in what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people
Answers
They did, in ways as:
• Controlling their free time (see Kraft durch Freude)
• Conscription.
• Hitlersjugend. Teens were forced into it, and it was similar(for boys) to Sparta's training method for their kids, and girls were taught about being a housewife.
• Industry. It was controlled(indirectly) by the State, and was directed towards military production.
• Propaganda. Goebbels was a master at that one along with Hitler himself. For example, his speeches were really cautivating.
• Germans were kind of forced into...
The Nazi’s established total control over the german people by first removing all opposition movements, parties or unions. Then the forced every ethnic german to join a pro nazi organization e.g. the labour organization, hitler youth etc. They banned art and books they did not approve of, they removed persons from public office or positions in the civil service and universities they did not approve of. They took over the broadcasting and movie houses and added pro nazi messages to them. They had the armed forces swear an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler unto death. They also politicised t...
In multiple ways.
Gathering up the youth via state controlled curriculum and the Hitler Youth organization.
All adult social clubs, unions and the universities were Nazified and controlled by the party.
There were no other legal political parties.
People who objected too loudly were beaten jailed sent to camps or outright murdered.
Every aspect of govt was ruled by the political party.
The army was coopted by dreams of rearmament.
You either went along with things ans spouted the party line or you were marginalized in business, government, academia, and the arts.
Masterful use of new media specific...
Find a group of people, identify them as the reason for all ills, feed on resentment and anger of a terrible outcome of WWI.
Also, though, to manage the economy well, create jobs, make people proud again and then to foul it up in trying to do by War, what you would have done far more successfully by industry and trade.
When the German Silver Arrows, Mercedes and Auto Union racing cars appeared in pre war Britain, it was as if the Martians had landed. 200mph down the straights!
That is the craziest thing about the whole affair, both Germany and Japan had no need for war. They could, and have ac...
Terror
The Nazi state was built on terror. The people was supposed to live in fear. Constant fear. To inflict fear the Gestapo punished people by torture and death in an almost random way. Everyone should now that a critical word could be enough to give you a one way ticket to a Concentration Camp or just some torture by the Gestapo and then a fast execution.
Secret police
The secret police, Gestapo, were present everywhere and worked by a large network of informers. Anyone could be an informer and any crime, like just minor doubts, could be enough to make the Gestapo come and get you.
Why woul...
“Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Fuhrer.” The first principle of Nazism was the subsumption of the individual to the collective. Like any other cult, the member is relieved of individual responsibility. He/she feels cared for, part of something greater than themselves, and superior to outsiders. Once someone is reduced to this state, the threat of exclusion from the group becomes unthinkable, and they will do absolutely anything to avoid it and maintain the favor of the leader.
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Unrelenting propaganda and systematic terror — and by absorbing into the state apparatus every element of civil society into party-controlled organizations (with heavy concentration on youth groups).
The best book on this is The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt.
It’s a long read, but well worth the effort.
Also see the magisterial trilogy by Ian Kershaw.
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By fear!
It came to light a few years ago that there were not that many Gestapo members, but the message was that they were everywhere. They relied on informers among the public; this included someone with whom one had had a row with; a neighbour perhaps-which was common apparently, and out for revenge. Or someone who held a grudge against one; anything. You took someone’s girlfriend away, etc.
In Stalin’s Soviet Union by contrast; if you overheard someone criticising Stalin and failed to report it, then you got an automatic gaol sentence of 5–10 years!