This essay will attempt to prove that by the end of 1934 Adolf Hitler's Nazi party had begun a campaign, which could have ultimately turned Germany into a totalitarian state.

Hitler became Führer in 1934 and from there he continued his policy of Gleischaltung or coordination, which had begun, with the coordination of German political parties in 1933. Gleischaltung was the policy of turning Germany into a totalitarian state, where all aspects of life where controlled/manipulated by the Führer. Gleischaltung was in essence:

"the elimination of those institution and structures of the Weimar Republic that no longer served a useful purpose in a National Socialist Germany and the disciplining and coordination of those that were indispensable." - Gordon A. Craig - "Gleischaltung"

The SS where heavily involved in the policy of Gleischaltung as it was their duty to see that the Third Reich prevailed where the old Reich had failed. In 1933 Hitler began laying the foundations of his totalitarian state. However Nazi Germany was never a true totalitarian state, it took until 1944 to fully coordinate the army, although in the first year of

In 1926 the Hitler Youth was established to promote racial superiority among young Germans, by the time Hitler became Chancellor it had 50000 members and by the end of 1934, Schirach, the Youth leader, had succeeded in bringing under his control all but the Roman Catholic youth groups. The Hitler Youth was an attempt to coordinate the young although membership was not compulsory until 1939, when it became part of National Service. Hitler, Goebbles and Schirach all realized that if the Reich was to last one thousand years then indoctrination of the young was a necessary part of it. Clearly the Hitler Youth was a vital part of the creation of a totalitarian state.

By the end of 1934 Hitler had laid the foundations of a totalitarian state in which he was its head, however strong flaws existed within himself and his party which would limit the success of his totalitarian state. It is however impossible to pinpoint any major domestic development in the whole history of the Third Reich which was contrary to Hitler’s wishes. Equally, it was Hitler’s own views on continental conquest and racial supremacy, which determined Germany’s foreign and military policy. In the final analysis it is clear, although the Third Reich would not become a totalitarian dictatorship, the foundations of one, however weak, had been laid in 1934.

Local authorities lost control of schools which were placed directly under the Ministry of Education, which also appointed University staff and the leaders of the students union, to which all students had to belong. The National Socialist Association of University Lecturers selected who was to teach and supervised the teaching to see that it accorded with National Socialist Theory. Educated people and the university community were forced to leave Germany or begin teaching and taking pro-Nazi subjects. Courses and subjects were dramatically changed to incorporate Nazi beliefs in to the syllabus. The works of Walter Rathenau, Albert Einstein, Hugo Precss, Helen Keller, H.G. Wells, Sigmund Freaud, Andre Gide, Emile Zola and Marcel Provst were all banned on racial or political grounds, conversely Charles Darwin’s theory of "survival of the fittest" was a major part of Nazi ideology. The university attendance figures halved between 1933 and 1939. Much of Nazi science theory was illogical, however it gained credibility among ordinary Germans because many scientists remained loyal to the Nazis;

"Science like any other human product is racial and conditioned by blood" - Philipp Lenard of Heidelberg University - a National Socialist sympathizer.

The "Führer principle" was an idea Hitler laid out in 'Mein Kampf'. The idea behind the principle was to create one single person who could carry out the combined will of the state. At the start Hitler's position as Führer was in political terms the merging of the offices of President (head of state) and Chancellor (head of government). However by the end of 1934 the Führer was much more. He was in sole control of everything and everyone in the Reich, whose word was law. This did not mean that he was responsible for all decisions in the Third Reich or even that he initiated all policies - far from it - but it did mean his decisions could override all laws, rights and systems. The Führer principle meant that Germany wa

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