“National Socialism: A Menace” (1932) by Ewald Von Kleist-Schmenzin and “Hitler and Christianity” (1931) are accounts that argued how National Socialism as a new ideology was a threat to the German nation as well as people. These two excerpts are found in Neil Gregor’s Nazism, published by Oxford University Press in 2000. Both authors focus on the issue of race, religion, and political hostility to show how Nazism could become a political ideology that is threatening to anyone considered an enemy as well as peace in the German state and Europe.
Ewald Von Kleist-Schmenzin’s “National Socialism: A Menace” is centered on the idea that National Socialism is a recipe for disaster for the people of Germany. We see this idea in the first paragraph where Schmenzin says, “the impact of National Socialism is assuming dimensions that threaten our future.” He bases this prediction on his view that National Socialism was turning regular people into violent fanatics. One example of this transformation is seen when Schmenzin described how National Socialism changed the minds of “workers, who were originally just rationalistically minded.” Another example would be how this new ideology turned the Nationalists and Social Democrats into fierce enemies creating an environment of extreme political polarity. Schmenzin also argues that one of the party’s main objectives is to obtain strict loyalty from the people. Schmenzin says, “the flow of followers to Hitler is largely a movement of fear and desperation…many of them put all their hopes in Hitler and do not want to see the shortcoming of National Socialism.” He also argued heavily of how the National Socialists were rejecting religion to be replaced with the concept of race. According to Schmen...
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...e source by Alfons Wild is more compelling because his arguments are presented in the form of logic. He used the fact of how Christianity discourages war and then shows how Hitler believes in a strong military. Wild also shows how race plays a major role in the National Socialist movement because the Aryan race “has a higher right to life than other races,”v which Wild defines as hate. He combines both these ideas of violence and hatred to explain how National Socialism was not a Christian movement.
Schmenzin and Wild’s excerpts contained in Gregor’s Nazism give an idea of what people who opposed National Socialism thought and how they argued the dangerous aspects of Nazism as well as Hitler. The fact that both Authors wrote these excerpts in the early 1930s shows how National Socialism looked unattractive to some even before it gained political power in Germany.
The main political changes that the Nazi Party or the NSDAP endured during the period of November, 1923 until January 1933 was its rise from a small extreme right party to a major political force. It is vitally important that the reasons behind this rise to power also be examined, to explain why the NSDAP was able to rise to the top. However first a perspective on the Nazi party itself is necessary to account for the changing political fortunes of the Nazi Party.
The historical analysis of the “History of Germany” reveals many hidden facts including the complex issues such as fighting against homosexuality, Hitler’s racial ideology and the ecclesiastical Christian Church movements that needed to be appropriately addressed and rectified. This analytical paper aims to analyze the History of Germany by assessing two articles that are; “Combating homosexuality as a political task” and “Who can resist temptation?” to analyze the situation of Germany through historical documents.
When a young boy is found brutally murdered in a small Prussian town called Konitz, once part of Germany, now part of Poland, the Christians residing in the town lash out by inciting riots and demonstrations. Citing the incident as an act of Jewish ritual murder, better known as blood libel, Christians rendered blame on the Jews. Helmut Walser’s Smith, The Butcher’s Tale, details the murder account and the malicious consequences of superstitious belief combined with slander and exaggerated press propaganda. Foreshadowing the persecution of Jews which would take place three decades later, Smith analyzes and explains the cause and effect of anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany at the turn of the century. Utilizing Smith’s book as a primary source,
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Nazi Germany: The Face of Tyranny. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2000. Print.
2. Read the extracts below, which are taken from a variety of historians' views. What are their answers? To what extent do they agree? The answers, which are given by these extracts, tend to be along the same line. All of them seem to agree that the Nazis were very successful in protestant rural and middle class Germany. They also agree that it was big businesses, the young and the well off that were most likely to be in favour of the NSDAP.
The Nazi State of the Third Reich is clearly defined by racial theory put into practice. One reading Burleigh and Wipperman's book; The Racial State, learns of these different racial theories and how they are implemented under Adolf Hitler in the Third Reich.
