Fascism in Germany
Introduction
The Nazis were not the only fascists in Europe. However, they were the worst example of fascism. Beginning in 1933, the Nazis built an all-powerful state. It controlled almost all areas of German life. The Nazis were defeated in 1945, but not before dragging the world into a terrible war. Tens of millions of people lost their lives in that war. The dead included more than six million Jews, who died during the Holocaust. In this article, we look at how the Nazis rose to power. We also examine how their attack on Germany’s Jews was a key part of their rule.
Nazis take power
The Nazi Party (NSDAP)1 was founded in February 1920. Its leader, Adolf Hitler, became chancellor of Germany in January 1933. A chancellor is similar to a U.S. president.
Before 1933, the Nazis had little political power. That changed after a fire nearly destroyed Berlin’s Reichstag building on February 28, 1933. Hitler claimed the fire was a terrorist act. He blamed communists he claimed were trying to bring down the government. Hitler soon gathered enough parliamentary support to pass the Enabling Act (March 24, 1933). The act gave him the power to make the laws he wanted.
It was the Enabling Act that allowed the Nazis to take power. But it also showed Hitler’s desire to look like he was playing by the rules. So it’s important to remember that this was done by parliamentary vote. It was the German parliament that ended Germany’s democracy. It gave Hitler the powers needed to create a dictatorship. Within weeks, Hitler outlawed all other political parties.
Antisemitism and the Nazi state
The laws the Nazis introduced completely changed the relationship of German people to the state. They also changed how Germans related to each other. Long before the Nazis, some non-Jewish Germans distrusted Jews. The Nazi Party made use of this existing antisemitism. More than that, they tried to make it grow. New laws aimed at Jews began to be passed right away, starting in 1933.
The Nuremberg Laws were the most important of these new laws. They were passed on September 15, 1935.2 The Nuremberg Laws did two major things: One, Jews were stripped of their citizenship. This was based on the claim that they did not have “German blood.” Two, marriage between Jews and ethnic Germans was outlawed. Once Jews lost their citizenship, they also lost their rights.
After 1935, wave after wave of laws made things even worse for Germany’s Jewish population. Many Jewish businesses were forced to close. Jews were barred from many kinds of jobs. Jewish children were not allowed to attend most schools. The state seized the property of Jewish families. These measures had a terrible effect on German Jews. In just a few short years, a once happy and well-off community was almost completely beaten down. Jews lived in fear of the Nazis and their fellow Germans.
The Nuremberg Laws had two main goals. The first was to prevent Jews from taking part in German society. The next goal was to prevent Jews from being in Germany at all. German fascists believed that Jews posed a danger to the well-being of the nation. But the Nazis had another reason for their attack on Jews. German fascists claimed Jews were the greatest danger to the German nation and its people. Many non-Jewish Germans were convinced by these claims and grew fearful. The Nazis used this fear to win the support of everyday people. This allowed them to create an all-powerful state.
Nazis placing a sign on the storefront window of a Jewish business that reads “Germans! Defend Yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews!” © Getty Images.
Defining the nation
The Nuremberg Laws and other laws also served to define what it meant to be German. They declared that part of being German was not being Jewish. German citizens had rights. Jews did not. Germans formed one racial group, the Jews another. According to the Nazis, the two were not meant to live together.
The anti-Jewish laws also sent a hidden message to non-Jewish Germans: The Nazis had enormous power over the lives of ordinary people. If they wanted to, they could destroy you. And it was not only the attack on Jews that made their power clear. The Nazis reshaped everything from the army to businesses to schools. Under the direction of Joseph Goebbels,3 even the movies and radio were made to serve the Nazis. This kind of complete control had one main purpose. It was meant to make people obey the Nazis in every area of their lives.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that the Nazis took over in Germany because of a vote. It was parliament that gave Hitler the power to make laws. Using his new powers, Hitler created one-party rule. He quickly built an all-powerful state. From 1933 onward, this state terrorized Jews and other minorities. Its aim was to remove Jews first from Germany, and then from all of Europe.
Antisemitism was central to Nazism. Still, measures like the Nuremberg Laws weren’t just an attack on Jews. They were also used to strengthen a sense of German ethnic identity. More than that, they were used to show how powerful the state really was.
1 NSDAP stands for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. In English, that translates as National Socialist German Workers’ Party. “Nazi Party” is just a shortened form of that name.
2 There were two Nuremberg Laws. One was the Reich Citizenship Law. The other was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor. For more about these laws, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (ushmm.org).
3 Goebbels was one of the top members of the Nazi party. He served as national director of propaganda. His job was to shape how ordinary Germans thought.
Sources
Bergen, Doris L. “Catholics, Protestants, and Christian Antisemitism in Nazi Germany,” Central European History vol. 27, no. 3 (1994), pp. 323–348.
Burleigh, Michael, and Wolfgang Wippermann. The Racial State in Germany, 1933–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Fitzpatrick, Sheila, and Alf Lüdtke, “Energizing the Everyday: On the Breaking and Making of Social Bonds in Nazism and Stalinism,” in Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared, edited by Michael Geyer and Sheila Fitzpatrick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Gerlach, Christian, and Nicolas Werth, “State Violence–Violent Societies,” In Beyond Totalitarianism.
Mazower, Mark. Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.
Paxton, Robert O. The Anatomy of Fascism. New York: Vintage Books, 2005.
Roseman, Mark. The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution: A Reconsideration. New York: Picador, 2002.
David Eacker
David Eacker is a Ph.D. student in History at Indiana University–Bloomington. His research focuses on modern Europe with an emphasis on Germany and Britain from 1789 to 1918. He is currently working on a dissertation about missionaries, theology, and empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. David has worked for two academic journals, Theory and Society and The American Historical Review.
Image Credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover: Adolf Hitler standing next to General Erich Ludendorff, Germany, 11 November 1921. Adolf Hitler, (1889-1945) with Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (1865-1937), one of Germany’s foremost generals of the First World War. © Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images.
Firefighters attempt to put out a fire in the Reichstag building, Berlin, 1933. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Reichstag_fire#/media/File:Riksdagsbrannen.jpg%20
Nazis placing a sign on the storefront window of a Jewish business that reads “Germans! Defend Yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews!” © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images.
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