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Gleichschaltung

March 06, 2023

The Nazi term Gleichschaltung (German pronunciation: [ˈɡlaɪçʃaltʊŋ] (listen)) or "coordination" was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied by Nazi Germany "from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture and education".[1] Although the Weimar Constitution remained nominally in effect until Germany's surrender following World War II, near total Nazification had been secured by the 1935 resolutions approved during the Nuremberg Rally, when the symbols of the Nazi Party and the State were fused (see Flag of Germany) and German Jews were deprived of their citizenship (see Nuremberg Laws).

While the German states were not formally abolished (excluding Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1934 and Lübeck in 1937), their constitutional rights and sovereignty were eroded and ultimately ended. Prussia was already under federal administration when Hitler came to power, providing a model for the process.
The Gau system of the Nazi Party effectively replaced the federal structure of the country.

Terminology

Gleichschaltung has been variously translated as "coordination",[2][3][4] "Nazification of state and society",[5] "synchronization'", and "bringing into line",[5] but English texts often use the untranslated German word to convey its unique historical meaning. In their seminal work on National Socialist vernacular, Nazi-Deutsch/Nazi-German: An English Lexicon of the Language of the Third Reich, historians Robert Michael and Karin Doerr define Gleichschaltung as: "Consolidation. All of the German Volk's social, political, and cultural organizations to be controlled and run according to Nazi ideology and policy. All opposition to be eliminated."[6]

Legal basis

The Nazis were able to put Gleichschaltung into effect due to the legal measures taken by the government during the 20 months following 30 January 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.[7]

One day after the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933, President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg, acting at Hitler's request and based on the emergency powers in article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, issued the Reichstag Fire Decree. This decree suspended most citizen rights provided for by the constitution and thus allowed for the arrest of political adversaries, mostly Communists, and for terrorizing of other electors by the Sturmabteilung (SA) (Nazi paramilitary branch) before the upcoming election.[8]

In this atmosphere, the general election of the Reichstag took place on 5 March 1933.[9] The Nazis had hoped to win an outright majority and push aside their coalition partners, the German National People's Party. However, the Nazis won only 43.9 percent of the vote, well short of a majority.[10] Nevertheless, though the Party did not receive enough votes to amend the federal constitution, the disaffection with the Weimar government's attempt at democracy was palpable and violence followed. SA units stormed the Social Democrats' headquarters in Königsberg, destroying the premises, even beating Communist Reichstag deputy Walter Schütz to death.[11] Other non-Nazi party officials were attacked by the SA in Wuppertal, Cologne, Braunschweig, Chemnitz, and elsewhere throughout Germany, in a series of violent acts that continued to escalate through the summer of 1933; meanwhile the SA's membership grew to some two-million members.[12]

 
During the debate on the Enabling Act, Social Democrat chairman Otto Wels spoke the last free words in the Reichstag: "Freedom and life can be taken from us, but not our honor." The subsequent passage of the Act did away with parliamentary democracy.

When the newly elected Reichstag first convened on 23 March 1933—not including the Communist delegates because their party had been banned on 6 March—it passed the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz). This law gave the government—and in practice, Hitler—the right to make laws without the involvement of the Reichstag. The Nazis could tighten their grip upon the state throughout Germany thanks to the Enabling Act.[13] For all intents and purposes, the entire Weimar Constitution was rendered void.[14] Soon afterward, the government banned the Social Democratic Party as an "avalanche" soon buried the other parties.[15] By midsummer, the other parties had been intimidated into dissolving themselves rather than face arrests and concentration camp imprisonment and all non-Nazi ministers of the coalition government had been compelled to resign their posts.[16]

The "Provisional Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" (31 March 1933), passed using the Enabling Act; this law dissolved the diets of all states of Germany except the recently elected Prussian parliament, which the Nazis already controlled. The same law ordered the state diets reconstituted based on the votes in the last Reichstag election (except for Communist seats) and also gave the state governments the same powers the Reich government possessed under the Enabling Act.[17]

The "Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" (7 April 1933) deployed one Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) in each state, apart from Prussia. These officers, responsible to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, were supposed to act as local proconsuls in each state, with near-complete control over the state governments.[18]

