Approval of National Socialism
In agreement with National Socialism , it is discussed whether and to what extent National Socialism or the regime of Adolf Hitler also found approval among those Germans who were not members of the NSDAP . Linked to this is the dispute over the nature of National Socialism and its place in German history. The consent thesis in turn influences constructs such as “ collective guilt ” or the German “ perpetrator people ”.
In the absence of suitable sources , it is difficult to precisely determine the consent of any given population groups to National Socialism. Historians assume, however, that a large majority of Germans remained loyal to the regime until the end of World War II.
Research problem
A modern opinion poll ( demoscopy ) with corresponding polls, election analyzes, etc. did not emerge in Europe until after the Second World War . This is why it is difficult, even during the Weimar Republic , to assign the NSDAP's electoral successes since 1930 to individual population groups . One makes do with the comparison of demographic data from individual constituencies .
During the time of National Socialism there was no freedom of expression , which is why statements from this time should be interpreted with reservations. Retrospective statements after 1945 are also problematic, as they could serve to justify one's own actions.
According to historian Peter Longerich , there was no public in the Third Reich, at least not a free one, so that research into such a public is questionable at all. As a substitute, historical science uses the Nazi state " reports from the Reich " or the reports on Germany that the exiled SPD has collected. Another valuable source, which has only been available in extracts since 2011, are the reports of foreign diplomats working in Germany. Preserved diaries of contemporary witnesses such as Viktor Klemperer can also be consulted. In addition, attempts were made to evaluate evidence such as the allocation of first names.
Elections and votes by Germans who were surveyed outside of the Reich territory after 1933 (e.g. Saarland 1935, election successes of the Sudeten German Party 1935–1936) also provide information . However, the questions to be voted on cannot be interpreted solely as approval or rejection of National Socialism; there was also influence from the German government.
Representative of the consent thesis
Individual researchers and journalists assume that the Nazi regime and its goals will be supported by the German population. Among other things, they explain the fact that the regime was able to hold out until 1945 despite the bombing war.
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
The American sociologist Daniel Goldhagen caused a sensation in Germany in 1996 with his dissertation Hitler's Willing Executors , according to which previous research had overlooked the “eliminatory anti-Semitism” in the German people. This form of anti-Semitism , which aimed at the extermination of the Jews , was widespread among the vast majority of Germans and was the driving force of the Holocaust .
Goldhagen's theses were largely rejected by German and international historians, but his book was a bestseller (for criticism, see the article Daniel Goldhagen ).
Robert Gellately
Canadian Holocaust professor Robert Gellately wrote in 2002 in Looking and Looking Away. Hitler and his people said that Hitler's regime was not primarily based on terror , but on Hitler's popularity among the Germans:
"And in fact, even today, when looking back at the dictatorship, Germans have friendly memories of its 'achievements' in terms of returning to social values, restoring order and bringing about social peace."
Gellately welcomes the questions raised by Goldhagen “despite all the problems”, but rejects his thesis of eliminatory anti-Semitism as monocausal. Gellately points to the audience interest in public executions (which he regards as consent) and the popularity of harsh sentences against criminals, among other things.
Hans-Ulrich Wehler
The historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler interprets the Nazi regime as charismatic rule . The successes achieved by the regime in the fight against unemployment and in the revision of the Versailles Treaty had "a rapidly growing enthusiastic approval from German society". Hitler is by far the most popular German politician since Otto von Bismarck . This applies irrespective of the brutal repression that has been used against Jews and oppositionists. This dark side has been repressed or played down and has not diminished "the broad basis of consensus that the ' Führer ' shared with the mass of his Germans until 1939". The initial successes of the Wehrmacht in World War II would have heightened the Führer myth . Only after the defeat at Stalingrad did a "creeping decline in the leadership's faith" set in, which the regime tried to master with increased repression.
Götz Aly
Götz Aly represents Hitler's People's State in his 2005 work . Robbery, racial war and national socialism the thesis that the Nazi state was a dictatorship of consent, a term that Frank Bajohr coined for the description of Hamburg during the Nazi era : Hitler, Gauleiter and government always paid meticulous attention to it through it Act not to endanger the mass approval of the regime. Therefore, unlike in Great Britain or the USA , for example, the war was not financed through tax increases for the general public or through long-term war loans requested by them, but from the beginning through the systematic plundering of the occupied countries. Aly draws the conclusion: "The majority of the approval did not arise from any ideological conviction, rather it was bought again and again through systematic bribery through social benefits".
