HI 290 History of Germany Conformity and Resistance

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HI 290 - History of Germany Conformity and Resistance

HI 290 - History of Germany Conformity and Resistance

Conformity

Conformity

Propaganda “I view the first task of the new ministry [of Propaganda] as being

Propaganda “I view the first task of the new ministry [of Propaganda] as being to establish co-ordination between the Government and the whole people. . . It is not enough for people to be more or less reconciled to our regime, to be persuaded to adopt a neutral attitude towards us, rather we want to work on people until they have capitulated to us, until they grasp ideologically that what is happening in Germany today is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. ” Josef Goebbels, 15 March 1933

The Nazi Calendar • • 30 th January – The Seizure of Power 24

The Nazi Calendar • • 30 th January – The Seizure of Power 24 th February – The refounding of the Party (1925) First Sunday in March – Heroes Remembrance Day 20 th April – Hitler’s Birthday 1 st May – National Day of Labour Second Sunday in May – Mothering Sunday September – Annual Nuremberg Party Rally 9 th November – Munich Putsch (1923)

The SS • The Schutz Staffel (SS) was set up in 1925 as an

The SS • The Schutz Staffel (SS) was set up in 1925 as an elite bodyguard for Hitler within the SA. • Heinrich Himmler appointed its leader in 1929. • Membership grew from 290 in 1929 to 52, 000 in 1933. By 1939 there were 240, 000 members of the SS. • Strict rules for admission based on racial purity and political reliability. Himmler saw the SS as the ‘new aristocracy’ of a Nazi dominated Europe. • Power and influence grew after the Night of the Long Knives and it became one of the most powerful institutions in the Third Reich. Group photo of an SS wedding in the grounds of the Main Office for Race and Settlement (1936). Himmler stands to the right of the bride.

Organisational Structure of the Nazi Police Apparatus Heinrich Himmler Reichsführer SS and Chief of

Organisational Structure of the Nazi Police Apparatus Heinrich Himmler Reichsführer SS and Chief of Police Ordnungspolizei (order police) Municipal police SS Leibstandarte Waffen SS Totenkopfverbände Sipo Security Police (Heydrich) Kripo Criminal Police Gestapo Secret state police SD Security Service (Heydrich) Foreign intelligence Domestic intelligence

Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900 -1945) SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (1904 -1942)

Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900 -1945) SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (1904 -1942)

Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany before 1939

Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany before 1939

The Gestapo Plain-clothes Gestapo agents, 1945 Gestapo headquarters: 8 Prinz Albrecht Strasse, Berlin

The Gestapo Plain-clothes Gestapo agents, 1945 Gestapo headquarters: 8 Prinz Albrecht Strasse, Berlin

The Historiography of Resistance • Ongoing debate on the nature, extent and effectiveness of

The Historiography of Resistance • Ongoing debate on the nature, extent and effectiveness of the resistance. • Used to legitimize post-war states: • East German historians presented Communist resistance as the only anti-Fascist force in Germany. • West German historiography concerned with accusations of ‘collective guilt’ & presented resistance as based on high moral and ethical values, the individual standing up against tyranny. • 1960 s: Hans Mommsen – argued that national-conservative resistance rooted in the anti-democratic right of the 1920 s. • 1970 s: Peter Hüttenberger and Martin Broszat – resistance in everyday life. • Broszat – Resistenz (immunity): people retain their moral & ethical values without actively challenging the regime. • Mommsen – Widerstandpraxis (Resistance Practice): resistance was a process encompassing different forms of dissent as individuals came to reject the regime in its entirety. • Ian Kershaw – Two approaches to the study of resistance: Fundamentalist (dealing with those committed to the overthrow of the regime) and Societal (dealing with dissent in everyday life). • Not a simple dichotomy between conformists and resisters – a more complex moral and political landscape in which people adapted to the regime and could mostly live ‘ordinary lives’ and believe (until 1942 -3) they were part of a great historical project/revolution.

Detlev Peukert’s conceptualization of resistance

Detlev Peukert’s conceptualization of resistance

Apolitical Resistance Swingjugend ‘Edelweiss Pirates’

Apolitical Resistance Swingjugend ‘Edelweiss Pirates’

August Landmesser, 1910 -1944

August Landmesser, 1910 -1944

Elise and Otto Hampel, executed April 1943

Elise and Otto Hampel, executed April 1943

George Elser (1903 -1945) Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 -1945)

George Elser (1903 -1945) Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 -1945)

Sophie Scholl (1921 -1943) Hans Scholl (1918 -1943)

Sophie Scholl (1921 -1943) Hans Scholl (1918 -1943)

Plots against Hitler • May-September 1938: Army plot to depose Hitler. • 13 March

Plots against Hitler • May-September 1938: Army plot to depose Hitler. • 13 March 1943: Attempt to blow up Hitler’s plane. • March 1943 -March 1944: Various military plots to assassinate Hitler orchestrated by Colonel Henning von Tresckow and General Friedrich Olbricht. • 20 July 1944: Plot to kill Hitler with a bomb planted in his military headquarters in East Prussia.

Conclusion • Recent research has challenged the notion of Nazi Germany as a totalitarian

Conclusion • Recent research has challenged the notion of Nazi Germany as a totalitarian state ruled by fear: • Robert Gellately – only 32, 000 Gestapo agents for a population of around 65 million; reliance on ‘denunciations’ by the public. • This suggests that popular consent or accommodation with the regime was an important part of its functioning. • Continuing debate about what constitutes ‘resistance’. • Popular focus on the July 1944 bomb plot and the ‘White Rose’ perhaps distorts image of German resistance to Nazism.