Another measure of Nazi Gleichschaltung was the passing of the "Law for the Restoration of a Professional Civil Service", decreed on 7 April 1933, which enabled the "co-ordination" of the civil service—which in Germany included not only bureaucrats, but also schoolteachers and professors, judges, prosecutors, and other professionals—at both the Federal and state level, and authorized the removal of Jews and Communists from all corresponding positions.[19]

On 14 July 1933, the Nazis passed the "Law Against the Founding of New Parties", which declared the NSDAP as the country's only legal political party.[20][a] The "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" (Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs) of 30 January 1934 formally did away with the concept of a federal republic, converting Germany into a highly centralized unitary state.[21] The states were reduced to mere provinces, and their state parliaments were abolished altogether. All of their sovereign powers passed to the central government. A law passed on 14 February 1934 formally abolished the Reichsrat.[22]

Propaganda and societal integration

 
Joseph Goebbels in 1942

One of the most critical steps towards Gleichschaltung of German society was the introduction of the "Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda" under Joseph Goebbels in March 1933 and the subsequent steps taken by the Propaganda Ministry to assume complete control of the press and all means of social communication. This included oversight of newspapers, magazines, films, books, public meetings and ceremonies, foreign press relations, theater, art and music, radio, and television.[23] To this end, Goebbels said:

[T]he secret of propaganda [is to] permeate the person it aims to grasp, without his even noticing that he is being permeated. Of course propaganda has a purpose, but the purpose must be concealed with such cleverness and virtuosity that the person on whom this purpose is to be carried out doesn't notice it at all.[24]

This was also the purpose of "co-ordination": to ensure that every aspect of the lives of German citizens was permeated with the ideas and prejudices of the Nazis. From March to July 1933 and continuing afterward, the Nazi Party systematically eliminated or co-opted non-Nazi organizations that could potentially influence people. Those critical of Hitler and the Nazis were suppressed, intimidated, or murdered.[7]

Every national voluntary association, and every local club, was brought under Nazi control, from industrial and agricultural pressure groups to sports associations, football clubs, male voice choirs, women's organizations—in short, the whole fabric of associational life was Nazified. Rival, politically oriented clubs or societies were merged into a single Nazi body. Existing leaders of voluntary associations were either unceremoniously ousted, or knuckled under of their own accord. Many organizations expelled leftish or liberal members and declared their allegiance to the new state and its institutions. The whole process ... went on all over Germany. ... By the end, virtually the only non-Nazi associations left were the army and the Churches with their lay organizations.[25]

For example, in 1934, the government founded the Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen, later the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen, as the official sports governing body. All other German sport associations gradually lost their freedom and were coopted into it.[26] Besides sports, another more important part of the "co-ordination" effort was the purging of the civil service, both at the Federal and state level. Top Federal civil servants—the State Secretaries—were largely replaced if they weren't sympathetic to the Nazi program, as were the equivalent bureaucrats in the states, but Nazification took place at every level. Civil servants rushed to join the Nazi Party, fearing they would lose their jobs if they did not. At the local level, mayors and councils were terrorized by Nazi stormtroopers of the SA and SS into resigning or following orders to replace officials and workers at local public institutions who were Jewish or belonged to other political parties.[27]

The Gleichschaltung also included the formation of various organizations with compulsory membership for segments of the population, particularly the youth of Germany. Boys first served as apprentices in the Pimpfen (cubs), beginning at the age of six, and at age ten, entered the Deutsches Jungvolk (Young German Boys) and served there until joining the Hitler Youth proper at age fourteen. Boys remained there until age eighteen, at which time they entered into the Arbeitsdienst (Labor Service) and the armed forces.[28] Girls became part of the Jungmädel (Young Maidens) at age ten and at age fourteen were enrolled in the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Maidens). At eighteen, BDM members generally went to the eastern territory for their Pflichtdienst, or Landjahr, a year of labor on a farm. By 1940, membership in the Hitler Youth numbered some eight million.[29]