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...
However, the consensus view of Carsten and similar historians writing at the time is that the far-left were not as politically strong as first thought, so consequently there was a lack of any serious opposition to the established order and in turn they were allowed to have more independence and self-determination in implementing Germany’s first republic. So the social basis for a constitutional government in Germany is a lot more widespread than previously thought. Furthermore, the apprehensiveness of the social democrats can be interpreted in terms of distrusting the unstructured mass movements that existed in the pressing post-war years, and placing their trust in the old elites. However, works such as Feldman’s, ‘The Great Disorder’. The German inflation 1914 – 1924’ argue that the perspective representative potential of soldiers and workers unions and councils were in fact decisively contentious.
The Social Democrats were the leading party during and after the fight to remove the Kaiser from his powerful position. They were greatly influenced by the Elite, the rich Germans they thought essential to the prosperity of Germany. They recruited armed forces, the Freikorps, to aid them in controlling those opposing their ideas and policies. The Social Democrats often associated themselves with the Bolsheviks, one half of the Social Democrats that leaded the Russian Revolution the year before. But when it came down to it, the Social Democrats weren’t in favour of a change in government, and they believed “getting rid of the Kaiser was the end of the revolution” (Lacey and Shephard, 2002, p.13). The fact that there was a revolution wasn’t true, because no groups had actually wielded great power over the rest of Germany, and they hadn’t established any kind of government system. The Kaiser’s abdication, initiated by the Social Democrats, should have started a change, but instead it just made way for their party to gain control.
The foreign policy of Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945 was different than any other country during that era. Their distinct approach to ruling came from the nation’s many diverse philosophies. Furthermore, every basis of motivation and control came from the beliefs in which they so strictly followed. Many aspects, such as, communism, fascism, and nationalism, influenced these ideologies.
National Socialism is also known as Naziism. A system in which Hitler was referred to as Führer, there was a state control over the economy and production, and there was an agenda for national expansion. The Program of the Nazi party sought to change 3 major concerns in Germany to help their cause in making Germany a force to be reckoned with. The concerns were political, economic, and social.
Norton, James. The Holocaust: Jews, Germany, and the National Socialists. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2009. Print.
Beginning in 1920 in the form of propaganda on the side of typical consumer items and lasting all the way until mid-1945, Nazi anti-Semitism had been a prominent characteristic of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party). Nazi anti-Semitism has often been considered an anomaly from the anti-Semitism that Europe had traditionally practiced, because of its deliberate execution of the Jewish Question and the horrific cruelty that took place during the Holocaust. It is no question that Nazi anti-Semitism was remembered for its unmatched hatred of the Jews; however, the influence from European anti-Semitism in the medieval times was heavy. The Nazis’ adoption of the “Jew badge” and psychological and racial grounds for justification of anti-Semitism are only a small percentage of the techniques employed by Nazis’ that were inspired by the traditional European actions against Jews. This essay will discuss whether the Nazis simply continued the strands of European anti-Semitism that were already in place or whether they initiated a revolutionary materialization of a sinister phenomenon.
...2. Between the July and November elections the Nazi party lost 34 seats. However the implementation of Schleicher, to attract trade unionists and members of the NSDAP, only succeeded in making Hitler’s position in the Nazi party stronger. This was because Schleicher’s ‘policy of diagonal’ only attracted Strasser, for which he was ousted from the Nazi party. This was Hitler’s main opponent in the quest for leadership of the nazi party.
MODERN HISTORY – RESEARCH ESSAY “To what extent was Nazi Germany a Totalitarian state in the period from 1934 to 1939?” The extent to which Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state can be classed as a substantial amount. With Hitler as Fuhrer and his ministers in control of most aspects of German social, political, legal, economical, and cultural life during the years 1934 to 1939, they mastered complete control and dictation upon Germany. In modern history, there have been some governments, which have successfully, and others unsuccessfully carried out a totalitarian state. A totalitarian state is one in which a single ideology is existent and addresses all aspects of life and outlines means to attain the final goal, government is run by a single mass party through which the people are mobilized to muster energy and support.