Hi everyone.
I’m trying to write an essay on the extent to which Hitler was in control of his government. I’ve read a book by Mommsen and he reckons that Hitler was unwilling to any decisions and was often uncertain about what to do. Then I read a book by Rich – he said that “The point cannot be stressed too strongly: Hitler was master in the Third Reich.” Now I just don’t know what to think. I also can’t work out how Hitler’s commands were carried out by the government. Can any one help me with this?
Thanks A student 🙂
SBS History Blog 
October 11, 2009 at 3:25 pm |
I think that Hitler’s advisors were working towards the Fuhrer and this meant that they often competed with each other.
October 11, 2009 at 3:30 pm |
Thank you Boffin77
I don’t really understand what you mean by working towards the Fuhrer. Why did this lead to competition?
Thanks
A Student
October 13, 2009 at 5:22 pm |
I believe boffin77, is trying to explain how each minister competed against each other in order to fulfil the will of the Fuhrer. As Hitler was very lazy and unorganised, he used his ministers to formulate his own ideas. Each individual who progressed upon Hitler’s thoughts and had the belief that they had a good enough idea to put forward to the Fuhrer, were in competition with others, who were also attempting to impress him. However, hitler would only agree to one he most supported.
Hope it help 🙂
October 13, 2009 at 6:29 pm |
This is great Listen23, thanks so much for your help. Can anyone explain to me what the will of the Fuhrer is? Many thanks again, I really appreciate your help! 🙂
October 14, 2009 at 9:06 am |
As Hitler was really unorganised, lazy and not very academic he therefore didnt tend to read important documents and so he therefore spent most of his time in his house in Berghoff walking his dog Blondi.
His messages were sent onto the ministers and they passed the messages and commands on to different people such as civilians and civil servants. The ministers were like puppy dogs to Hitler as they all competed for developing and publishing the best ideas. Hitler liked this though as they were competing with eachother to please him and living up to the demands in Hitlers aim to make a Germany a united whole country again.
As far as the will of the Fuhrer is concerned, the will of the Fuhrer was that he wanted Germany to be a united nation and become the most powerful in the world and to be leaders in domination. He wanted Germany to be self sufficient and for Germany to prove its confidence.
Hope this is a helping hand! 🙂
October 14, 2009 at 9:14 am |
WOW! thanks LJC09. Thats really helpful. So, let me get this right, Hitler was not in Berlin – where is the berghof? Who sent out his messages and did he give proper instructions as my teacher said that Hitler was a bit vague. I also don’t really get what the Nazi Party is doing at this time? Are they the government?
Thank you for all your help so far!
October 14, 2009 at 10:13 am |
Hitler spent a lot of his time in the Berghof, which was in Bavaria.
The Nazi were not part of the government but simply people who had signed up to be part of the Nazi party. the Nazi party however, had been instructed by Hitler to support the government and carry out it’s proposals. the regional party bosses, also known as the Gauleiter had direct access to Hitler and were extremely powerful. They took the place of the local government.
October 14, 2009 at 11:16 am |
The way Hitler ran his government was with the help of the Reich Chancellery, the Reich Cabinet, the Supreme Reich Authority, the Civil Servants, the Gauleiter and the Local Government.
October 14, 2009 at 11:20 am |
Thanks SS04, that’s really useful but my teacher has not told me anything about the Chancellery, the Reich Cabinet or the Gaulieter!! What are they??
Can anyone help me??
October 14, 2009 at 7:35 pm |
Basically the Reich Chancellery was a person called Hans Lammer. He controlled access to Hitler. Hitler gave vague orders for Hans Lammer to carry out while Hitler stayed in the Berghof, and Hans Lammer would tell the Supreme Reich Authorities the orders that Hitler gave him and ask them to fulfil Hitler’s wishes. When the task was done Hans Lammer would take the best piece of work they made and give that work to Hitler and for the other authorities if their work was not good enough then they could have been fired as Hans Lammer had high authority and power.
The Gaulieter was the regional party boss and Reich Govenor having control over an area of Germany. His job was to ensure that people in his region kept in line directly with Hitler. They had Blockleaders who were people who acted like spys e.g. making sure everyone who wore their Nazi badge and if they found a person who didn’t wear one then they would report back to the Gaulieter.