Strength Through Joy

An all-embracing recreational organization for workers, called Kraft durch Freude ("Strength Through Joy") was set up under the auspices of the German Labor Front (German: Deutsche Arbeitsfront or DAF), which had been created when the Nazis forcibly dissolved the trade unions on 2 May 1933, thus nullifying the labor movement.[30] Hobbies were regimented, and all private clubs, whether they be for chess, football, or woodworking, were brought under the control of Strength Through Joy, which also provided vacation trips, skiing, swimming, concerts, and ocean cruises. Some 43 million Germans enjoyed trips via the Strength Through Joy initiative. This effort helped inspire the idea of Germans enjoying acquiring automobiles and constructing the Autobahn. It was the largest of the many organizations established by the Nazis and a propaganda success.[31] Workers were also brought in line with the party through activities such as the Reichsberufswettkampf, a national vocational competition.[32]

Implications

Historian Claudia Koonz explains that the word Gleichschaltung stems from the arena of electricity, where it refers to converting power from alternating current to direct current, which is called "rectification" in English; the word Gleichschaltung translates literally as "phasing". Used in its socio-political sense, Gleichschaltung has no equivalent in any other language. The Nazis also used other similar terms, such as Ausschaltung, which constituted the removal or "switching off" of anyone who stained or soiled the German nation.[33] This seemingly clinical terminology captured both the mechanical and biological meaning for members of German society; as one German citizen visiting London explained, "It means the same stream will flow through the ethnic body politic [Volkskörper]."[34]

Former University of Dresden professor of romance languages, Viktor Klemperer—dismissed from his post for being Jewish in 1935 and who only survived his time in Germany due to being married to a prominent German woman—collected a list of terms employed in everyday speech by the Nazis, which he discussed in his book, LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii, published in English as The Language of the Third Reich. In this work, Klemperer contends that the Nazis made the German language itself a servant to their ideology through its repetitive use, eventually permeating the very "flesh and blood" of its people.[35] For instance, if it was sunny and pleasant, it was described as "Hitler weather", or if you failed to comply with Nazi ideals of racial and social conformity, you were "switched off."[36]

When the blatant emphasis on racial hatred of others seemed to reach an impasse in the school system, through radio broadcasts, or on film reels, the overseers of Nazi Gleichschaltung propaganda switched to strategies that focused more on togetherness and the "we-consciousness" of the collective Volk, but the mandates of Nazi "coordination" remained: pay homage to the Führer, expel all foreigners, sacrifice for the German people, and welcome future challenges.[37] While greater German social and economic unity was produced through the Gleichschaltung initiatives of the regime, it was at the expense of individuality and to the social detriment of any nonconformist;[38] and worse—it contributed to and reinforced the social and racial exclusion of anyone deemed an enemy by National Socialist doctrine.[39] The Nazi Gleichschaltung or "synchronization" of German society—along with a series of Nazi legislation[40]—was part and parcel to Jewish economic disenfranchisement, the violence against political opposition, the creation of concentration camps, the Nuremberg Laws, the establishment of a racial Volksgemeinschaft, the seeking of Lebensraum, and the violent mass destruction of human life deemed somehow less valuable by the National Socialist government of Germany.[41][42]

See also

References

Informational notes

  1. ^ For all practical purposes Germany had been a one-party state since the passage of the Enabling Act.

Citations

  1. ^ Strupp 2013.
  2. ^ Evans 2003, p. 381.
  3. ^ Kershaw 1999, p. 479.
  4. ^ Burleigh 2000, p. 272.
  5. ^ a b Hirschfeld 2014, pp. 101, 164.
  6. ^ Michael & Doerr 2002, p. 192.
  7. ^ a b Evans 2003, pp. 381–390.
  8. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 332–333.
  9. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 339–340.
  10. ^ Evans 2003, p. 340.
  11. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 340–341.
  12. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 341–342.
  13. ^ Childers 2017, p. 254.
  14. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 351–355.
  15. ^ Childers 2017, pp. 261–262.
  16. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 355–361.
  17. ^ Benz 2007, pp. 28–30.
  18. ^ Benz 2007, p. 30.
  19. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 382, 437.
  20. ^ Benz 2007, p. 34.
  21. ^ Shirer 1990, pp. 200–201.
  22. ^ Hildebrand 1984, p. 7.
  23. ^ Bytwerk 2004, pp. 58–66.
  24. ^ Evans 2005, p. 127.
  25. ^ Evans 2005, p. 14.
  26. ^ Wedemeyer-Kolwe 2004, pp. 389–390.
  27. ^ Evans 2003, pp. 381–383.
  28. ^ Benz 2007, pp. 73–77.
  29. ^ Stachura 1998, p. 479.
  30. ^ Childers 2017, p. 310.
  31. ^ Childers 2017, pp. 310–311.
  32. ^ Schoenbaum 1997, p. 95.
  33. ^ Koonz 2003, p. 72.
  34. ^ Koonz 2003, pp. 72–73.
  35. ^ Klemperer 2000, p. 14.
  36. ^ Koonz 2003, p. 73.
  37. ^ Koonz 2003, pp. 161–162.
  38. ^ Taylor & Shaw 1997, p. 109.
  39. ^ Laqueur & Baumel 2001, p. 241.
  40. ^ Taylor & Shaw 1997, p. 110.
  41. ^ Wildt 2012, pp. 9, 109, 125–128.
  42. ^ Laqueur & Baumel 2001, pp. 241–251.

