entrenched themselves in the city and all of Thuringia. It begins by considering the establishment of the Society of Friends of the Nietzsche Archive in honor of Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, followed by a discussion of Weimar's right-wing culture featuring such personalities as Adolf Bartels, Paul Schultze-Naumburg, and Hans F. K. Günther. It then looks at how Hitler and his Nazi Party established their political power throughout Weimar. It also examines how the Thuringian elections held in December 1929 enabled the National Socialists to install a Nazi-controlled government in Germany at the regional level.Less

The Prerogative State

Ernst Fraenkel

in The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship

This chapter begins by introducing the notion of the prerogative state. It then goes on to provide some historical background to 1930s Germany under martial law. It looks at the effect on German law ... More

This chapter begins by introducing the notion of the prerogative state. It then goes on to provide some historical background to 1930s Germany under martial law. It looks at the effect on German law of the first few years of the rule of the National-Socialists. It examines changes in the legal system and police power. It considers the implications of the abolition of judicial review. It asks: what is the importance of the party becoming an instrument of the prerogative state? It details the actions of the prerogative state and the subsequent persecutions that occurred.Less

Conclusion: Contours of the Berlin Republic

Konrad H. Jarausch

in After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995

This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It addresses the following questions: Why did a more crushing defeat in World War II and the attending collapse of the Nazi dictatorship lead most ... More

This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It addresses the following questions: Why did a more crushing defeat in World War II and the attending collapse of the Nazi dictatorship lead most Germans instead to eschew war, to abjure radical nationalism, and to reject special paths of modernization in the future? How have the lessons of the National Socialist past affected the German response to the new challenges of globalization? In recent decades, postcolonial criticism has begun to question the goal of transformation—whether it is called Westernization, liberalization, or civilization. To what extent were the successive changes really a positive gain? Answering such questions requires not just a reexamination of the record but some reflection on the criteria used to pass judgment.Less

Christmas in the Third Reich

Joe Perry

in Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History

This chapter explores the tensions at the core of the so-called People's Christmas in Nazi Germany. It observes that regime propagandists and intellectual cadres enthused by National Socialist ... More

This chapter explores the tensions at the core of the so-called People's Christmas in Nazi Germany. It observes that regime propagandists and intellectual cadres enthused by National Socialist ideologies drew on the supposed practices of pre-Christian, Nordic–Germanic tribes, familiar from ethnographic literature, to shape public and private rituals that would promote the exclusionary agendas of the racial state. The chapter further observes that celebration in the Third Reich, like other aspects of Nazi cultural policy, was not a simple matter of top-down control that evoked passive submission or private resistance. Instead, state orchestration met with an active and enthusiastic popular response because participation in Nazi political rituals such as Christmas offered Germans attractive material and symbolic rewards. The chapter notes that the holiday also exposed the fault lines in National Socialist political culture.Less

Weimar in the Third Reich: 1933 to 1945

Michael H. Kater

in Weimar: From Enlightenment to the Present

This chapter focuses on the National Socialists' establishment of the Third Reich in Weimar that lasted from 1933 to 1945. More specifically, it assesses the importance of Weimar in Adolf Hitler's ... More

This chapter focuses on the National Socialists' establishment of the Third Reich in Weimar that lasted from 1933 to 1945. More specifically, it assesses the importance of Weimar in Adolf Hitler's overall scheme of things after he assumed power on January 30, 1933. It first considers how Nazi authorities were able to extend their control over Thuringia's economy and culture; Hans Severus Ziegler's role in expanding the Third Reich's influence in Weimar; and how the degree of Weimar's importance to the Nazis affected the town's development from 1933 to 1945. It then discusses Friedrich Nietzsche's role in the Nazis' efforts to capitalise on Weimar's tradition as a cultural icon. Finally, the chapter looks at the aestheticisation of politics in Weimar in the form of sports meets, mass rallies, and congresses.Less

