Did the Nazi regime achieve a totalitarian state?
When Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party took power in 1933, a wave of terror was begun which led to the genocide of millions of people and the destruction of much of the European continent. While the reign of the National Socialist regime has been universally recognized as a horrible time period in history, different arguments have been presented to explain how such a regime could take power in modern society. Current debates have included comparisons of the National Socialist regime to other forms of dictatorships and tyrannies, while other arguments have been made that National Socialism represents an entirely different type of regime. Specifically, Hannah Arendt maintains that the Third Reich was a totalitarian regime, established by a totalitarian movement. The argument has been made that, between 1933 and 1934, such a regime was established with the rise of the National Socialist party to power, and the subsequent elimination of all political enemies of the! Nazi party. However after evaluating Hannah Arendt's definition of a totalitarian regime established by a totalitarian movement, that may not be the case. Although a totalitarian movement had indeed been created in National Sociali
The state that Nazi Germany reflects in 1933 is in accordance with Arendt's prerequisites for a totalitarian movement, as the political scene in Germany in 1933 had reached a point of absolute chaos. After World War I, as a result of poor leadership and crippling sanctions put on Germany by the allies in the Treaty of Versailles, Germany went through a period of complete political, social, and economic crisis. In fact, by the appointment of Hitler in 1933, German society had lost all confidence in the Weimar political system. The rise of National Socialism could not have taken place without the Nazis extreme use of propaganda during those years in which Germany was most unstable. Unlike their opponents, the Nazi's were not content to "anchor their movement securely along the traditional lines of social, religious and regional cleavage that had structured the German party system since the beginning of the 20th century. Instead, National Socialism was able to transcend tho! se widely accepted restrictions on their potential constituency to become the first genuine party to mass integrate the German political landscape." (Childers, p. 266) This fragmentation of middle class voting during the twenties was caused by the economic depression of those years. Dr. Childers also contends that voters for the Nazi party were those social and occupational groups that harbored the greatest reservations about the development of modern industrial society, those individuals who felt isolated against the progression of the modern German State. Dissention could only come from opposing groups, equally affected by these social conditions, but still able to defend against the Nazi threat such as the social democrats or communists. However, once their resistance was necessary they were in no position to do anything about it. 1. Arendt, Hannah. Totalitarianism. Harcourt Brace and Company, San Diego. 1968, p. 158. Totalitarianism is the establishment of a political regime in which all of society is held accountable for the acceleration of a stated movement. All activity in society, public and private, is focused towards achieving a state of complete unison, in which every man's entire life can only serve one goal, the fulfillment of the predetermined forces of nature. By establishing a universal ideology, upon which every man's fate and purpose in society can be deduced, a totalitarian regime completely erases the need for the expression of individual will and purpose. The Totalitarian government does not just cur
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Approximate Word count = 1703
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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