How Germany Became a One-Party State in 1930s (Essay Sample)

CREATION OF ONE PARTY STATE
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Introduction
The Nazi government had appointed many loyal commissioners to the states before a law was passed in 1934 to formalize the situation. The old province assemblies of the Lander of Germany were abolished and all areas placed under the control of Nazi governors and subordinated to the Reich government in Berlin. The left-wing socialist trade unions were dissolved in May 1933 and the German Labor Front under Robert Ley were set up to replace them. Membership was compulsory, and employees could no longer negotiate over wages and conditions with employers.[Todd, Allan, and Sally Waller. Origins and Development of Authoritarian and Single Party States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp.81-86.] [Grenville, Anthony, and Andrea Ilse Maria Reiter. I didn't want to float, I wanted to belong to something: refugee organizations in Britain 1933-1945. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008, pp.9-11.]
The Communist Threat
Fear of Communism was another negative. The Red Fighting League broke up, just as the SA did. They fought running street battles with police and out on the streets; the Nazi storm troopers met Communist violence with violence. Hitler’s European strategy was revealed by his encouraging Mussolini to be the prime foreign interventionist in Spain. Mussolini cooperated in the main with Hitler’s ambitions for Europe, and in general trumpeted Hitler’s Spanish policy as well as his own. Among all the foreign participants in the Spanish upheaval, only the dogged Mussolini showed himself committed to the end to Franco’s victory. Hitler’s reputation as a quintessential propagandist rest, in part, on his successful exploitation of the thirty-two-month-long Spanish war crusade against communism.[Buchanan, Patrick J. Churchill, Hitler, and "the Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World. New York: Three Rivers, 2008, pp.312-317.]
The thinkers and plotters in Washington D.C. had always been aware that Communism was a two-fold threat. It was not merely for Russia but could also come from China, North Korea or Vietnam. In totalitarian states, Americans were aware, absolute control over the means of communication said that the regime gave people only the information it wished them to have. Germany had managed information, and a grim Grew lectured a nationwide radio audience. Control through fear and terror became significant components of the totalitarian image. Americans knew of Russian exile and labor camps in Siberia even before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and the 1920s and 1930s it was known that such fields were filled with political prisoners, criminals, and those opposed to the social collectivization schemes. The German experience, however, seems to have stamped the image of the concentration camp with all its overtones of mass extermination unbridled horror, on the Russian camps.[Siegelbaum, Lewis H. Soviet State and Society between Revolutions, 1918-1929. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992, Pp.74-88.]
Decadence
As modern decadent Weimar culture- the Nazis could rely on those who felt, traditional German values were under threat. The Nazis talked about restoring old-fashioned values. The Social Democratic party made a grave mistake in thinking that Germans would not succumb to the vague promises. Germany demanded equality of armaments with the great powers, Britain, France, and Italy. Either they should disarm to Germany’s level or Germany should be permitted to rearm to theirs. When the authorities rebuffed this proposal, Germany quit the conference and the League of Nations as well. Hitler had already secretly ordered the beginning of German rearmament, the expansion of the army and navy, the formation of the German air force , and the expansion of the army and navy, the formation of a German air force, and the implementation of economic policies preparing the country for war.[Hancock, Kathleen J. Regional Integration Choosing Plutocracy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009,pp.1-7.]
In the 19201, Hitler demanded Australia’s annexation and with it the creation of a Greater Germany. A strong argument can be constructed linking Hitler’s goals as expressed in the 1920s to the events of the 1930s 1940s. With Hitler, the adage that ‘great’ men make history appeared to have reached its ultimate and a terrifying realization. Hitler developed a blueprint for his future foreign and military policy. The history of 1930s shows quite clearly that Hitler was as much at the mercy of events as other statesmen. Like them, he had to alter the course from time to time for tactical reasons. The main difference was that he exploited opportunities with a consummate skill and tenacity of purpose that they conspicuously lacked.[Yeadon, Glen, and John Hawkins. The Nazi Hydra in America: Suppressed History of a Century, Wall Street and the Rise of the Fourth Reich. Joshua Tree, Calif: Progressive Press, 2008,pp. 49-55.]