Conclusion: Baroque Legacies: National Socialism’s Benjamin

Jane O. Newman

in Benjamin's Library: Modernity, Nation, and the Baroque

This concluding chapter discusses a particularly uncanny afterlife for Benjamin's Baroque in National Socialism. This post-Benjaminian version of the Baroque resonates uneasily with some of the same ... More

This concluding chapter discusses a particularly uncanny afterlife for Benjamin's Baroque in National Socialism. This post-Benjaminian version of the Baroque resonates uneasily with some of the same issues that he addresses in the Tragic Drama, namely the ability of “works,” both literal Baroque texts and the ideas associated with them, to play a role in arguments about modernity and the nation. Yet the invocation of Benjamin in direct association with the political and social movement of National Socialism, which might well be said to have caused his death, nevertheless reveals a great deal about the importance of taking periodization claims seriously whenever they occur.Less

Forgetting: Nazism, Front Fighters and Destruction, 1929–45

in The German-Jewish Soldiers of the First World War in History and Memory

This chapter focuses on the resurgence of commemorative activity during the last years of the Weimar Republic. Right-wing veterans' associations developed narratives of World War I that mirrored the ... More

This chapter focuses on the resurgence of commemorative activity during the last years of the Weimar Republic. Right-wing veterans' associations developed narratives of World War I that mirrored the republic's social, economic, and political breakdown. When the National Socialists rose to power in 1933, Jewish interest in the remembrance process seemed to totally disappear, although public recognition of the Jewish war effort persisted. Indeed, the persistence of older conservative narratives of sacrifice allowed Jews to maintain some presence in the wider memory culture throughout the 1930s. At the same time, it gave some German Jews a false belief that their military service would assure them of a place in the new Nazi state. The rise of National Socialism only complicated the public memory of Germany's Jewish soldiers who died during the war.Less

Embracing: The Growth of Holocaust Awareness and Acknowledgement of the Jewish Soldiers, 1960–80

in The German-Jewish Soldiers of the First World War in History and Memory

In 1969, the Social Democratic party leader Willy Brandt became Federal chancellor, which seemed to usher in a new era for West Germany. This change in political leadership was a reflection of the ... More

In 1969, the Social Democratic party leader Willy Brandt became Federal chancellor, which seemed to usher in a new era for West Germany. This change in political leadership was a reflection of the liberalisation that had taken place in the Federal Republic. In particular, a democratic culture and a critical public sphere have emerged that made it possible to debate and contest contemporary issues. This chapter examines the West German public's increased focus on the war crimes committed by National Socialists from the 1960s onwards and the emergence of a more critical dialogue concerning the fate of German Jews. In general, West Germans began to devote more attention on the Nazi past and at the same time revise their earlier notions of other aspects of German-Jewish history, including the Jewish participation in World War I. A younger generation of Jews and non-Jews became more aware of Nazi persecution and the Holocaust.Less

National Socialists and Art: Becoming the Perpetrator

Paul B. Jaskot

in The Nazi Perpetrator: Postwar German Art and the Politics of the Right

This chapter presents an overview of German political history that describes the characteristics of the Nazi perpetrators. It addresses the question: what range of actions did postwar audiences label ... More

This chapter presents an overview of German political history that describes the characteristics of the Nazi perpetrators. It addresses the question: what range of actions did postwar audiences label as criminal in order to define the category of the perpetrator? An analysis of the Nazi Party to ground the particularities and complexities of that political institution is given. Nazi leaders found the work of renowned art historian Heinrich Wölfflin useful in surprising ways. In his influential book Principles of Art History (1915), he advocated a schematic comparative study of formal typologies to understand fundamental distinctions between European Renaissance and Baroque art. By focusing on culture not as an ideological cipher but as an intellectual work of strategic use, this chapter argues that the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) developed a series of different relationships to art that helped constitute a typology of the perpetrator. It also explores how the strategic use of cultural policy for racism came to define aspects of criminal behavior recognized by postwar audiences.Less

