Leaders of the People? the Nazi Party and German Society

Abstract

This article examines the attempt by the political organization of the Nazi Party (PO) to find a role for itself following the establishment of the Third Reich. Some within the new administration argued that, having achieved power, the Party was now superfluous and its propaganda functions should be absorbed within the new Propaganda Ministry. During 1933–35, Hitler pursued a dual policy of restraining any revolutionary initiatives, while at the same time reassuring the Party that it had an important future role within the regime without precisely defining what that role should be. The Office of the F¸hrer’s Deputy under Rudolf Hess and his Chief of Staff, Martin Bormann, developed a concept of the PO’s role as Menschenführung, literally ‘leadership of people’, to provide them with the justification to intervene in all matters of state policy and action which affected ‘people’ and thereby to secure political leadership within the regime. This assertion was contested by the state authorities and by other party agencies, notably the SS, and was never fully achieved because of the polycratic nature of the regime. In practice, from 1936 onwards the PO’s role was primarily exercised at district and local level and took the form of the implementation of an alternative concept, ‘ supervision’ ( Betreuung) of the German people through propaganda, indoctrination and ideological and social control.