Introduction

● Brief overview of Hitler's rise to power

● Thesis statement: There were complex and multifaceted strategies employed by Hitler and
the Nazis to maintain control over the state.
● Preview of topics: control of institutions, propaganda and ideology, repression and
surveillance, economic policies and social engineering

I. Control of Institutions and Bureaucracy

● Hitler's manipulation of existing institutions
○ The Enabling Act and the legal framework for authoritarian rule
○ Subversion of the judiciary and legal system
● Kershaw's perspective on the co-optation of bureaucracy
○ How Hitler transformed the state apparatus to serve Nazi goals
○ Control over key government offices and agencies
○ 'charismatic authority', coupled with the bureaucratic capacity of a highly modern
state system.
○ “Hitler’s personalized form of rule invited radical initiatives from below and offered
such initiatives backing, so long as they were in line with his broadly defined goals.
This promoted ferocious competition at all levels of the regime”
● