The Totalitarian Aspects of Nazi Germany

The Totalitarian Aspects of Nazi Germany

The government of Nazi Germany was a fascist, totalitarian state. They

ruled in Germany ever since Hitler became chancellor in 1933, to 1945.

Totalitarianism was a form of government in which the state involves

itself in all facts of society, including the daily life of its

citizens. It penetrates and controls all aspects of public and private

life, through the state's use of propaganda, terror and technology.

Totalitarian societies are hierarchies dominated by one political

party and usually by a single leader - in this case, 'Hitler'. The

Nazis had many aims, which included: getting rid of communism for

good, win over the youth of the nation, rebuild the armed forces,

bring back conscription, abolish elections to the Reichstag and to

fight against the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazis wanted to create a

totalitarian state, as they had no free election or a democracy.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had been

restricted to a small army and navy and prevented from building

submarines or an air force. One of Hitler's first actions, therefore,

was to reverse this. This meant he withdrew from the League of Nations

in 1933 and left the conference on disarmament. He told Gõring to

create a German Air force and in March 1935 he said that he was going

to form an army of half a million men. Nine days later, Sir John Simon

and Anthony Eden went to Berlin to see him. Hitler told them his

actions were aimed at the Soviet Union, not the war. Hitler said he

wanted a navy that was 35% the size of the royal navy. 3 months later,

Britain and Germany signed the one Anglo-German Naval Agreeme...

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...yed as a God-like figure although Goebbels tried to make sure

that his propaganda films were more entertaining than political. He

also used the media to whip up support for the Nazis and to incite

hatred towards their enemies. He took over most of the newspapers, put

controls on what journalists could write and set up a press agency to

tell newspapers what the news should be. Anti-Nazi newspapers were

banned. I think that the Nazis did have complete control of what

people thought, as they had no escape from all the advertising that

was going on around them.

The aspects of Nazi Germany that were totalitarian were their

instruments of repression, and their propaganda. This is because in

both these areas, the people had no say, and had no control of the

situation. They were being controlled, so those aspects were total.