Autonomy and Responsibility in Nazi Germany
Throughout history, the struggle of people finding their rights in society has played a major role, especially in the Nazi ideology. During this struggle, societies tried to determine who had rights, what a person owed to society and the duties of an individual. Nazis believed in the Volk, which meant people in the sense of a race, not individuals. Nazis saw the Volk as the major component in society, and therefore based the rest of their beliefs on a person's place in the society on the idea of preserving the pure Volk. The rights a person obtained were based on achieving this goal of preserving the Volk as well. The Nazi view of autonomy and responsibility of the individuals in Germany at this time can be seen by looking at how an individual in Germany was defined, how they reacted to those not considered Germans, and how they treated their own citizens once they were officially recognized.
After World War I, there was a spiritual void left within the people of Germany. The outcome of the war had ripped the German society along the class lines causing great stress and tension among the people. The people of Germany had believed all along that they were winning the war, and therefore the news of surrender came as a great shock to them. To make things worse, the peace treaty established placed the entire fault of the war on Germany and left them responsible for paying for the costs of the war for all who were involved. This sparked a conflict between the middle and working classes in society. Then, the depression followed, creating even more unhappiness among the people. With all of this unhappiness because of the class divisions and the depression, the Nazi...
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...It was not a society based upon rights for the good of the individual.
End Notes
1 "The Nazi Program." Perry M. Rogers. Aspects of a Western Civilization Volume II:
Problems and Sources in History. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall,
1997), 311
2 "The Jewish Peril." Rogers, Aspects of a Western Civilization, 396
3 "The Jewish Peril." Rogers, Aspects of a Western Civilization, 396
4 "The Jewish Peril," "Not a Single Jew," and "Law for the Protection of German Blood
and German Honor." Rogers, Aspects of a Western Civilization, 396-399
5 "Gas." Rogers, Aspects of a Western Civilization, 416
6 "The Nazi Program." Rogers, Aspects of a Western Civilization, 311-312
7 "Speech on the Treaty of Versailles." Rogers, Aspects of a Western Civilization, 313
8 "The Nazi Program." Rogers, Aspects of a Western Civilization, 312
They were given a scapegoat and something to believe in during a time of pain. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, acquired his power through diplomacy and his words drove him to the top and brainwashed the German people into believing in a senseless war. Liesel, the protagonist of The Book Thief, has reoccurring night terrors that show the real meaning of pain because of the war. And Brigitte Eicke, a teenager in Germany during the war, shows how exactly it affected her life on a day-to-day basis and how much she was influenced by the Nazis. During World War II, death lingered in the air and the world was going through hard times, a country had been brainwashed to believe lies and the world had not seen the true horrors of war yet.
Jewish emancipation in Germany dates from 1867 and became law in Prussia on July 3, 1869. Despite the fact the prominence which Jews had succeeded in gaining in trade, finance, politics, and literature during the earlier decades of the century, it is from the brief rise of liberalism that one can trace the rise of the Jews in German social life. For it is with the rise of liberalism which the Jews truly flourished. They contributed to its establishment, benefited from its institutions, and were under fire when it was attacked. Liberal society provides social mobility, which led to distaste among those who had acquired some place in a sort of a hierarchy. Although many were, not all anti-Semites were anti-liberal, but most anti-Semites opposed Liberalism’s whole concept of human existence, which provides much equality.
Nazism possess the core features of totalitarianism, however has a few differences which distinguishes it. Totalitarianism, by the Friedrich-Brzezinski definition, is when the government establishes complete control over all aspects of the state,maintaining the complete control of laws and over what people can say, think and do. Nazi Germany satisfies most of this criteria, as they had a one party system without political opposition. Moreover, they had a single unchallenged leader, in Hitler, to whom the entire nation conformed to. Furthermore, the party had nearly complete control over the country, controlling what people thought through propaganda and censorship, as well as what people could do through fear and terror. However, there are
At the end of World War One, Germany was required to pay a large sum of money to the Allies consequently resulting in the German Depression. The sum Germany had to pay was set after the Treaty of Versailles was enacted at approximately six billion, six hundred million – twenty-two billion pounds, (World War Two – Causes, Alan Hall, 2010). The large amount of reparations that Germany had to pay resulted in a depression and angered the Germans because they thought it was an excessive amount of money to pay, (World War Two – Causes) The Germans hatred of the Treaty of Versailles was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power. Germany could not pay their reparations and was forced into a depression, (World War II – Causes). The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of its economic production and its available employments, (World War II – Causes). The German Depr...
