Using These Four Passages and Your Own Knowledge
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It is often thought that Germany at during the period of 1933 and 1945 was a unified state which showed obedience to the government. Although this was true after a while, it was the ways in which the Nazis tried to gain support and consent is what has become the topic of much discussion. The support and consent for the regime from the German people was not always due to free will, but often due to propaganda, terror and oppression. Interpretations A, B and C all seem to be in favour of this point as they all show varying levels of Nazi control, whether it be propaganda, terror or oppression. Interpretation D, however, suggests that terror was of limited significance in maintaining Nazi support due to the small scale of denunciations and how the population “played a large part in its own control”. It is certain that many factors were involved in the forced consent to Nazi state such as the constant bombardment of propaganda, social and political repression and the traditional sense of obedience mentioned in interpretation A.
There were always going to be doubters of the regime and trouble in trying to get them on board. Interpretation B supports the idea of propaganda being a key weapon used by the Nazis for persuasion as Rothfels says that propaganda was a “sham-idealistic attraction which cast a spell, particularly on young people”. The fact he claims it “cast a spell” could suggest he believed that propaganda had more or less the desired effect in terms of obtaining the support and consent of the German people, especially on the Hitler Youth. The Hitler Youth was a movement set up by the Nazi party in the 1920s. The aim of this movement was to attract young men, indoctrinate them with Nazi ideas and beliefs and then train them into becoming members of the SA. Interpretation B also claims that “there can be no doubt about the widespread effectiveness of that diabolical mixture of terror and propaganda”. The word widespread could be used in an attempt to put the amount of effective propaganda into perspective and to show how common propaganda was. This is reinforced in Interpretation C which makes a strong argument for the need for propaganda in German society. Interpretation C is also the only interpretation to mention the Hitler Myth, the Hitler Myth was a phrase created by Ian Kershaw and it presents Hitler as an almost god like figure who embodies the German people. It also presents Hitler as a defender of the German people against its enemies. This was one of the largest tools used by Goebbels to create this image of an unstoppable leader who would bring Germany out of mediocrity and into greatness. There is no doubt that this tactic had worked as it became a vital element in sustaining support for the regime and Hitlers popularity sharply increased in the mid 1930s. Interpretation A, on the other hand, shows little support for this idea of Propaganda being the most important reason, when it states “Neither the workers nor the middle class entirely succumbed to the allurements of Nazi propaganda”, while it does state that the power propaganda offered was not absolute, its involvement cannot possibly be ignored. There is no doubting the effect that Nazi propaganda had on the German population in terms of gaining support and consent and was possibly the most covertly effective method of gaining support and consent for the Nazi regime.
Without any political opponents to challenge a leading party, there isnt much that is going to be able to overthrow the government. After successfully managing to eliminate all political opposition in July 1933, the Nazis had the job of trying to gain the support of the stronger minded and those of more free will. While perhaps failing to do this with propaganda, the introduction of terror into German society was definitely successful in gaining support and consent. Terror is another important element that was used by the Nazi regime to maintain order and power because it was such a blunt and simple method. Its a more direct approach towards getting people to support the regime, especially as they knew of the severe punishments given to those who were denounced upon. Interpretation B mentions the “rubber truncheon” and the “overt and concealed weapons”, the latter possibly being in reference to the concentration camps used to punish the bodies and alter the mindset of the people who had been seen as anti-German and taken into these camps. The most interesting part of Nazi terror is that one could simply denounce upon somebody else, as long as they had reason to. It didnt have to be the SA or the Gestapo, because there simply werent enough of them to compensate for the whole German population. Despite this people still felt as if the SA and Gestapo were everywhere, when in reality there was not very many per city. If somebody was denounced upon then he or she would be arrested at night, taken to a concentration or labour camp, made to suffer for six months then finally return