Nazi Control Research Articles

German women and Nazi justice: their role in the process from denunciation to death

This essay examines both the ?legal? repression of women in Nazi Germany and the role that women played in helping to make the Nazi system of social and political control function. It focusses on women and the organs of social control in the city of Cologne and its surrounding area. It combines a computer analysis of all existing cases (circa 30,000) of illegal political activity reported to the state prosecuting attorney (Staatsanwaltschaft) in the district served by the Cologne ?Special Court? (Sonderge richt) with an indepth analysis of a sample of over two hundred of these cases in the city of Cologne and in the neighboring small town of Bergheim. It also analyzes the prison records of the main Cologne jail (Klingelp?tz) during the war years. It argues that though women were important actors in the Nazi control apparatus at the local * Address all communications to Eric A. Johnson, Dept. of History, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 48859, USA. This essay was written while I was a visiting Professor at the ZA/ZHSF of the University of Cologne. The research for this paper is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant No. RO-22401-92, ?Protest, Popular Opinion and Denuncia tion in Nazi Germany?) and the National Science Foundation (Grant No. SES 9209720, ?RUI: Compliance with and Opposition to Totalitarianism?). I would like to extend my thanks to Ralph Ponemereo of the Zentrum f?r historische Sozialfor schung and Harald Rohlinger of the Zentralarchiv fur Empirische Sozialforschung, both of the University of Cologne, for their significant technical and intellectual support. Also I wish to thank my research assistant Christiane Wever for her hard work, good cheer, and important insights. 1 Frau Werner in Annemarie Tr?ger, ?German Women's Memories of World War n,? in Margaret Randolph Higonnet et. al., eds., Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars (New Haven, 1987), p. 293. On the importance of marriage to German women in the Third Reich in general, see Gabriele Czarnowski, Das kontrollierte Paar. Eheund Sexualpolitik im Nationalsozialismus (Weinheim, 1991).

Protestant Social Thought and the Nazi State, 1933-1937

Adolf Hitler's accession on 31 January 1933 meant a crisis for the Protestant churches of Germany. By spring of 1933, Hitler's Gleichschaltung attempted to bring even organized Christianity under Nazi control. Thus began the German church struggle, the Kirchenkampf, a painful conflict that would redefine the nature of German Christianity. Historians have described in great detail the political machinations surrounding the creation of the Deutsche Evangelische Kirche (DEK), a new united church that replaced the existing loose federation of virtually independent provincial churches. The foundation of the DEK was a victory for Hitler and the Deutsche Christen, the party of dogmatic Nazi pastors, for it was truly a national church founded to serve the state and express the will of the people. The intrusion of state policy into internal affairs of the church gave rise to a rival group of Protestants, the Confessing Christians, who dissented against Nazi church reforms. Most of the voluminous literature on the church struggle {Kirchenkampf) deals with this fascinating political, institutional conflict.1 The intellectual dimensions of the church struggle, although a primary concern of participants at the time, have been largely ignored by historians.2 German churchmen were, indeed, faced with a profound theological and ethical dilemma after 1933 that centered around a question that has plagued German Protestantism since Martin Luther: Does the church provide normative guidance for the state or must it merely obey and even actively support state policy? In addition, scholars have portrayed participants in the conflict as either protagonists or antagonists, firmly on the side of Hitler's

Hitler's Hometown under Nazi Rule: Linz, Austria, 1938–45

Nearlyfour decades have passed since the collapse of the Greater German Reich, but the subject of Nazi rule in Hitler's homeland of Austria still remains something of a mystery. While the appearance of pioneering works by Karl Stadler, Radomir Luža, Gerhard Botz, and John Bernbaum, among others, has illuminated the landscape of what until recently wasterra incognita, a great many dark valleys and ravines still remain. The purpose of this essay is to examine Nazi control in the Upper Austrian city of Linz as a means of addressing certain unresolved issues of Central European history such as the degree of Austrian participation, support, or acceptance of the Hitler regime, the role of the Roman Catholic Church, the extent of German penetration of Austrian institutions after 1938, and the impact of fascist industrialization in transforming and modernizing Austrian society. Linz should make a particularly interesting test case since it has long mirrored the currents and ambiguities of Central European history. The boyhood home of Hitler, Eichmann, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, it was a center of German Nationalist agitation before World War I, a model of democratic propriety during the 1920s, and a major battlefield of the Austrian Civil War of 1934. Rapidly evolving from a bastion of Social Democracy into a stronghold of National Socialism, it was a focus of the Anschluss in 1938 and the recipient of lavish aid from its Führer-son thereafter. What occurred in the Danubian city between 1938 and 1945 foreshadowed something of Hitler's intentions, not simply for Austria but also for much of the Greater German Reich.

Christian Responsibility And Industrial Relations: Reconciliation Or Revolution?

