The phenomenon of Nazi system’s power over the large masses of population remains to be a surprise for many people, who do not entirely understand the system of influences, which was built by Nazis in Germany and which allowed them to have total control over all areas of life of citizens. National-socialism was seen by the followers not only as mere ideology, implemented in life, but more as a sort of an outlook, world view or, in German, “Weltanschauung”. It had to cover all spheres of life, it had to determine everything a person may get involved with, and, in fact, it also had to determine what to be involved with and how to involve in it. In this respect Nazis attempted to follow the competing Marxist ideology, which they did not like and, in a way, hated, but recognized and wanted to exploit its strong points.
This was, in many respects, the story with the church. Hitler himself, as well as many people, who possessed authority in National-socialist party, hated church. They hated the influence Catholic Church had on German society and on every person. This hatred was in many respects, envy, not just hatred or disgust. It has always been that Catholic Church remained in opposition to secular power and its authority. In case of Nazis it also was the case. Among the congregation of Catholic Church in Germany there were many of those, who participated in resistance movement.
It is important to remember, that Evangelical church enjoyed much wider support among the population of Germany at that time. And evangelical church turned to be much easier to influence for the Nazis. The ideology was much easier comprehended by the congregation of the Evangelical church. And in the thirties there developed a movement of German Christians. In 1932 they developed a sort of a religious codex and accepted it. This codex contained ten points, and was a sort of a mixture of provisions of both Christianity and the personality cult. Hitler was an assured believer of national-socialism as a substitute for religion. It is the doctrine of national-socialism people ought to believe. Hitler is known to have declared that “We are the church as well”.
And there have been established a number of state religious positions, such as Reichsbischof and others. In this way the Nazis established total control over the church and religious, spiritual life of the majority in the society. Taking into consideration a large degree of religiosity in the society was a strong support, which gave power and strength to the entire machine.
Another pillar, on which the power of Nazis rested, was, certainly, economy. Adolf Hitler was known to have achieved significant successes for German economy, significant achievements were mad on the international diplomatic arena. This allowed Nazis to gain significant advances without even starting a war, absolutely free of any human or economic losses. These advances provided for economic revival of the country. And the revival was so impressive, that not only experts inside Germany, but also international experts called this a miracle. Unemployment rate in Germany was significant in 1932. As many as 6 Million people were unemployed then. Four years passed and the number of unemployed decreased to less than a million. Industrial production grew by 102 per cent within five years during the same period of time.
Industrial development was rapid, to say the least. But rearmament was the true base of German economy, the real driver of its development. The Nazi regime made significant effort, and the effort succeeded, to focus the work force (this included both workers and employers on production of weapon of various types, on development of new types of weapons, developing innovation and so on. Nazis referred to German economy of the time as “war economy”. It was developed in a way that allowed it to properly function both during the period of peace and during the war years. The officials in charge of economic affairs, and particularly Schacht, who was mainly responsible for economic development during the first years of the Third Reich, were so skillful, that according to some estimates, there were periods in time, when Reichs Mark was traded at as many as 34 different rates at a time. By means of various manipulations at international markets, Schacht was capable of earning significant amount of currency for his country.
A classical technique, which he also heavily depended on, was printing money. Schacht developed outstandingly profitable deals with other countries without even involving cash, merely exchanging goods. His philosophical view was that the more one owns to the country, the wider business opportunities are. In 1936, however, the economical authority was transferred to Gering, who was as ignorant of economic as Hitler himself. He implemented a totalitarian model of economy, the goal of which was to make necessary arrangements within four years, which would allow the country to be capable to remain self-sufficient in case of war. It was necessary, that war blockade would be in no power to kill the economy. The volume of imported goods and materials was cut to the minimum; the state severely controlled both prices and the salaries and interest rates. Huge plants were being built to cover the internal demand via producing goods out of rough materials, available in Germany. Industry owners were experiencing their star moments. Their incomes grew significantly; free of competition from abroad they enjoyed monopolist position on the market.
Propaganda was another important factor contributing into success of the regime. It is oftentimes speculated, that it was the only base of it, but it is wrong to think so. The goal of the authorities at the time was to develop “Volksgemeinschaft” – the community, the unity of people, who share similar views in different spheres of life. The classes needed to coexist in true harmony. The main channel, through which propaganda was influencing the masses, were the intellectuals. Among them it is particularly important to outline teachers. They worked on implementing ideas into the minds from the very young age.
Another important factor providing grounds for power to the Nazis was culture. Culture was also subject to toil control, and Goebbels famously headed this total control. The Nazis developed “Reichskulturkammer”, a sort of ministry of culture, and it was headed by Goebbels. Its main goal was to control all kinds of art and to make sure, that any piece of art which becomes publically available, serves the goal of further establishment of the regime. Another goal was stimulating the development of such pieces of art, motivating people of art to dedicate their effort to implementing propaganda into art.
These are only four major factors, which contributed into development and firm establishment of Nazi regime in Germany in the first part of XX century. There were other factors as well, but summarizing their influence, it is worthwhile to once more emphasize, that the main ideological approach which allowed the authority of power to be so strong over German society was the orientation of Nazis towards total control over all the spheres of social life, starting with religious life and ending with economic processes. This needs to be admitted: the successes of Nazi sin this respect were great, and this is why such significant masses of people blindly followed their order.