Bibliography

  • Benz, Wolfgang (2007). A Concise History of the Third Reich. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52025-383-4.
  • Burleigh, Michael (2000). The Third Reich: A New History. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 0-8090-9325-1.
  • Bytwerk, Randall L. (2004). Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0870137105.
  • Childers, Thomas (2017). The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-45165-113-3.
  • Evans, Richard J. (2003). The Coming of the Third Reich. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-303469-3.
  • Evans, Richard J. (2005). The Third Reich in Power. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-303790-0.
  • Hildebrand, Klaus (1984). The Third Reich. London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-0494-3033-5.
  • Hirschfeld, Gerhard (2014). The Policies of Genocide: Jews and Soviet Prisoners of War in Nazi Germany. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1317625728.
  • Kershaw, Ian (1999). Hitler: 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04671-0.
  • Klemperer, Victor (2000). Language of the Third Reich – LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii. New York & London: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-82649-130-5.
  • Koonz, Claudia (2003). The Nazi Conscience. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press (Harvard University Press). ISBN 978-0-674-01172-4.
  • Laqueur, Walter; Baumel, Judith Tydor (2001). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30008-432-0.
  • Michael, Robert; Doerr, Karin (2002). Nazi-Deutsch/Nazi-German. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-32106-X.
  • Schoenbaum, David (1997). Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933–1939. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-39331-554-7.
  • Shirer, William (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: MJF Books. ISBN 978-1-56731-163-1.
  • Stachura, Peter D. (1998). "Hitler Youth". In Dieter Buse; Juergen Doerr (eds.). Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture, 1871–1990. Vol. 2. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 978-0-81530-503-3.
  • Strupp, Christoph (30 January 2013). "'Only a Phase': How Diplomats Misjudged Hitler's Rise". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  • Taylor, James; Shaw, Warren (1997). The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin Reference. ISBN 978-0-14051-389-9.
  • Wedemeyer-Kolwe, James (2004). Der neue Mensch: Körperkultur im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. ISBN 978-3-82602-772-7.
  • Wildt, Michael (2012). Hitler's 'Volksgemeinschaft' and the Dynamics of Racial Exclusion: Violence against Jews in Provincial Germany, 1919–1939. Oxford & New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0-85745-322-8.

Further reading

  • Bracher, Karl Dietrich (1972). "Stages of Totalitarian 'Integration' (Gleichschaltung): The Consolidation of National Socialist Rule in 1933 and 1934", in Republic To Reich The Making of the Nazi Revolution Ten Essays, edited by Hajo Holborn, New York: Pantheon Books. pp. 109–28
  • Gisevius, Hans Bernd (1947). To The Bitter End: An Insider's Account of the Plot to Kill Hitler, 1933–1944. New York: Da Capo Press.
  • Hughes, Everett (December 1955). "The Gleichschaltung of the German Statistical Yearbook: A Case in Professional Political Neutrality". The American Statistician. Vol. IX. pp. 8–11.
  • Kroeschell, Karl (1989). Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte 3 (seit 1650), 2nd ed., ISBN 3-531-22139-6
  • Kroeschell, Karl (1992). Rechtsgeschichte Deutschlands im 20. Jahrhundert, ISBN 3-8252-1681-0

External links

  • Lebendiges virtuelles Museum Online 2014-05-25 at the Wayback Machine: Die Errichtung des Einparteienstaats 1933
  • 1933: Gleichschaltung

