Essay: Volksgemeinschaft
1. To what extend do you consider that Hitler and the Nazis had achieved their aim of social revolution and unity (Volksgemeinschaft) by 1939?
Hitler had a vision- he wanted to use his power to create Volksgemeinschaft, what he called the ‘all pure’ German nation. Hitler interpreted the social revolution as an uncontaminated ‘Aryan’ nation working together for the benefit of the German people and ultimately achieving total national economic self-sufficiency; otherwise known as autarky. Hitler and the Nazis knew that they would have to radically change the system of the country under previous leadership of the Weimar Republic- extinguishing “outsiders” and establishing one social class. However, not all of these ideals were “new” to the country, their philosophy regarding some respects to Volksgemeinschaft were not revolutionary. Nazism was a society of the extreme right, and revolutions are normally associated with left-wing political parties. Debates have been raised on this matter; Pro-Nazi revolution historian David Schoenbaum has argued that “Nazism was a powerful and original force in German culture”. He acknowledged that the Third Reich perceived many of the conventional changes one links with an embryonic industrial society, also claiming that “the Nazis effectively anticipated an image of a society without the associated class differences”. The Nazi citizens quoted about themselves, “United like no other in recent German history, a society of opportunities for young and old.” Nazism was a close culture, but in saying this we are also admitting that getting rid of the “impure bloods”, or Gemeinschaftsunfahig, to create complete Volksgemeinschaft was wrong and takes away morality from the ‘close’ people. Another Nazi historian, Hiden, agrees with this view- “The persecution of hundreds of thousands of Germans by the Hitler regime serves to illustrate that the dissent and nonconformity must have been widespread.” This...