Contemporary opinions
Thomas Mann was in exile on July 17, 1944, looking back on the following view of the first Nazi years:
"One should not forget and not be persuaded that National Socialism was an enthusiastic, sparkling revolution, a German people's movement with a tremendous spiritual investment of faith and enthusiasm."
Ralph Giordano says of this quote :
“That is the truth, and everything else, I say as an eyewitness, is a lie. The merger was, apart from the remains, total. "
criticism
Critics of the agreement thesis mention the problem of generalization and interpretation; for example, there is no general measure of whether anti-Semitism was more radical or more widespread in Germany than in other countries. Expressions like the Germans , many or a majority , which can hardly be quantified, are also seen as problematic .
Furthermore, the attitude of the Germans to National Socialism could not explain why National Socialism "only" came to power in 1933 and why after 1945 neo-Nazi parties only played a small role. With regard to the latter, Goldhagen attributes the merit of the Allied re-education policy for driving out eliminatory anti-Semitism from the Germans. Therefore, most of today's Germans are no longer anti-Semites. Critics see reeducation in it greatly overrated.
Ideological approval
anti-Semitism
In large parts of the research it is considered certain that there was anti-Semitism in Germany (as in other countries), but that “eliminatory”, radical anti-Semitism was reserved for a small minority.
Although it was known that leading National Socialists were anti-Semitic and wanted to implement measures against Jews in economic life, this was apparently not taken seriously or accepted by voters from 1930–1933. In any case, at this stage Hitler largely refrained from campaigning with anti-Semitic slogans. The “ Jewish boycott ” of April 1933 was canceled due to a lack of support from the population. Until the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, it could be assumed that anti-Jewish legislation would be concluded and that “worse” would not be expected.
On the other hand, measures such as the ordinance to exclude Jews from German economic life found approval not only among express anti-Semites, but also among those who personally benefited from the effects, such as unemployed lawyers who took over the offices or clients of Jews. This process also includes the " Aryanization " and ultimately also the "clearing" of apartments whose Jewish residents were deported . The National Socialists tried to maintain secrecy for the actual “ final solution to the Jewish question ”.
National community
The term “ national community ” propagated by the regime convinced those who rejected pluralistic democracy and saw in the other parties only the representatives of individual interests . National Socialism claimed to overcome class differences. In selective perception , the socio-political successes and opportunities for advancement in the national community made it possible to forget that “ people of different races ” and political opponents were excluded.
Consent to individual policy areas or actions
One of the greatest propaganda successes of the National Socialists was the elimination of unemployment, which of course was bought at the cost of a hidden national debt (and was later to be financed through wars of conquest ). Social policies were also popular, as were technical and construction projects such as the system of highways.
Anti-communism , which the National Socialists implemented particularly radically , was also well received in parts of the population .
In his book Der SS-Staat , Eugen Kogon points out that the majority of the first concentration camp inmates were not opponents of the regime, but criminals. The concentration camp imprisonment was not the punishment for their crimes, but began only after serving the regular prison or penitentiary sentence and ran under the label of "re-education". The cruel treatment of criminals and " anti- social " was played down in the Nazi propaganda as a "harsh punishment".
Weimar politicians were already trying - in different ways - to revise the Versailles Treaty and had come a long way. However, Hitler dared to take more risky steps like the occupation of the Rhineland , also in connection with the rearmament of Germany . The annexation of Austria was even welcomed in principle by opponents of the regime such as the Austrian social democrat Karl Renner .
In contrast, the beginning of the Second World War did not spark any enthusiasm among the population - memories of 1918 were too present for that. It was not until the rapid victory over France in the spring of 1940 that there was general enthusiasm. "For the first and almost only time during World War II, there was what can, to some extent, be described as a generalized 'war mood'", writes British historian Ian Kershaw .
The Catholic bishops had spoken out against Hitler before 1933, but the Reich Concordat of July 20, 1933 put many critics of National Socialism from political Catholicism at ease for the time being.