March 06, 2023
gleichschaltung, nazi, term, german, pronunciation, ˈɡlaɪçʃaltʊŋ, listen, coordination, process, nazification, which, adolf, hitler, nazi, party, successively, established, system, totalitarian, control, coordination, over, aspects, german, society, societies,. The Nazi term Gleichschaltung German pronunciation ˈɡlaɪcʃaltʊŋ listen or coordination was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied by Nazi Germany from the economy and trade associations to the media culture and education 1 Although the Weimar Constitution remained nominally in effect until Germany s surrender following World War II near total Nazification had been secured by the 1935 resolutions approved during the Nuremberg Rally when the symbols of the Nazi Party and the State were fused see Flag of Germany and German Jews were deprived of their citizenship see Nuremberg Laws While the German states were not formally abolished excluding Mecklenburg Strelitz in 1934 and Lubeck in 1937 their constitutional rights and sovereignty were eroded and ultimately ended Prussia was already under federal administration when Hitler came to power providing a model for the process The Gau system of the Nazi Party effectively replaced the federal structure of the country Contents 1 Terminology 2 Legal basis 3 Propaganda and societal integration 3 1 Strength Through Joy 4 Implications 5 See also 6 References 6 1 Informational notes 6 2 Citations 6 3 Bibliography 7 Further reading 8 External linksTerminology EditGleichschaltung has been variously translated as coordination 2 3 4 Nazification of state and society 5 synchronization and bringing into line 5 but English texts often use the untranslated German word to convey its unique historical meaning In their seminal work on National Socialist vernacular Nazi Deutsch Nazi German An English Lexicon of the Language of the Third Reich historians Robert Michael and Karin Doerr define Gleichschaltung as Consolidation All of the German Volk s social political and cultural organizations to be controlled and run according to Nazi ideology and policy All opposition to be eliminated 6 Legal basis EditThe Nazis were able to put Gleichschaltung into effect due to the legal measures taken by the government during the 20 months following 30 January 1933 when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany 7 One day after the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933 President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg acting at Hitler s request and based on the emergency powers in article 48 of the Weimar Constitution issued the Reichstag Fire Decree This decree suspended most citizen rights provided for by the constitution and thus allowed for the arrest of political adversaries mostly Communists and for terrorizing of other electors by the Sturmabteilung SA Nazi paramilitary branch before the upcoming election 8 In this atmosphere the general election of the Reichstag took place on 5 March 1933 9 The Nazis had hoped to win an outright majority and push aside their coalition partners the German National People s Party However the Nazis won only 43 9 percent of the vote well short of a majority 10 Nevertheless though the Party did not receive enough votes to amend the federal constitution the disaffection with the Weimar government s attempt at democracy was palpable and violence followed SA units stormed the Social Democrats headquarters in Konigsberg destroying the premises even beating Communist Reichstag deputy Walter Schutz to death 11 Other non Nazi party officials were attacked by the SA in Wuppertal Cologne Braunschweig Chemnitz and elsewhere throughout Germany in a series of violent acts that continued to escalate through the summer of 1933 meanwhile the SA s membership grew to some two million members 12 During the debate on the Enabling Act Social Democrat chairman Otto Wels spoke the last free words in the Reichstag Freedom and life can be taken from us but not our honor The subsequent passage of the Act did away with parliamentary democracy When the newly elected Reichstag first convened on 23 March 1933 not including the Communist delegates because their party had been banned on 6 March it passed the Enabling Act Ermachtigungsgesetz This law gave the government and in practice Hitler the right to make laws without the involvement of the Reichstag The Nazis could tighten their grip upon the state throughout Germany thanks to the Enabling Act 13 For all intents and purposes the entire Weimar Constitution was rendered void 14 Soon afterward the government banned the Social Democratic Party as an avalanche soon buried the other parties 15 By midsummer the other parties had been intimidated into dissolving themselves rather than face arrests and concentration camp imprisonment and all non Nazi ministers of