Nazi Control

In order for Hitler to be a successful dictator, he needed to keep control over the German people as well as his own party, The Nazi party. Hitler had the the SS to help him. He reformed education, introduced the Gestapo, which was led by Heinrich Himmler, introduced people’s court, built concentration camps and because he was so anti-intellectual he succeeded. Adolf Hitler had formed a Totalitarian State.
The totalitarian state idea did not fail because Hitler had the SS at his disposal. The SS (Schutzaffel) was formed in 1925 as an elite bodyguard and after the purge of the SA in 1925; it became the Nazi’s main security force. Gradually it split into 3 main sections: one section was responsible for national security, the second was the Waffen SS – a group of highly skilled and dependable soldiers who fought alongside the regular army and the last section was the concentration camps which were later transformed into death camps. Hitler had also introduced the Geneime Staatzpolizei (Gestapo) which was a police force that was ruthless in dealing with opposition to the Nazis – similarly as the SS. The Gestapo’s main task was to spy on people with the help of informants and render the enemies of the state.   Such enemies would be forced to sign D11 (an act that stated that the arrested person agreed to be sent to a concentration camp) and they would do hard physical labour before getting released after 6 months. This way the society was scared to oppose the Nazis as they knew what awaited them if they did.
Another way in which Hitler controlled the German population was by installing the People’s Court. This was set up to try people who opposed the Nazi regime. Because the judges were loyal Nazis the number of political prisoners increased dramatically.
Perhaps the most successful way in which Hitler controlled the people was propaganda and through reforming the German curriculum. When talking about propaganda, it is inevitable to mention Joseph Goebells – who...