The use of Propaganda
One of Hitler’s first tasks as chancellor, in March 1933, was to set up a new Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda under the control of Goebbels. Hitler believed that the masses, from which he had little respect, could easily be won over by regular exposure to propaganda in schools, towns and the workplace, and in their leisure pursuits. Consequently, the ministry established separate chambers to oversee the work of the press, radio, theater, music, and film. The department controlled the press through censorship and allowing the Nazi publishing house to buy up private newspapers until 1939 it controlled two-thirds of the press. A German news agency regulated the supply of news and Goebbels held a daily news conference with editors to ensure the right messages arrived in print. Editors were held responsible for the papers and were liable for prosecution if they published unapproved material.[Petley, Julian. Capital and Culture. 1979, pp.65-67.] [Lozowick, Yaacov. Hitler's Bureaucrats: The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil. London: Continuum, 2002, pp.94-97.]
Hitler made use of the occasion to merge the offices of President and Chancellor, and to take personal command of the armed forces. The Army and public officials now had to swear personal oaths of obedience to Hitler. Oaths subsequently proved to many to be a moral obstacle to the resistance against Hitler’s regime. The army was able to surmount its potential misgivings about Hitler in August 1934 for a number of reasons. For one thing, Hitler had made no secret of his intention to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, revising the much-hated Treaty of Versailles. Hitler’s whipping up of resentment against Versailles and his sharp denunciations of the Jews whom he held to be responsible for Germany’s national humiliation. After becoming Chancellor, Hitler lost little time in setting revisionist policies in motion. Hitler informed ministers that unemployment was to be reduced by rearmament.[Fulbrook, Mary. A History of Germany 1918-2008 The Divided Nation. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2011,p.1923.]
The Nazis made extensive use of the radio as a medium for reinforcing Nazi rule, with the Reich Broadcasting Corporation, set up in 1933, controlling all that was broadcast. Workplaces, shops, and blocks of flats were expected to relay important speeches through loudspeakers for all to hear. These radio sets had a limited range, preventing individuals from listening to foreign broadcast, and they were deliberately sold cheaply. Stamps carried Nazi slogans and posters bearing Nazi quotations were put up in offices and public buildings. It was hard to avoid the propagandist message in Nazi Germany. Even culture became a form of propaganda, with consent halls bedecked in swastikas. There were constant meetings festivals and rallies such as that established to celebrate Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of his appointment as chancellor, and sporting events that provided opportunities to extol Nazism.[Rabinbach, Anson, and Sander L. Gilman. The Third Reich Sourcebook. 2013,pp.601-603.]
A National Community
While Nazis made strenuous efforts to woo economic elites- many of whom had been belatedly persuaded to give financial support to the Nazi election campaign in the spring of 1933, they had no tender consideration for the bulk of the German people, the workers. Giving the appearance of populism by proclaiming May 1 a national holiday on full pay, the Nazis rapidly proceeded to dismantle and destroy the autonomous workers organizations. Trade unions were wound up and replaced by a body of spuriously claiming to represent the interests of all German workers Perhaps the final significant event in terms of initial constitutional change came with the death of President Hindenburg on 2 August 1934.[Kindleberger, Charles Poor. Historical Economics: Art or Science? Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990,pp.39-51.]
The power of the poster as propaganda was that it caught the voter unawares. After the March election in 1933 and the seizure of power, the Nazis enjoyed a monopoly of such media. The focus of the visual propaganda was in enforcing conformity and winning over the Germans the cause of creating a national community and a New Germany. National newspapers were, by comparison less exploitable for the Nazis. Although the Nazis had been able to exploit Alfred Hugenberg’s Scherl publishing house, Germany boasted an active, varied and independent press in 1932, with Nazi papers accounting for only 2.5 percent of sales. Furthermore, the Nazi program could not comfortably be translated to a literate discerning mass audience.[Collier, Martin...