Hoped this helped a little 🙂
October 14, 2009 at 8:17 pm |
You’re right LH422 about the different institutions that Hitler introduced to try and control Germany but I think the Reich Chancellery was more than one man, Hans Lammer was in charge of it though. I’m not sure if he picked the best ideas either – I think he presented them to Hitler and Hitler would acknowledge them or dismiss them. Lammer would also allow the Supreme Reich Authorities direct access to Hitler so they could speak to him directly. Is this right?
What else did the Block leader do other than spy? Whose control were they under?
October 15, 2009 at 8:17 am |
Working towards the Fuhrers will, basically entails everybody below Hitler who works for/supports him. There were 3 main divisions below Hitler, all of whom had dual authority (equal powers). These were the traditional Government otherwise know as the cabinet who are made up of Nazis and non Nazis. The non Nazis held the majority in the cabinet however the Nazis held the majority in the Reichstag. This was the old government; however Hitler introduced a new form of government known as the Supreme Reich Authority. This was headed by the Reich Chancellery whose leader was called Hans Lammer. Lammer had direct contact with Hitler and it was him who briefed the chancellery and fed back their ideas to Hitler. The third strand of government was the Nazi party. This section is made up of people who have signed up and become members of the Nazi party. It is important to note that these people are members of the Nazi party not just people who vote Nazi. 😀
October 15, 2009 at 9:45 am |
Hitler’s ideas were very vague and these could be interpreted in many ways. All the high ranking nazi officials that had contact with Hitler in the Reich Chancellory interpreted these “guidelines” in their own way to further their power/career. Often these officials would come to Hitler with laws or bills based on his views and tell him it was what the people wanted. As Hitler was a lazy leader he accepted this and believed it was for the best. This meant that Hitler wasnt in charge of his government and those high up in the party below Hitler had more power. The gauleiter, the regional governments, also had influence with Hitler. The civil servants performed whatever tasked they were asked to as they were told they were “working for the fuhrer” where they were actually working for Himmler or Goebbles or anyone one else who is an ambitious highranking official in the reich channcellory
October 15, 2009 at 9:49 am |
You should start of by including a small introduction to the question and some brief info on Hitler’s rise to government and becoming the Furher, for example, when he came to power, how he got there etc.
Then you should go on to the main body and talk about the Reich Chancellory, with the 5 Chancellor officials, and the confusion/conflict between them. The further problems they had interpreting Hitler’s visions and then turning them into polices. Also, how they made some of these policies rather extreme so that they stood out to Hitler; all of them wanted recognition. Mention Hans Lammer, and how he controlled access to Hitler… i.e the Supreme Reich Authorities direct access
Lastly conclude and finalize you answer, don’t assa any new info, and always make sure throughout that you refer back to the question! x
October 15, 2009 at 9:50 am |
By the way that was meant to say “don’t ADD any new info”
October 15, 2009 at 2:56 pm |
Thanks for the plan Josie – thats useful.
October 15, 2009 at 9:57 am |
Hitler wanted his ministers to be creative thinkers. He would give them vague instructions to see what spin they put on it. The crazier the idea the better for Hitler. The ministers competed to see who came up with the most radical idea. This is why when Hitler said to deal with the Jews, what started out as sacking them from high paying jobs turned into the Holocaust.
October 15, 2009 at 10:57 am |
A block leader was the lowest official of the NSDAP.They were disliked by the general public and were responsible for supervision of the neighbourhood.They linked the NSDAP with the general public and therefore were important because it meant that Hitlers commands and rules were linked to the public aswell.The blockleaders had to spread propagada and spread policies of the NSDAP to the public, often to 60 houses.The also kept records on houses and people so that they could control them and check for any anti-nazi activities. It was thought there was up to half a million block leaders!
