Hitler's Confusion In Nazi Government
INVESTIGATION
Hitler officially became the undisputed leader of the party in 1933 after the law concerning the head of the state of the German Reich merged the positions of the president and the chancellor 1
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This, however, did not eradicate his reliance on subordinates to enact his “will”, and it is within this is where the notorious confusion in Nazi government lies, giving rise to the debate over the extent to which Hitler succeeded in creating a totalitarian government in that he exercised absolute control over all state institutions, subordinating all others to his authority2 .The historiography of this area is characterised by the debate between Intentionalists, who hold that the confusion within government was a tool of control used
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Both of these views must each be explored further in order to discern whether Hitler had absolute control of government and therefore the extent to which he had created a totalitarian system of government. Through analysis of these it becomes apparent that a synthesis of the two sides, championed by Ian Kershaw, provides the best explanation of Nazi government, in that it acknowledges that the confusion within government was not always under Hitler’s direct control, …show more content…
The chaos therefore was not allowed to get out of control and remained at a level which could be manipulated by Hitler to confirm and enhance his totalitarian control of government. Stemming from this control, Intentionalist’s go on to suggest that Hitler’s “will” was the controlling factor of Nazi government and subsequent effects
1 Layton, Geoff, Germany; the Third Reich (London, 2000) p.99 2 “Totalitarian” defined in http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/totalitarian 3 Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship (London, 1993) p. 80 4 Dietrich , Otto, Extract from Twelve Years with Hitler quoted in Hite and Hinton Weimar and Nazi Germany
(London, 2000) p.187
5 Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship (London, 1993) p.116-17
History teacher support material 5
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on German society. This could be inferred by the fact that the major policies that were adopted by the
German state, from Lebensraum to the extermination of the Jews, seem to stem from clear
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