Totalitarianism In Nazi Germany

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

The Nazi Party, and its leader Adolf Hitler, were an unchallenged political group. Following the final deal in January of 1933, Hitler secured the position of chancellorship. From there, he continued working, in order to ensure that the NSDAP would not be challenged politically. Firstly, he used the Reichstag fire to enact the Decree for the Protection of People and State. This took away any civil liberties from the people of Germany, and gave legal basis for the Nazi party to imprison and silence any opposition. This was a key step to ensure the establishment of a totalitarian regime, as it greatly increased the power of the Nazi’s and greatly diminished the power of any opposition, both at the federal and state level. Following this, the Enabling Act was passed in parliament, which gave Hitler the ability to pass laws without the Reichstag. Through

One of the key criteria of a totalitarian government is that there is complete control over the economy. However, within Nazi Germany there was never all-encompassing state ownership over the economy. In fact, Hitler never placed importance on the ‘socialist’ aspect of NSDAP ideology. He did not believe in state ownership or redistribution of wealth, and he allowed capitalism and big business thrive in the Third Reich, as they were necessary for the revitalisation of Germany’s economy. Moreover, the Nazi State was not the extremely rigid political structure it appeared to be. While, Hitler himself was very secure in his position as Fuhrer, below him the political structure was quite chaotic. In terms of government agencies, there was not much direction from the top, as they were instructed to interpret the will of the Fuhrer and then enact it. Moreover, there was a large amount of overlap and inefficiency, while solidifying Hitler’s position, generally weakened the ability to rule over people. Finally, below Hitler, there was a lot of infighting in attempt to gain greater power and favor from Hitler. Similar to the inefficiencies created by overlap, this created inefficiency and weakened the ability to have totalitarian