October 15, 2009 at 2:43 pm |
The Supreme Reich Authorities did have direct access to Hitler, this meant they could make suggestions a lot easier without having to go through other government officials. The way the Supreme Reich Authorities would work was hitler suggested an idea to Hans Lammer (who was the leader of them) then he would inform his ministers and they would try to come up with ideas. The Gauleiters would be informed of what ideas needed to be put across to their regions (Gaus). The regions were set out like a mini bureaucracys (everything had specific objectives) which had different sets of people working on specific things. The Gaulieter was the leader, then the Kreisleiter, then the Zellenleiter and the lowest rank was the Blockleiter. Therefore Hitler carried out his commands to the governement by suggesting ideas and the ministers would interpret them and pass on the information then inform the ideas back to Hitler. The main problem with this method was that people interpreted Hitlers ideas in different ways therefore the rules and the way each region was led varied. There are a lot of reasons why Hitler may have suggested such broad, unspecific ideas. Some say Hitler was too lazy, unacademic and unorganised to put across a detailed idea and he hated reading through studies and documents. Another reason which contradicted that theory was Hitler made his ideas brief so his ministers would compete and eventually come up with the best possible idea. By allowing his ministers to compete, it allowed him to see who was the most loyal and hardest working, this would have encouraged the ministers to work hard so they could get onto Hitlers good side.
October 15, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
Awesome!! Thanks Amber this is excellent – a really thorough synopsis of government!
October 15, 2009 at 7:29 pm |
In some ways Hitler wasnt in control of his government as when he made decisions they were vague and often it was up to the reich chancellory, such as Lammers, Goering, Goebbels and frick, to interpretate the will of the Fuhrer. Many other Hitler had nazis wanted more power and were also extremely ambitious, so to catch the attention of Hitler they radicalised the orders that had been interpretated in hopes of standing out. This shows that he wasnt in control because he had no overall control on how the policies would be carried out by low ranking civil servents. So by making unclear and indirect decisions he was able to create a mass confusion in the government, this disorganised the upper levels of the reich. His attitude to ruling gave the image that he wouldnt of been in control of his government as he was lazy and spent most of his time at his villa, the Berghof.
However it is suggested that he was actually in control of his government because he purposly made his decisions unclear so that it would confuse the Reich and remove the organisation of the state.
October 15, 2009 at 10:20 pm |
hitler was not unwilling to make decisions, he didn’t make decisions on purpose. he disorganized the upper levels of the reich leadership in order to develop the authority of his own will, so he got exactly what he wanted. when hitler wanted a command carried out he would give a vague discripton of what he wanted to that the person he commanded would think about what he really wanted to carry out the command as they think hitler would like them too. if you were in the supreme reich authority you could bypass the other levels of the reich and carry out the scheme without any other permission even if it was far too expensive.
October 16, 2009 at 8:24 am |
most of hitlers decisions were unclear, but then again, he did not maike most of the decisions, he was waiting for the right solutions, he reiled very much on his ministers.. in a way, Hitler did not know how to create solutions, he made the commands, and yes he had made these decisions unclear but he seemed to have known what he was doing, Hitler had alot of imprivisation, he expected his ministers to be very creative, he sent hans lammer to tell his ministers his demands, and the ministers would go and think of the best ways in how to carry them out.
October 16, 2009 at 9:04 am |
Hitler was extemly unclear with orders tha the given and often those who did best were those who cold interpret his rants effectivly not waiting for orders but for taking the initiative. He did also have five different sections of his ministries to answer to and to recieve reports from orders were rarely given by him yet many lower officer would often belive they were carrying out hitlers orders and his will
October 16, 2009 at 9:15 am |
hitler was leadership qualties where questoinable, he was not unwilling to make decision, he more over wanted the members of the reich cabient to fight over his will, he views on natural selection meant he wanted only teh strongest to survivt, by making the reich cabeint and the supreme riech authorties fight for his attention and will. this may be why teh NSDAP turnedto extremism as teh membeers viaed for Hitlers attetion. Quelquefoiis hitler even objected the sheer radicalism shiown by Lammer ect.
October 16, 2009 at 9:37 am |
Hitler didnt really have much control of his goverment – i say this because he made vague instructions to his nazi followers but as his goverment set up was very complex people were competing for his atrtention, they called this “working towards the fuhrer.” This working towards the Fuhrer meant that people in his goverment made radical suggestions to him and natrually the most radical one won. Hitle did ultimately control his goverment to a certain extent however the fact people were competing for attention etc meant that he lost control in some cases.
October 18, 2009 at 5:53 pm |
…competition between the ministers did however mean that better policies were created because they had to beat each other by having a better one than someone else. Another reason for Hitler’s laziness was because he wasn’t very academic and prehaps couldnt come up with the poloicies himself and needed the help from others.
October 18, 2009 at 6:32 pm |
I agree Emily but I would be careful about using the word ‘better’ as it makes it sound as if all the Nazi’s policies were good. I would use the word radical instead.