the coalition government had been compelled to resign their posts 16 The Provisional Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich 31 March 1933 passed using the Enabling Act this law dissolved the diets of all states of Germany except the recently elected Prussian parliament which the Nazis already controlled The same law ordered the state diets reconstituted based on the votes in the last Reichstag election except for Communist seats and also gave the state governments the same powers the Reich government possessed under the Enabling Act 17 The Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich 7 April 1933 deployed one Reichsstatthalter Reich Governor in each state apart from Prussia These officers responsible to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick were supposed to act as local proconsuls in each state with near complete control over the state governments 18 Another measure of Nazi Gleichschaltung was the passing of the Law for the Restoration of a Professional Civil Service decreed on 7 April 1933 which enabled the co ordination of the civil service which in Germany included not only bureaucrats but also schoolteachers and professors judges prosecutors and other professionals at both the Federal and state level and authorized the removal of Jews and Communists from all corresponding positions 19 On 14 July 1933 the Nazis passed the Law Against the Founding of New Parties which declared the NSDAP as the country s only legal political party 20 a The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich Gesetz uber den Neuaufbau des Reichs of 30 January 1934 formally did away with the concept of a federal republic converting Germany into a highly centralized unitary state 21 The states were reduced to mere provinces and their state parliaments were abolished altogether All of their sovereign powers passed to the central government A law passed on 14 February 1934 formally abolished the Reichsrat 22 Propaganda and societal integration Edit Joseph Goebbels in 1942 One of the most critical steps towards Gleichschaltung of German society was the introduction of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels in March 1933 and the subsequent steps taken by the Propaganda Ministry to assume complete control of the press and all means of social communication This included oversight of newspapers magazines films books public meetings and ceremonies foreign press relations theater art and music radio and television 23 To this end Goebbels said T he secret of propaganda is to permeate the person it aims to grasp without his even noticing that he is being permeated Of course propaganda has a purpose but the purpose must be concealed with such cleverness and virtuosity that the person on whom this purpose is to be carried out doesn t notice it at all 24 This was also the purpose of co ordination to ensure that every aspect of the lives of German citizens was permeated with the ideas and prejudices of the Nazis From March to July 1933 and continuing afterward the Nazi Party systematically eliminated or co opted non Nazi organizations that could potentially influence people Those critical of Hitler and the Nazis were suppressed intimidated or murdered 7 Every national voluntary association and every local club was brought under Nazi control from industrial and agricultural pressure groups to sports associations football clubs male voice choirs women s organizations in short the whole fabric of associational life was Nazified Rival politically oriented clubs or societies were merged into a single Nazi body Existing leaders of voluntary associations were either unceremoniously ousted or knuckled under of their own accord Many organizations expelled leftish or liberal members and declared their allegiance to the new state and its institutions The whole process went on all over Germany By the end virtually the only non Nazi associations left were the army and the Churches with their lay organizations 25 For example in 1934 the government founded the Deutscher Reichsbund fur Leibesubungen later the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund fur Leibesubungen as the official sports governing body All other German sport associations gradually lost their freedom and were coopted into it 26 Besides sports another more important part of the co ordination effort was the purging of the civil service both at the Federal and state level Top Federal civil servants the State Secretaries were largely replaced if they weren t sympathetic to the Nazi program as were the equivalent bureaucrats in the states but Nazification took place at every level Civil servants rushed to join the Nazi Party fearing they would lose their jobs if they did not At the local level mayors and councils were terrorized by Nazi stormtroopers of the SA and SS