In order to successfully address this question, one must first consider the definition of the very nebulous term Volksgemeinschaft. It was an expression used to depict the harmonious, classless national community ideal made up of the Herrenvolk, or master race. As a term used polemically by the Nazis to engender a form of "identity politics" and therefore oppose any notion of politics based on universal and objective class interests that it aimed to transcend, it helped them gain collective support from an already economically, psychologically and politically distraught post-war nation. The Volksgemeinschaft ideal was one of the key elements of Nazi ideology and was used to legitimate much of the regime's social policy whilst also providing support for their opposition to liberal individualism and Marxist class antagonism. Although to some extent rather imaginary and mythical, it was the key component to encompass the National Socialist dogma of the party, one which integrated the collective Nationalist spirit with the Socialism of diminished class divisions. It operated as a form of psychological Gleischaltung toward the increasingly totalitarian restructuring of German society in a very radical way that disrupted traditional loyalties between members of the same social class, religion and group organisation towards a more Nazified awareness and consciousness. Every single German was obligated to unite with this community, to embrace and share the common faith. According to Hitler "No one is excepted from the crisis of the Reich. This Volk is but yourselves. There may not be a single person who excludes himself from this obligation." However, the Volksgemeinschaft ideal was flawed, it was duplicitous like much of Nazi policy. Con...
In the end, the Nazi regime’s rigid and destructive nature, lead to the downfall of Germany and the Third Reich. While the idea of the Volksgemeinschaft had given hope to many Germans, it had ultimately left Germany and its economy devastated. The effects of World War II were devastating and many of the major cities were destroyed. The greater tragedy however was the deaths of millions of innocent people German and non-German alike.
The Great Depression played a big role in helping the Nazi Party capture power. Many nations were suffering from the Great Depression in 1930, including Germany who had to pay for the war reparations. During this period of economic and politic crisis, the country had been easily influenced by the politics parties. They wanted someone who is capable and had what it takes to be their leader to lead them through the huge crisis that they were facing. Most Germans who are in desperate state as they wanted Germany to be like once, able to be proud of and not in such a state where they had to struggle to fulfill the almost impossible terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They considered that period as a disgraceful decade in their history. Due to the Treaty of Versailles, the bitterness feeling that was left for the Germans. That is when Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party’s last leader came in and promised people that he would help to restore the peace and make Germany greater, but as their leader. The bitterness feeling that the Germans felt, also did a part in helping the Nazi Party to capture po...
...ng considered non-citizens still identified themselves as German Jews and nationalists. Hitler was incorrect when he asserted that Jews are a “foreign race, unwilling and unable to sacrifice its racial characteristics, to deny its own feeling, thinking, and striving” (HCC 142). How then do people like Marta Appel and her family identify themselves as German Jews? By juxtaposing Marta Appel to the Aryan peasant mother it becomes clear that the Nazis not only constructed an arbitrary definition of motherhood, but also of a whole race. Thus defining a mother as a public agent of the Volksmeingeschaft was nothing more than a means by which the Nazis carried out their anti-Semitic political agenda. The Nazis claimed to be exposing natural distinctions between races, but in reality they were creating superficial divisions between people who were essentially the same.
Those of half and quarter Jewish descent remain largely forgotten in the history of the Third Reich and genocide of the Holocaust. Known as Mischlinge, persons of deemed “mixed blood” or “hybrid” status faced extensive persecution and alienation within German society and found themselves in the crosshairs of a rampant National Socialist racial ideology. Controversially, these people proved somewhat difficult to define under Nazi law that sought to cleave the Volk from the primarily Jewish “other”, and as the mechanization toward Hitler’s “Final Solution” the Mischlinge faced probable annihilation. The somewhat neglected status of Mischlinge necessitates a refocusing on German racialization as well as reconsideration of the implications wrought by the alienation and ultimate persecution of the thousands of half and quarter Jews subjugated in Nazi Germany.
