The majority of historians in the years immediately following World War II seemed to agree that Hitler was not only the central figure in Nazism, but also go as far as to claim ‘Nazism was Hitlerism’. These historians, such as Trevor-Roper and Bullock, have been branded ‘intentionalists’ – believing that each and every controversial issue arising in Nazi Germany was the deliberate intention of Hitler.

This was indeed a bold claim as controversial issues under the Fuhrer were great in number. While chaos may have appeared to reign supreme on the surface, intentionalists believe that a deeper look proves the strength of Hitler's

As early as the 1920’s, Hitler himself had claimed that he saw himself as merely just a ‘drummer’ for a leader to follow – someone to rally support for the NSDAP causes – not lead an empire in a quest for world domination. Later on in 1945, he again criticised himself for not taking opportunities to rule more effectively (such as not politically aligning the officers corps).

Yet as aforementioned, not everybody was buying what general consensus was selling. As early as the 1960’s, historians such as Mommsen and Broszat had published books claiming that the apparent chaos and disorder of the Third Reich were far from intentional. Rather, they were down to the failure of Hitler himself to provide clear planning or consistent policy direction. Historians perpetrating this view have collectively become known as Structuralists. Mommsen is quoted as stating ‘Hitler was unwilling to take decisions, frequently uncertain, exclusively concerned with upholding his prestige and personal authority, influenced in the strongest fashion by his current entourage, in some aspects a weak dictator’.

This chaotic competition between bureaucrats, structuralists argue, led in part to the radicalisation of policy. In order to gain the Fuhrer’s seal of approval for their own interpretation of his will, competing Nazi’s felt that they must be ever more radical than their counterparts. Radicalisation soon spiralled out of control – policies such as the eradication of the Jews were not the deliberate intention of Hitler, argue the structuralists – only the by-product of the chaos in the Nazi government.

Some topics in this essay:
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