During the 1979 General Election campaign, industrial relations featured as a prominent issue. Indeed, it might correctly be claimed that the general public in confidently voting in Margaret Thatcher, were voting against the alleged misuse of trade union power. Rising prices, falling standards of living and increasing violence have been popularly attributed to “big unions” striking against each other, against the housewife and against the general public. In a speech only days before the last government fell, Mrs Thatcher outlined the Conservative package to restore stability to Britain’s economic and social order: the statutory inhibiting of trade union activity, the enforcement of law and order, the creation of wealth and the reward of individual success. Such opinion was supported in the press and on television by editorial comment, by criticism of union power from the judiciary, and a former chief of police comparing union power with the Nazi control of Germany in the 1930s. The general election result and subsequent cabinet appointments indicate an important change in British politics. The electorate have voted for a radical change and they have voted for the politics and economics of the right. Characteristically, a society in crisis has opted for regression, the reassertion of old hierarchies, values and judgements, with the hope, in particular, of turning back the menace of union power, which, it is claimed, is a threat to the social order. Such perspectives have become the commonplace explanation of the world and of industrial relations in particular, and they have been clothed in the habit of St Francis of Assisi, setting them in the context of the Christian struggle for peace.

“The New Elite:” Nazi Leadership in austria, 1938–1945

On the morning of March 12, 1938, the German Eighth Army began its invasion of Austria. By early evening the takeover had proved to be remarkably successful, and that night a jubilant Hitler traveled to Linz to make his first speech on Austrian soil in the capacity of chancellor. The following day he issued a basic law of incorporation providing for Austria to become a province of the German Reich—an act that initiated Austria's tragic seven-year experience under Nazi control.

Icon and Swastika: The Russian Orthodox Church under Nazi and Soviet Control. Harvey Fireside

<i>Icon and Swastika: The Russian Orthodox Church under Nazi and Soviet Control</i>. Harvey Fireside

Icon and Swastika. The Russian Orthodox Church under Nazi and Soviet Control

Icon and Swastika. The Russian Orthodox Church under Nazi and Soviet Control

The Nazi Control of the German Film Industry

The Nazi Control of the German Film Industry

Oskar Maria Graf

The National Socialist government of Germany was hostile to all modernistic movements in literature and art and to all liberal political and social ideas. It forced into exile or into concentration camps many German writers who had flourished during the period from 1914 to 1934, and it publicly burned their writings. Some of those who went into exile formed centers of German literary life in such cities as Zurich, Amsterdam, and Paris; others took up residence in the United States, Mexico, Palestine, and Russia. Among the notable writers who went into exile were Hermann Broch, Robert Musil, Alfred D6blin, Bruno Frank, Carl Zuckmayer, Alfred Neumann, Franz Werfel, Arnold Zweig, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, and Oskar Maria Graf (deceased June 28, 1967). Because of the regimentation of opinion and the persecution of writers of independent thought, new writers of importance did not appear in Germany during the period of Nazi control.

Key German Cartels under the Nazi Regime

Introduction: impact of the Nazi economic policy on the cartels, 576. — I. Potash: early developments, 577; the 1919 legislation, 578; operations under the 1919 law, 582; the International Potash Cartel, 582; penetration of the American potash industry, 584; the Potash Cartel and Combines under the Nazi regime, 585. — II. Cement: pre-Nazi market controls, 588; early stages of Nazi control, 589; the cement industry during the war, 591; the International Cement Cartel, 594.

Note on Effect of Denazification upon Property Rights in Germany

An important result of the denazification program as it has been conducted in the American occupation zone of Germany has been a considerable shift in the control of business enterprise. This shift was necessary if we were to eliminate Nazi control of the economy of the country. The accompanying abrogation of basic property rights was largely unforeseen and unintended, but it is laying the groundwork for serious legal problems, creating a situation where fraud and graft are certain to be widespread, and making it difficult to establish confidence in democratic legal processes in the minds of the German people. During the first few months of occupation Military Government centered its attention in the program of denazification of business primarily upon elimination of Nazi control from the banking system and the large corporations. It was realized by the end of the summer of 1945 that a complete program of denazification of business could not be carried out through direct action by the limited number of Military Government officers. As a result a law was put into effect by military authorities which placed upon the owners or managers of business enterprises the responsibility for seeing that Nazis were removed from any positions of control. The intention naturally was to shift to the German people the responsibility for removing Nazi controls in industry and to leave with Military Government personnel only the work of checking to see that the law was obeyed and of taking action where disobedience or evasion became apparent. Such a program was quite feasible in the larger business organizations where the elimination of a Nazi executive meant only that another employee moved up to take the position, although usually the top group of executives was so loaded with Nazis that a very minor employee had to be shifted suddenly into a position of responsibility. The greatest difficulty of the new program revealed itself in connection with the large number of small establishments such as bakeries, shoe-repair shops, groceries, clothing stores, etc. During a time of severe consumer-goods shortage Nazis at the head of even small businesses of this type were in positions of real importance and might well influence public opinion by judicious release of scarce items. But the fact that ownership, management, and technical skill were all combined in the person of the Nazi owner of the shop made it obvious that a policy of replacement of the owner by one of his employees was not the solution to the

EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION

THE present phase of the War seems particularly appropriate for further consideration of the possibilities arising out of the unrest which is growing in the countries of Europe at present under Nazi control, Propaganda is obviously of high importance in this connexion, and the announcement that the Government has appointed a directorate of political warfare to co-ordinate the whole of our foreign propaganda indicates awareness of the urgency of the situation; the board will include representatives of the Foreign Office, Ministries of Economic Warfare and Information, and the British Council, and the B.B.C. and other bodies will co–operate. Three recent publications referred to below* make valuable contributions to the discussion of the subject.