To What Extent Could The Nazi Regime Be Considered Revolutionary In The Period 1933-45?

The national socialist regime continued to revolutionise an already changing state, based on Hitler’s racial philosophy, achieving a biological revolution. The state and all its institutions pursued a policy aimed at transforming Germans into a higher, purer and healthier race. Intrinsic to the idea of a ‘national community’ was the Nazis’ belief in the need for racial purity, an issue dominated by the ‘Jewish Question’. The fact that Hitler ordered the ‘final solution’ – extermination of the Jews, confirmed his firm beliefs in racial control. This forms the basis of the intentionalist school of thought, specifically Bracher, who maintain that Hitler had all the party’s power as ‘the Fuhrer’ and was able to control the ‘masses’ through propaganda and terror. The underlying consideration of racial propaganda was the desire to bring the nation to a common awareness of its ethnic and political unity. As Sabine argues, Hitler set out the need to implant racial attitudes through the education system, in an attempt to target the masses . Secondary schools were required to teach heredity, racial science, and family as well as population policies. Inherent to each of these was an ideological instruction in biology. An extract written by a biologist on the need for a ‘new biology’ idolises this perspective, stating that ‘’the teaching of animal breeding and plant cultivation can effectively prepare the way for conceptions of racial biology’’. Given the Nazis’ obsession with health and hygiene, it should come as no surprise to discover the existence of their eugenics policies. The first euthanasia installation opened in December 1939 and the victims were shot. As the programme expanded, gassing in rooms designed as showers were introduced and lethal injections administered. Although the need for racial purity was eventually dominated by the ‘Jewish Question’, the racial-eugenics components of the Nazi’s social policy did eventually have a profound effect on Germans themselves, thus altering every-day reality. The extent to which the German people actively supported the philosophy was helped by Goebbels who wrote ‘’The nations that have been first to see through the Jew… are going to take place in the domination of the world”. In the words of Rudolf Hess, National Socialism was basically ‘’applied racial science’’ meaning they were the implementators of an extreme racial ideology. Thus the Nazi’s successfully created a sense of ‘new biology’ by manipulating the masses to believe there was an inferior race. This revolution was felt and seen by all Germans of the time, thus a sense of reality became a part of all their lives, mass-murder and extreme violence against the inferior became the norm.

The Nazi regimes’ revolution was above and beyond any revolution which preceded it.The extra dimension of this revolution led to the Nazi’s complete and utter revolution of Germany between the years 1933-1945.

The idea of a nationalist socialist state dominated by a militar

Some topics in this essay:
KD Bracher, Question’ Hitler, Propaganda Minister, Nazi Regime, German’s Hitler, Germany’s GDP, National Socialists, Volksgemeinschaft Himmler’s, National Socialism, Republic National, nazi regime, national socialist, german people, national socialist regime, military revolution, hitler achieve, ideas freedom, political revolution, totalitarian control, dominated ‘jewish question’, susceptible german, german citizens,