1.3 Nazi control through terror and propaganda

• Enabling Act


  • Government could read people's post, listen in on their conversations and search homes without notice
• Police state


  Police would supervise and restrict the activities of the Germans
• Top jobs within the police were given to high-ranking Nazis
• Civil servants who did not support the Nazis were sacked, and in 1934 the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich was passed, giving the Nazis total power over local government
• The legal system was controlled by the Nazis. Consequently, all judges were Nazis and there was no trial by jury
• In March 1934, the SD (Nazi intelligence service) was set up under the initial command of Reinhard Heydrich, with the aim of spying on all Germans
• SS


  • Expanded under Himmler in the 1930s, completely loyal to Hitler, feared by the German people
• The first concentration camps were set up after 1933, initially to hold political prisoners
• Gestapo (secret police)


  • Feared, people encouraged to report anyone believed to be anti-Nazi, aided by local wardens
• Most Germans were prepared to accept the new regime – either out of fear or because they agreed with the aims of the Nazis
• Propaganda


  Goebbels was in charge of the Nazi 'propaganda machine', to promote the main Nazi ideas
• Hitler myth


  • Portrayed Hitler as saviour of Germany
• Propaganda events


  • Nuremberg rallies
• The Nazis promised to rebuild Germany through abolishing the Treaty of Versailles and restoring political stability. They promoted anti-Semitic and anti-Communist messages
• Young people were more susceptible to Nazi propaganda, and the middle classes also responded positively
• The Nazis' control of the media made it nearly impossible to access different views
• Volksgemeinschaft


  A 'national community' that Hitler believed in, with all Germans being one and working together
• Hitler wanted to restore family values and Christianity to Germany in order to revive Germany after the Weimar Republic
• The Nazis hoped to create a Volksgemeinschaft of Aryan Germans who were loyal to Hitler and the state, with no distinction between farmers, workers, and so on as they would just see themselves primarily as Germans
• The Nazis hoped that in creating the Volksgemeinschaft, they would restore pride and the belief that Germany was a racially and culturally superior nation