Introduction

Ritchie Robertson

in The ‘Jewish Question’ in German Literature 1749–1939: Emancipation and its Discontents

The ‘Jewish Question’, the problem concerning the position of Jews in Germany and Austria, was widely discussed from the 1770s onwards. Emancipation culminated in 1871 with the bestowal of equal ... More

The ‘Jewish Question’, the problem concerning the position of Jews in Germany and Austria, was widely discussed from the 1770s onwards. Emancipation culminated in 1871 with the bestowal of equal rights on all Jewish citizens of the newly formed German Empire. Along with progress towards emancipation, the Jewish presence in German and Austrian culture became increasingly conspicuous, reaching a peak of brilliance and diversity in the Weimar Republic, before being annihilated or sent into exile by the National Socialist regime. The focus of this book is on the Jewish presence in German literature. It aims to render the ‘Jewish question’ more intelligible by looking at its literary expressions. While the main focus is on the period 1880–1930, it also goes back to the eighteenth century to show how the project of Jewish emancipation was closely tied to an Enlightenment philosemitism which was problematic from the outset.Less

The Munich Pact

in The Nazi Symbiosis: Human Genetics and Politics in the Third Reich

This chapter examines the deal made by Ernst Rüdin of the German Research Institute for Psychiatry (GRIP) in Munich, Germany with Nazi officials, analyzing this so-called Munich Pact to understand ... More

This chapter examines the deal made by Ernst Rüdin of the German Research Institute for Psychiatry (GRIP) in Munich, Germany with Nazi officials, analyzing this so-called Munich Pact to understand how GRIP served the National Socialist state and vice versa. It explains the differences between the deals made by Rüdin and Eugen Fischer of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics (KWIA), and highlights Rüdin's unholy alliance with Heinrich Himmler's Schutzstaffel.Less

From the Thule Society to the NSDAP: Fashioning the Nazi Supernatural Imaginary, 1912–24

Eric Kurlander

in Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich

This chapter examines the organizational and ideological connections between late-Wilhelmine occult organizations such as the German Order and Thule Society and the early National Socialist German ... More

This chapter examines the organizational and ideological connections between late-Wilhelmine occult organizations such as the German Order and Thule Society and the early National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). The Thule Society and early Nazi movement shared a supernatural imaginary that transcended the particulars of their internal political and organizational differences. They were all, to varying degrees, fascinated by Nordic mythology and Germanic paganism, occult doctrines such as ariosophy, and border scientific theories of race (‘blood’), space (‘soil’), and psychology (‘magic’). In contrast to the mainstream parties that dominated the first decade of the Weimar Republic, the NSDAP drew upon a broader supernatural imaginary which spoke to a diverse social milieu that had lost faith in secular liberalism, traditional Christian conservatism, and Marxist socialism. Like the Germans themselves, many Nazis, living in a society riddled by crisis, increasingly viewed popular aspects of occultism, paganism, and border science as fundamental to negotiating the complexities of modern life.Less

Germany and Weimar Berlin as the City of Science

Mary Jo Nye

in Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science

This chapter focuses on the ideals and realities of Weimar scientific culture and their impact on the economic, political, and philosophical writings of Michael Polanyi. Faced by the increasing ... More

This chapter focuses on the ideals and realities of Weimar scientific culture and their impact on the economic, political, and philosophical writings of Michael Polanyi. Faced by the increasing violence, social unrest, and broadening power of the National Socialist Party of the early 1930s, Michael Polanyi hesitated to leave his ideal city of science, even in the face of an unusually attractive offer from The University of Manchester. He resigned his position in Berlin only when faced with demands from the National Socialist government that non-Aryan scientists must be fired from their posts. Polanyi's daily career experiences in Berlin were a crucial foundation for his later writings on the nature of science and its everyday practice, as was his immersion in a German academic tradition and rhetoric of pure and transcendent Wissenschaft that defied the realities of urban Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s.Less