hitler and Gleichchaltung
This essay addresses the Nazi movement called Gleichschaltung, also called Co- ordination or Nazification. In the essay the stages of the co- ordination will be examined. The co- ordination involved three major components. The first and most important area of the co- ordination was the nazification of the government institutions. The second stage involved ridding Germany of its democratic constitution. Hitler had to face seven foundations of constitutional order that inhibited his exercise of power. The foundations were the constitution, the federal structure of the Reich, the Parliament, the Reich President, the civil service, and the courts. The final stage involved gaining control of the Army. Success at each stage was very crucial for Hitler to construct his total dictatorship over the German people and country. It was alarming how swiftly he was able to achieve co- ordination and virtual lack of effective opposition he encountered. Hitler used an enticing slogan of "unity," that made the German people abandon their inhibitions and thoughts of opposition in the first few months of 1933 and they failed to realize to stand up against what was happening to them and their country
Having successfully removed a possible political threat from regional parliaments, the Nazis next tackled labor, another potential center of resistance. On May 1,1933, Hitler invited labor leaders to celebrate the traditional May Day in Berlin and called on the workers to join the new classless Volksgemeinschaft. The following day the Fuhrer's security forces broke into and looted the offices and presses of the Social Democratic Free Trade Unions. The liberal Hirsch- Duncker unions yielded to Nazi pressure and dissolved themselves that same May; the Christian trade unions followed in June. The German labor movement was reorganized by Robert Ley, head of the NSDAP's Political office, as the German Labor Front(DAF). Ley at once prohibited strikes and outlawed collective bargaining. In short order the Christian Trade Unions, with about 600 000 members, and the Liberal groups, with about 500 000, voluntarily submit to Nazi control. Deprived of his trade unions, collective bargaining and the right to strike, the German worker in the Third Reich became an industrial serf, bound to his master, the employer, much as medieval peasants had been bound to the lord of the manor. The so- called Labor Front, which in theory replaced the old trade unions, did not represent the worker. The law "for the reconstitution of the permanent Civil Service," enacted on April 7th 1933, had provided the necessary conditions as far as personnel policy was concerned. The new civil service law, which was followed by numerous amendments and implementation decrees, made possible the dismissal of employees even in violation of existing laws if they did not possess the requisite "suitability," were not of Aryan decent" (initially with the exception of war veterans), or "on the basis that their former political activities did not offer the assurance that they supported the national state without reservations." These arbitrary regulations showed that the true purpose of the law was not for he restoration of the civil service but rather its intimidation and political levelling. Political purges, persecution of Jews, threats, and revenge coalesced. Having successfully removed a possible political threat from regional parliaments, the Nazis next tackled labor, another potential center of resistance. On May 1,1933, Hitler invited labor leaders to celebrate the traditional May Day in Berlin and called on the workers to join the new classless Volksgemeinschaft. The following day the Fuhrer's security forces broke into and looted the offices and presses of the Social Democratic Free Trade Unions. The liberal Hirsch- Duncker unions yielded to Nazi pressure and dissolved themselves that same May; the Christian trade unions followed in June. The German labor movement was reorganized by Robert Ley, head of the NSDAP's Political office, as the German Labor Front(DAF). Ley at once prohibited strikes and outlawed collective bargaining. In short order the Christian Trade Unions, with about 600 000 members, and the Liberal groups, with about 500 000, voluntarily submit to Nazi control. Deprived of his trade unions, collective bargaining and the right to strike, the German worker in the Third Reich became an industrial serf, bound to his master, the employer, much as medieval peasants had been bound to the lord of the manor. The so- called Labor Front, which in theory replaced the old trade unions, did not represent the worker.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Weimar Constitution, Civil Service, Enabling Act, March- April, Army Success, Germany Stated, Reich Chancellor, Chamber Goebbels, German Parliament, Catholic Church, co- ordination, trade unions, civil service, political party, armed forces, reichstag fire, february 28, national socialist, enabling act, german people, june 1933 june, church leaders catholic, hindenburg issued ordinance, april 7th 1933, issued ordinance protection,
Approximate Word count = 5037
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page double spaced)
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