into resigning or following orders to replace officials and workers at local public institutions who were Jewish or belonged to other political parties 27 The Gleichschaltung also included the formation of various organizations with compulsory membership for segments of the population particularly the youth of Germany Boys first served as apprentices in the Pimpfen cubs beginning at the age of six and at age ten entered the Deutsches Jungvolk Young German Boys and served there until joining the Hitler Youth proper at age fourteen Boys remained there until age eighteen at which time they entered into the Arbeitsdienst Labor Service and the armed forces 28 Girls became part of the Jungmadel Young Maidens at age ten and at age fourteen were enrolled in the Bund Deutscher Madel League of German Maidens At eighteen BDM members generally went to the eastern territory for their Pflichtdienst or Landjahr a year of labor on a farm By 1940 membership in the Hitler Youth numbered some eight million 29 Strength Through Joy Edit An all embracing recreational organization for workers called Kraft durch Freude Strength Through Joy was set up under the auspices of the German Labor Front German Deutsche Arbeitsfront or DAF which had been created when the Nazis forcibly dissolved the trade unions on 2 May 1933 thus nullifying the labor movement 30 Hobbies were regimented and all private clubs whether they be for chess football or woodworking were brought under the control of Strength Through Joy which also provided vacation trips skiing swimming concerts and ocean cruises Some 43 million Germans enjoyed trips via the Strength Through Joy initiative This effort helped inspire the idea of Germans enjoying acquiring automobiles and constructing the Autobahn It was the largest of the many organizations established by the Nazis and a propaganda success 31 Workers were also brought in line with the party through activities such as the Reichsberufswettkampf a national vocational competition 32 Implications EditHistorian Claudia Koonz explains that the word Gleichschaltung stems from the arena of electricity where it refers to converting power from alternating current to direct current which is called rectification in English the word Gleichschaltung translates literally as phasing Used in its socio political sense Gleichschaltung has no equivalent in any other language The Nazis also used other similar terms such as Ausschaltung which constituted the removal or switching off of anyone who stained or soiled the German nation 33 This seemingly clinical terminology captured both the mechanical and biological meaning for members of German society as one German citizen visiting London explained It means the same stream will flow through the ethnic body politic Volkskorper 34 Former University of Dresden professor of romance languages Viktor Klemperer dismissed from his post for being Jewish in 1935 and who only survived his time in Germany due to being married to a prominent German woman collected a list of terms employed in everyday speech by the Nazis which he discussed in his book LTI Lingua Tertii Imperii published in English as The Language of the Third Reich In this work Klemperer contends that the Nazis made the German language itself a servant to their ideology through its repetitive use eventually permeating the very flesh and blood of its people 35 For instance if it was sunny and pleasant it was described as Hitler weather or if you failed to comply with Nazi ideals of racial and social conformity you were switched off 36 When the blatant emphasis on racial hatred of others seemed to reach an impasse in the school system through radio broadcasts or on film reels the overseers of Nazi Gleichschaltung propaganda switched to strategies that focused more on togetherness and the we consciousness of the collective Volk but the mandates of Nazi coordination remained pay homage to the Fuhrer expel all foreigners sacrifice for the German people and welcome future challenges 37 While greater German social and economic unity was produced through the Gleichschaltung initiatives of the regime it was at the expense of individuality and to the social detriment of any nonconformist 38 and worse it contributed to and reinforced the social and racial exclusion of anyone deemed an enemy by National Socialist doctrine 39 The Nazi Gleichschaltung or synchronization of German society along with a series of Nazi legislation 40 was part and parcel to Jewish economic disenfranchisement the violence against political opposition the creation of concentration camps the Nuremberg Laws the establishment of a racial Volksgemeinschaft the seeking of Lebensraum and the violent mass destruction of human life deemed somehow less valuable by the National Socialist government of Germany 41 42 See also