Germany's history is different from all other countries in the world. From 1933 to 1945 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis ruled the people. Everyone was forced to follow the Nazis rules and individuals were stripped of all of their freedom. The Nazis were also committing mass executions of certain classes of people. Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped, and other groups of people were treated unfairly and stripped of all their rights. This cruel treatment attracted the attention of countries from all around the world. The events taking place in Germany and neighboring countries led to the outbreak of World War II. Many Germans are not proud of their country's history. It is hard for individuals to do, but everyone must cope with it. Coping with the past, or Vergangenheitsbewältigung, has influenced the way people in Germany have lived their lives.
The history of the Jewish people is one fraught with discrimination and persecution. No atrocity the Nazis did to the Jews in the Holocaust was original. In England in 1189, a bloody massacre of the Jews occurred for seemingly no reason. Later, the Fourth Lateran Council under Pope Innocent III required Jews to wear a badge so that all would know their race, and then had them put into walled, locked ghettos, where the Jewish community primarily remained until the middle of the eighteenth century. When the Black Death ravaged Europe in the medieval ages, many Europeans blamed the Jews (Taft 7). Yet, the one thing that could be more appalling than such brutal persecution could only be others’ failure and flat-out refusal to intervene. Such is the case with the non-Axis coutries of World War II; these nations failed miserably in their responsibility to grant basic human rights – even the right of life – to Jewish immigrants prior to World War II.
Germany, prior to the onset of World War II, was still recovering from The Great War. With that, there was a sense of disgrace, and an overwhelming war debt as outlined by the Treaty of Versailles. While this left the German people uneasy,
After Germany lost World War I, it was in a national state of humiliation. Their economy was in the drain, and they had their hands full paying for the reparations from the war. Then a man named Adolf Hitler rose to the position of Chancellor and realized his potential to inspire people to follow. Hitler promised the people of Germany a new age; an age of prosperity with the country back as a superpower in Europe. Hitler had a vision, and this vision was that not only the country be dominant in a political sense, but that his ‘perfect race’, the ‘Aryans,’ would be dominant in a cultural sense. His steps to achieving his goal came in the form of the Holocaust. The most well known victims of the Holocaust were of course, the Jews. However, approximately 11 million people were killed in the holocaust, and of those, there were only 6 million Jews killed. The other 5 million people were the Gypsies, Pols, Political Dissidents, Handicapped, Jehovah’s witnesses, Homosexuals and even those of African-German descent. Those who were believed to be enemies of the state were sent to camps where they were worked or starved to death.
The volksgemeinschaft or people’s community was the concept that the Nazis preached it was to be a new society, that was free from class division and social conflict. It was a community where all pure Germans were equal and one in which all displayed their loyalty to the nation, to its leader, and to each other. All pure Germans were to have a sense of belonging.
Historians are often divided into categories in regard to dealing with Nazi Germany foreign policy and its relation to Hitler: 'intentionalist', and 'structuralist'. The intentionalist interpretation focuses on Hitler's own steerage of Nazi foreign policy in accordance with a clear, concise 'programme' planned long in advance. The 'structuralist' approach puts forth the idea that Hitler seized opportunities as they came, radicalizing the foreign policies of the Nazi regime in response. Structuralists reject the idea of a specific Hitlerian ideological 'programme', and instead argue for an emphasis on expansion no clear aims or objectives, and radicalized with the dynamism of the Nazi movement. With Nazi ideology and circumstances in Germany after World War I influencing Nazi foreign policy, the general goals this foreign policy prescribed to included revision of Versailles, the attainment of Lebensraum, or 'living space', and German racial domination. These foreign policy goals are seen through an examination of the actions the Nazi government took in response to events as they happened while in power, and also through Hitler's own ideology expressed in his writings such as Mein Kempf. This synthesis of ideology and social structure in Germany as the determinants of foreign policy therefore can be most appropriately approached by attributing Nazi foreign policy to a combination as both 'intentionalist' and 'structuralist' aims. Nazi foreign policy radicalized with their successes and was affected by Hitler pragmatically seizing opportunities to increase Nazi power, but also was based on early a consistent ideological programme espoused by Hitler from early on.