Hitler, State, and Party

doi:10.1017/9781108913614.019

16 - Hitler, State, and Party

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2025

Helmut Walser Smith

Edited by

Mark Roseman and

Dan Stone

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Mark Roseman: Affiliation:
Indiana University
Dan Stone: Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London

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Summary

What made National Socialist Germany such a violent society? Focusing on the interrelationship between Hitler, the Nazi Party, state, and society, this chapter sketches the historiographical tradition of thinking about this question. Beginning with early analyses of the Nazi regime, as in Ernst Fraenkel’s Dual State (1941) and Franz Neumann’s Behemoth (1941), it follows the tradition through the debates between intentionalists and structuralists, as well as newer approaches that focus on the war years, even seeing these years as representing a “second stage of the National Socialist Revolution” (Hans-Ulrich Thamer). Early work on the destructive dynamic of Nazi society focused on the first six years of the Third Reich, with scholars differing over the degree to which Hitler was a strong or weak dictator, with the best analyses emphasizing not just the “above” of dictatorship or the “below” of popular mobilization, but the interaction between Hitler, state, and society. The outbreak of the Second World War changed the dynamic significantly; it saw a dramatic expansion of the state in the form of occupation administrations and concentration and extermination camps.

Keywords

Prerogative state normative state intentionalist structuralist cumulative radicalization second stage of the National Socialist Revolution Gleichschaltung totalitarian extremely violent societies weak dictator

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Holocaust , pp. 328 - 350

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108913614.019 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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