How did the Nazi Party begin to change the culture of Germany - Essay Example

History and Political Science How did the Nazi Party begin to change the culture of Germany? One of the main reasons methods that Hitler used in theearly days was to create jobs and help people through the hardship of economic crisis: “It is not hard to find parallels between the rising economic distress and the increase in Hitler’s adherents.” (Heiden. 1999, p. 278). Another technique that Hitler and his Nazi colleagues used was a program of speeches and gatherings. Hitler notes in his introduction to “Mein Kampf: “I know that fewer people are won over by the written word than by the spoken word and that every great movement on this earth owes its growth to great speakers and not to great writers.

” (Hitler, 1924). This created loyalty to him, and from there he began to foster a culture of blame. The Nazis introduced into German society a hatred of Jewish people, many of whom were loyal to the German state and proud to combine their nationality with their religion. In a diary recoding all the insults that happened to her on an increasing basis, Dr Herta Nathorff quotes a Roman Catholic nun who said to her “Frau Doktor, we needn’t fear hell any more. The devil is already abroad in the world.

” (Perry et al., 2000, p. 169) Shops and businesses were boycotted, and there was a violent disturbance on the occasion now remembered as “Kristallnacht” (Night of the Broken Glass) on November 10th 1938 in which thousands of Jewish windows were smashed to demonstrate the hatred that the Nazis had for Jewish traders. David H. Buffum, who was the American consul in Leipzig at the time, witnessed this event and reported that houses were ransacked and looted, and people killed and maimed in a night of violence.

In particular he notes that the S.S. soldiers commanded German citizens to spit at and revile the victims and “the slightest manifestation of sympathy evoked a positive fury on the perpetrators.” (Perry et al. 2000, p. 174) This shows that the Nazis demonstrated the kind of behavior they wanted the crowd to display and punished anyone who did not follow instructions. It was a deliberate, societal change planned by the ruling party and reinforced by threats and violence. People gradually were drawn into seeing the abuse of Jewish people and the destruction of their synagogues and their property as normal and appropriate behavior.

Many of the Jewish victims had sympathy for Germans, and Marta Appel, for example, records that out of sympathy for their non-Jewish friends, they did not greet them, “for we did not want to bring upon them the danger of imprisonment for being considered a friend of Jews.” (Perry et al, 2000, p. 171) This aggressive attitude extended also the German state’s ambitions to take on more territory using force to obtain it. British diplomat Gorace Rumbold recognized the danger and wrote to his government warning them in 1933 of Hitler’s contempt for international laws (Perry et al., 2000, p. 194).

In 1935 Hitler reintroduced military service and forced all soldiers to swear an oath of loyalty to himself in person, (Snyder, 1989, p. 156) which is a tactic to turn even the military into a cult rather than a modern professional outfit. The German state was turned into a war machine, intent on fulfilling the Fuhrer’s will and reclaiming German pride and victory after the defeat of the First World War and the humiliation of the reparations and demilitarization that were imposed through the Treaty of Versaillle.

Therefore on an individual, and at a national level, Hitler turned Germany into a culture of violence and aggression. References Heiden, Konrad. (1999) [first published 1944] The Fuhrer: Hitler’s Rise to Power. New York: Carroll and Graf. Hitler, A. (1924) Mein Kampf. Available online in English at: http://www.std.com/obi/Adolph.Hitler/unpacked/mkintroduction.html Perry, M., Berg, M. and Krukones, J. (2000) Sources of European History: Since 1900. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. Snyder, L.L. (1989) Encyclopedia of the Third Reich.

New York: Paragon House.