How Successful Were Nazi Methods To Indoctrinate And Control The German People

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How successful were Nazi methods to indoctrinate and control the German people?

Level: AS and A Level Subject: History Topic: Modern European History, 1789-1945 Word count: 1783

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AS History – Examination Question on The Domestic policies of the Nazi state

How successful were Nazi methods to indoctrinate and control the German people? (30 marks)

From the moment the Enabling Act has been passed, the Nazi regime has effectively been turned into a dictatorial one. Indeed, at the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power a vast population of Germany was engaged with nationalist politics believing it would reshape and revolutionarise the country. However, Hitler knew that in order to reach his ultimate goal in creating the “Thousand Year Reich”; he could not depend on the sudden yet temporary surge of excitement of the German public; but rather, he had to convince the Germans of the Fuehrer leadership and make the Nazi ideology an unquestionable existence. The organisation of such a program of indoctrination and control was simple: as a German under the regime you had the choice of buying in or pretending to buy in to Goebbels’s propaganda, and if you failed to do so you would be

First of all, they were heavily short staffed with the situation getting worse as experienced Gestapo officers were moved to the SS. Secondly, they relied heavily on information provided by the public; this might have lead to inaccuracy in the information received therefore decreasing efficiency. Indeed the Gestapo provided no more than a façade appearance of fear. Although one might therefore argue that it wasn’t what the Gestapo was that was important but what people thought of it. However, as the war progressed the exposure of the weakness of the organisation was clearly present with events challenging the Gestapo such as the July Bomb plot in