EditDenazificationReferences EditInformational notes Edit For all practical purposes Germany had been a one party state since the passage of the Enabling Act Citations Edit Strupp 2013 Evans 2003 p 381 Kershaw 1999 p 479 Burleigh 2000 p 272 a b Hirschfeld 2014 pp 101 164 Michael amp Doerr 2002 p 192 a b Evans 2003 pp 381 390 Evans 2003 pp 332 333 Evans 2003 pp 339 340 Evans 2003 p 340 Evans 2003 pp 340 341 Evans 2003 pp 341 342 Childers 2017 p 254 Evans 2003 pp 351 355 Childers 2017 pp 261 262 Evans 2003 pp 355 361 Benz 2007 pp 28 30 Benz 2007 p 30 Evans 2003 pp 382 437 Benz 2007 p 34 Shirer 1990 pp 200 201 Hildebrand 1984 p 7 Bytwerk 2004 pp 58 66 Evans 2005 p 127 Evans 2005 p 14 Wedemeyer Kolwe 2004 pp 389 390 Evans 2003 pp 381 383 Benz 2007 pp 73 77 Stachura 1998 p 479 Childers 2017 p 310 Childers 2017 pp 310 311 Schoenbaum 1997 p 95 Koonz 2003 p 72 Koonz 2003 pp 72 73 Klemperer 2000 p 14 Koonz 2003 p 73 Koonz 2003 pp 161 162 Taylor amp Shaw 1997 p 109 Laqueur amp Baumel 2001 p 241 Taylor amp Shaw 1997 p 110 Wildt 2012 pp 9 109 125 128 Laqueur amp Baumel 2001 pp 241 251 Bibliography Edit Benz Wolfgang 2007 A Concise History of the Third Reich Berkeley amp Los Angeles University of California Press ISBN 978 0 52025 383 4 Burleigh Michael 2000 The Third Reich A New History New York Hill and Wang ISBN 0 8090 9325 1 Bytwerk Randall L 2004 Bending Spines The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic East Lansing Michigan State University Press ISBN 978 0870137105 Childers Thomas 2017 The Third Reich A History of Nazi Germany New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 1 45165 113 3 Evans Richard J 2003 The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin Books ISBN 0 14 303469 3 Evans Richard J 2005 The Third Reich in Power Penguin Books ISBN 0 14 303790 0 Hildebrand Klaus 1984 The Third Reich London amp New York Routledge ISBN 0 0494 3033 5 Hirschfeld Gerhard 2014 The Policies of Genocide Jews and Soviet Prisoners of War in Nazi Germany Taylor amp Francis ISBN 978 1317625728 Kershaw Ian 1999 Hitler 1889 1936 Hubris New York W W Norton ISBN 0 393 04671 0 Klemperer Victor 2000 Language of the Third Reich LTI Lingua Tertii Imperii New York amp London Continuum ISBN 978 0 82649 130 5 Koonz Claudia 2003 The Nazi Conscience Cambridge MA Belknap Press Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0 674 01172 4 Laqueur Walter Baumel Judith Tydor 2001 The Holocaust Encyclopedia New Haven amp London Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 30008 432 0 Michael Robert Doerr Karin 2002 Nazi Deutsch Nazi German Westport CT Greenwood Press ISBN 0 313 32106 X Schoenbaum David 1997 Hitler s Social Revolution Class and Status in Nazi Germany 1933 1939 New York W W Norton amp Company ISBN 978 0 39331 554 7 Shirer William 1990 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich New York MJF Books ISBN 978 1 56731 163 1 Stachura Peter D 1998 Hitler Youth In Dieter Buse Juergen Doerr eds Modern Germany An Encyclopedia of History People and Culture 1871 1990 Vol 2 New York Garland Publishing ISBN 978 0 81530 503 3 Strupp Christoph 30 January 2013 Only a Phase How Diplomats Misjudged Hitler s Rise Der Spiegel Retrieved 2 May 2016 Taylor James Shaw Warren 1997 The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich New York Penguin Reference ISBN 978 0 14051 389 9 Wedemeyer Kolwe James 2004 Der neue Mensch Korperkultur im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik Wurzburg Konigshausen amp Neumann ISBN 978 3 82602 772 7 Wildt Michael 2012 Hitler s Volksgemeinschaft and the Dynamics of Racial Exclusion Violence against Jews in Provincial Germany 1919 1939 Oxford amp New York Berghahn Books ISBN 978 0 85745 322 8 Further reading EditBracher Karl Dietrich 1972 Stages of Totalitarian Integration Gleichschaltung The Consolidation of National Socialist Rule in 1933 and 1934 in Republic To Reich The Making of the Nazi Revolution Ten Essays edited by Hajo Holborn New York Pantheon Books pp 109 28 Gisevius Hans Bernd 1947 To The Bitter End An Insider s Account of the Plot to Kill Hitler 1933 1944 New York Da Capo Press Hughes Everett December 1955 The Gleichschaltung of the German Statistical Yearbook A Case in Professional Political Neutrality The American Statistician Vol IX pp 8 11 Kroeschell Karl 1989 Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte 3 seit 1650 2nd ed ISBN 3 531 22139 6 Kroeschell Karl 1992 Rechtsgeschichte Deutschlands im 20 Jahrhundert ISBN 3 8252 1681 0External links EditLebendiges virtuelles Museum Online Archived 2014 05 25 at the Wayback Machine Die Errichtung des Einparteienstaats 1933 1933 Gleichschaltung Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Gleichschaltung amp oldid 1143160463, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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