The nature of the Nazi state 1933 to 1939, including the role of terror and propaganda, the polycratic structure of government, economic policy, and the impact on women, youth, and churches

What this dot point is asking

NESA wants you to describe and analyse how the Nazi state actually functioned between 1933 and 1939: who held power, how dissent was crushed, how consent was manufactured, and how the economy was reshaped for war. This is the most heavily examined focus area in the Core Study. Strong answers cite institutions, individuals, and the intentionalist versus structuralist debate.

The answer

Polycratic structure

The Nazi state was not a single chain of command. Hans Mommsen and Ian Kershaw describe it as polycratic: competing agencies (the Party Chancellery under Bormann, the Reich Chancellery under Lammers, the SS under Himmler, the Four-Year Plan under Goering, the Foreign Ministry under Ribbentrop) jostled for influence by anticipating Hitler's wishes. Kershaw's phrase "working towards the Fuhrer" captures how subordinates radicalised policy on their own initiative, often without direct orders.

Hitler himself worked irregular hours, avoided detailed administration, and made decisions in private conversations rather than cabinet meetings. The Cabinet last met as a full body in February 1938.

Terror

The SS under Heinrich Himmler (Reichsfuhrer-SS from 1929) absorbed every police function in Germany between 1933 and 1936. Reinhard Heydrich ran the SD (security service) and after 1936 the combined Security Police (SiPo, comprising Gestapo and Kripo). The first concentration camp at Dachau opened on 22 March 1933 under Theodor Eicke. By 1939 the SS-Totenkopfverbande administered Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Ravensbruck, and Mauthausen. The People's Court (Volksgerichtshof, established 1934) handled political offences and issued thousands of death sentences during the war.

Robert Gellately's research (Backing Hitler, 2001) shows the Gestapo was relatively small (around 7,000 officers) and relied heavily on denunciations from ordinary Germans. Coercion and consent reinforced each other.

Propaganda

Joseph Goebbels became Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda on 13 March 1933. The Reich Chamber of Culture (September 1933) controlled film, theatre, music, press, radio, and literature. The Volksempfanger cheap radio reached 70 per cent of households by 1939. Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935) immortalised the Nuremberg Rallies; her Olympia (1938) glamorised the Berlin Games.

Book burnings (10 May 1933) targeted Jewish, Marxist, and "un-German" authors. The exhibition "Degenerate Art" (1937) attacked modernism. Ian Kershaw's concept of the "Hitler Myth" describes the cult of personality that detached Hitler personally from unpopular Nazi policies.

Economic recovery and rearmament

Hjalmar Schacht (Minister of Economics 1934-1937, President of the Reichsbank) used MEFO bills (off-balance-sheet credit) to fund rearmament without immediate inflation. Public works projects (autobahns, the Volkswagen) absorbed unemployment, which fell from 6 million (1932) to under 1 million (1937).

The Four-Year Plan (October 1936) under Hermann Goering aimed to make Germany self-sufficient and war-ready within four years. By 1939, military spending had reached around 23 per cent of GDP. The economy was not a free market but a directed war economy. Adam Tooze (The Wages of Destruction, 2006) argues rearmament was approaching its sustainable limits by 1939, making war a strategic necessity for the regime.

Society: women, youth, churches

Women

The regime promoted Kinder, Kuche, Kirche (children, kitchen, church). The Law for the Encouragement of Marriage (1933) offered marriage loans. The Mother's Cross (1938) rewarded large families. Women were pushed out of the professions but, by 1939, the labour shortage drew many back into work.

Youth

The Hitler Youth (HJ) and the League of German Girls (BDM) became compulsory in 1936 and 1939. By 1939 membership exceeded 8 million. Schools were nazified through the National Socialist Teachers League.

Churches

The Reich Concordat with the Vatican (July 1933) was repeatedly violated. The Protestant "German Christians" allied with the regime; the Confessing Church (Niemoller, Bonhoeffer) opposed it. By 1937 Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With burning concern") attacking Nazi racial policy.

Historiography

Intentionalists (Lucy Dawidowicz, Eberhard Jackel) stress the coherence of Hitler's ideological programme as set out in Mein Kampf and the Second Book.

Structuralists (Kershaw, Mommsen) emphasise the chaotic, polycratic competition that radicalised policy without a master plan.

Most modern historians (Richard Evans, Richard Bessel) integrate both: ideology set the direction; institutional competition set the pace.

Institutions of the Nazi state by 1939

How to read a source on this topic

Section I sources on the Nazi state are typically Nazi propaganda posters, photographs of rallies (Nuremberg, Berlin Olympics 1936), stills from Triumph of the Will, Gestapo case files, or extracts from Goebbels' diary. Three reading habits.

First, distinguish what the source claims from what historians have demonstrated. A 1936 Olympics photograph projects unity; Gestapo files from the same year show 7,000 officers depending heavily on denunciations (Gellately). Both are evidence, but of different things.

Second, watch for the polycratic signature. A document from the Four-Year Plan office, the Foreign Ministry, and the SS may make competing claims to authority. The contradictions are themselves historical evidence of the polycratic state.

Third, read economic sources against the rearmament thesis. An unemployment graph (showing 6 million to under 1 million) should prompt the question: what was the labour force doing? Adam Tooze (Wages of Destruction, 2006) argues most of the "recovery" was rearmament-driven.

Examples in context

Example 1. The Hossbach Memorandum (5 November 1937) and the New Plan. Hossbach recorded Hitler's address pressing for rapid rearmament. Hjalmar Schacht's New Plan (September 1934) had used Mefo bills to disguise military spending; by 1936 Hermann Goering's Four Year Plan was driving autarky. Richard Overy (The Nazi Economic Recovery, 1996) shows military expenditure rose from 1.9 per cent of GDP in 1933 to 18 per cent in 1938. Adam Tooze (The Wages of Destruction, 2006) re-reads the figures to argue that armaments demand made a 1939 war unavoidable for fiscal reasons.

Example 2. SD reports on the Hitler Myth (1934 to 1939). Sopade (exiled SPD) reports and SD Stimmungsberichte show genuinely high popularity for Hitler after the Saar plebiscite (January 1935) and the Rhineland remilitarisation (March 1936). Ian Kershaw (The Hitler Myth, 1987) draws on both sets of records to argue popular consent was constructed through foreign-policy success and economic recovery rather than terror alone. Robert Gellately (Backing Hitler, 2001) argues the Gestapo relied on denunciation from neighbours, evidence of active complicity.

Try this

Q1. Source A is an SD report from Saxony, October 1936, on popular reactions to the Olympic Games. Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain the role of propaganda in the Nazi state. [5 marks]

• What the marker wants. Identify Goebbels's Ministry of Propaganda; pair with the Hitler Myth and the 1936 Berlin Olympics; cite SD as state surveillance.

Q2. Evaluate the extent to which the Nazi state between 1933 and 1939 was sustained by consent rather than coercion. [25 marks]

• What the marker wants. Weigh Kershaw on the Hitler Myth against Gellately on denunciation; cite Gestapo numbers (around 7,000 nationwide).

Q3. Compare the views of Ian Kershaw and Adam Tooze on the economic foundations of the Nazi state. [10 marks]

• What the marker wants. Kershaw (political consent enables rearmament) versus Tooze (Wages of Destruction: armaments imperatives drive policy); judgement.