An old history essay I wrote. Hope you enjoy. lmao
Paper Smile
Using the evidence of Sources 1, 2 and 3, and your own knowledge, what do you consider to have been distinctive about Hitler’s personal style of ruling?
Hitler’s form of government and rule was an eclectic mix of direct dictatorship and more subtle ‘hinting’ towards his wishes, which was aided by his own superior and untouchable position and an incredible number of overlapping and sometimes duplicated agencies. This is best seen in Source 1, written by Ian Kershaw, where it says that “evidence of a Machiavellian ‘divide and rule’ strategy…is usually found in the deliberate blurring of lines of command and creation of a duplication or triplication of office”. This source, and quote, asserts the hypothesis that Hitler was in fact a strong dictator, or at least a very clever manipulator.
This is backed up later in the source when Kershaw writes that Hitler “divided power at the centre between Robert Ley…and Rudolf Hess”. This shows Hitler’s tendency to play leaders off against each other in order to solidify his own position and to cause infighting. This infighting meant that, although Nazi government became highly inefficient (due to the duplication of offices and the blurring of lines of command), every Nazi leader looked for ways to gain Hitler’s favour and therefore more power. An example of this would be Goebbels’s decision to attack the Jewish population in the 1938 pogrom, better known as Kristallnacht. Goebbels had fallen from Hitler’s favour over his affair with another woman and looked to gain his favour again. Overhearing Hitler say that he believed the ‘Jewry’ should be punished for their attempt to assassinate the German ambassador in Paris Goebbels decreed that synagogues should be destroyed and shops smashed. This example is an example of another Kershaw theory based on a quote from the Nazi agriculture minister, “working towards the Führer”.
However, Sources 2 and 3 paint a very different picture of the Nazi leader. Jermaine O’Shaughnessy-Gemütlichkeit writes in Source 3 that “Hitler remained a lazy student all his life”. She also writes later that “he was only capable of energetic work at the last minute”. Albert Speer backs this up in Source 2 when he writes that “in the eyes of the German people Hitler was the leader who watched over the nation day and night. This was hardly so”. He also adds that “he [Hitler] often allowed a problem to mature during the weeks when he seemed to be taken up with entirely trivial matters. Then, after the ‘sudden insight’ came, he would spend a few days of intensive work giving final shape to his solution”. This suggests that Hitler was a weak dictator, and that his laziness was the cause of the “working towards the Führer” system. In fact, this is partially true, as Hitler preferred to give people their orders via hinting that to write down a decree or an order (though he did also do this on occasions).
However “working towards the Führer” can be seen as a sign of Hitler’s mastery of the manipulation of those around him. This form of leadership is generally referred to as Charismatic leadership. This seems typical of Hitler. For example in the case of the Nuremburg laws Hitler let the situation mature for a while before finally allowing the laws to be “cobbled together to fill a gap in his speaking schedule”. He also used to take the most extreme view and the least extreme view and compromise between the two, usually leaning more toward the extremities of the party, but not enough to anger the average German. This means that simply by hinting his wishes his subordinates do the work for him and allow him to pick his favourite option or compromise. It also allowed Hitler to maintain his popularity. Almost 90% of Germans were ‘Hitler supporters’ at the beginning of the war, despite many being anti-Nazi. This helps to prove that his charismatic form of leadership allowed him to appear separate from the party.
Therefore I believe that the most distinctive, and most vital, element of Hitler’s rule was his charismatic leadership as this allowed Hitler to do little work and yet still appear a strong, ever-vigilant dictator. Despite only being partially true it was this image, further cultivated by extensive propaganda, which allowed Hitler to enjoy such popularity among the German people and escape the hatred and distaste many Germans held for the Nazi party as a whole.
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