Other motives
In addition to the approval of certain sections of the population, the most important motives for accepting the regime were fear of terrorism, as well as opportunism (for example in professional terms), political disinterest or belief in propaganda or a mixture of several motives. Dissatisfaction with the Weimar Republic also played a role. Hitler appeared as an unspent politician.
So different attitudes could lead to the fact that many Germans, without fully affirming the National Socialist worldview , de facto contributed to the support of the system. You could e.g. B. be opportunists or sympathizers or order recipients who carefully carried out instructions received from above on principle, without questioning the respective ideology. And after the end of National Socialist rule they could easily adapt to the new conditions. The change in the prevailing worldview did not cause them any major problems.
See also
literature
- Götz Aly (Ed.): People's Voice. Skepticism and trust in the leader under National Socialism . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-596-16881-3 .
- Götz Aly: Hitler's People's State. Robbery, Race War and National Socialism. Federal Agency for Political Education , Bonn / Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-89331-607-8 (= publication series of the Federal Agency for Political Education , Volume 487), ISBN 3-10-000420-5 (Fischer).
- Daniel Goldhagen: Hitler's willing executors. Goldmann, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-442-15088-4 .
- Robert Gellately: Looked and looked away. Hitler and his people. Dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-34153-X .
- Ian Kershaw: The Hitler Myth. Leader cult and popular opinion . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3-421-05285-8 .
- Peter Longerich: We didn't know anything about it. The Germans and the Persecution of the Jews 1933–1945. 2nd edition, Siedler, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-88680-843-4 .
- Harald Welzer: The Germans and their "Third Reich". In: From Politics and Contemporary History 14–15 / 2007, pp. 21–28. ISSN 0479-611X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Longerich: We didn't know anything about it. The Germans and the Persecution of the Jews 1933–1945. 2nd edition, Siedler, Munich 2006, pp. 24-27.
- ↑ Frank Bajohr , Christoph Strupp (ed.): Stranger views of the Third Reich. Reports by foreign diplomats on rule and society in Germany 1933-1945 , Wallstein, Göttingen 2011.
- ↑ Robert Gellately: Looked At and Looked Away. Hitler and his people. dtv, Munich 2004, p. 16.
- ↑ Robert Gellately: Looked At and Looked Away. Hitler and his people. dtv, Munich 2004, p. 17.
- ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: German history of society , vol. 4: From the beginning of the First World War to the founding of the two German states 1914-1949 CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2003, p. 675 f.
- ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: Deutsche Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 4: From the beginning of the First World War to the founding of the two German states 1914–1949 CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2003, pp. 903–907.
- ^ Frank Bajohr: The dictatorship of consent. Basics of National Socialist rule in Hamburg . In: Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg (Hrsg.): Hamburg in the "Third Reich" . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2005, pp. 69–121.
- ↑ Götz Aly: Hitler's People's State. Robbery, Race War and National Socialism . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, pp. 35–39, p. 333 (here the quote) and passim.
- ↑ Thomas Mann in: Diaries 1944 - April 1st, 1946 . Ed. Inge Jens , S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1986, ISBN 3-10-048198-4 , p. 78 (also as Fischer TB, ibid. 2003).
- ↑ Ralph Giordano in: The second debt , or: From the burden of being German , Rasch & Röhring, Hamburg 1987 (beginning of the book). Frequent revisions - With amalgamation he means an identification of the German people with the Nazi leadership group.
- ↑ See Michael Grüttner : Brandstifter und Biedermänner. Germany 1933–1939. Stuttgart 2015, p. 519.
- ↑ Ian Kershaw: The Hitler Myth. Führer cult and popular opinion, Stuttgart 1999, p. 192.
- ↑ Illustrated by Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer on the basis of some scholars : opportunists, sympathizers and officials. Support of the Nazi system in the Vienna Academy of Sciences, represented by the work of Nadler, Srbik and Master. In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 110 (1998) Issue 4–5 (= special issue “On the 60th Anniversary of the Expulsion of Jewish Colleagues from the Vienna Medical Faculty”), pp. 152–157.
- ↑ Harald Welzer : Review of “People's Voice”. In: Die Zeit , No. 48/2006.