Epilogue

The Epilogue considers the core questions raised in earlier chapters: the place of National Socialism in German history and what it meant to be ‘German’ after the defeat of Nazism. Trials of leading figures in the regime in 1945–9 were a first step, but addressing responsibility for Nazi crimes was a prolonged and uneven process. How Germans confronted the Nazi past was affected by the establishment of two separate German states in 1949, the Cold War, the unification of Germany in 1990, and the eventual development of an international culture of Holocaust.

8. War

‘War’ focuses on German political and military strategies after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, when Hitler could see the prize of unassailable continental dominance within reach. With Nazi power at its greatest extent in 1942, the chapter discusses the markedly different Nazi occupation regimes in the west and the east, and the turn towards defeat in 1943. Hitler’s insistence on unremitting resistance caused massive loss of life on the military and home fronts, brought to an end only with his suicide and with Germany’s official capitulation on 8 May.

6. Volksgemeinschaft

‘Volksgemeinschaft: Control and belonging’ describes ordinary life under Nazi power, and suggests that a binary model of support versus opposition does not do justice to the range of experiences and attitudes. Germans who were neither forcibly excluded from the community nor enthusiastic supporters of Nazism faced often mundane decisions about their conduct. While many had to suspend or disguise old habits and daily behaviours, the claims of Volksgemeinschaft ran far beyond their realization. Class distinctions did not vanish, a ‘traditional’ gender order was not re-established, Germans did not all become Nazis.

1. Hitler myths

‘Hitler myths’ introduces the history of National Socialism through three myths or images encapsulating different dimensions of the power attached to Hitler and his regime: the claims that Hitler had survived long after 1945; the image of a monolithic, all-powerful totalitarian regime commanding mass obedience; and the power of Germans’ belief in ‘the Führer’ to reconcile them to Nazi dictatorship. Each offers a key to the history of Nazi Germany: the nature of power and leadership; the relationship between ideology, consent, and terror; and the climax of war and genocide.

3. From Munich to Berlin (via Weimar)

The ‘Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei’ (National Socialist German Workers’ Party), was a product of the new political and social universe of post-war Germany. ‘From Munich to Berlin (via Weimar)’ traces the history of the NSDAP from its early base in Munich to the appointment of Hitler as chancellor in January 1933, paying particular attention to the party’s regional base. It explains the popular appeal of the Nazi party beyond the core of believers; the impact of the Depression; and the crisis of elite politics that brought the party to power.

9. From terror to genocide

War sanctioned and normalized mass terror and murder, blunted ethical reservations, and emphasized the insignificance of individual lives compared with the survival of the ‘Aryan’ race and utopian visions of its future. ‘From terror to genocide’ considers how the Nazi regime moved from persecution to mass murder—from the expanded concentration camp system to the ‘euthanasia’ of the mentally and physically handicapped—and pays close attention to the complicated path by which a ‘final solution of the Jewish question’—genocide—emerged in eastern Europe and Russia.

5. Volksgemeinschaft

‘Volksgemeinschaft: Community and exclusion’ considers how the Nazi leadership attempted to create an integral national racial community, or Volksgemeinschaft. The foundation of this community was the violent exclusion of all those deemed unfit for membership according to biological, eugenic, or racial criteria. Radical new policies aimed to force the complex mosaic of German society into a weapon for demographic growth, racial struggle, and territorial expansion. At its apex was the systematic discrimination and violent persecution of Germany’s Jewish citizens.

7. Preparing for war

Hitler saw war not simply as a rational vehicle of policy, but also as an incarnation of his own and Germany’s destiny, a belief that justified the extraordinary risks he repeatedly took. ‘Preparing for war’ examines Hitler’s primary ambition to conquer German ‘living space’ (Lebensraum) in the east, and his plans for a pan-European ‘New Order’ freed from Bolshevism, plutocracy, and international Judaism. It also discusses Germany’s economic and political preparations for war, its territorial acquisitions before the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and its victories in western Europe in 1940.

4. Power

The Nazi leadership was ill-prepared for the exercise of state power. Before 1933 the Nazi Party had been dedicated to gaining power through mass mobilization and the disruption of democratic government, and its leadership was held together by personal loyalty to their Führer rather than a shared programme. These qualities were unpropitious for the tasks of government. ‘Power’ explains the hybrid dictatorship that ensued, mingling three competitive sources of power: the inherited state system; the extra-legal terror of police, SS (Schutzstaffel), and concentration camps; and the personal status of the Führer.

2. National Socialism

‘National Socialism’ argues that the roots of Nazi ideology and politics can be traced to Germany and Austria between 1890 and 1914, the era when Hitler and other leading Nazis came of age. It highlights the emergence of radical visions of identity and community in imperial Germany, and their disruption by the unexpected outcome of the First World War. Defeat, revolution, and republic changed the rules of German politics, splitting the country and amplifying the political ambitions, ideological belligerence, and antisemitism of the radical right.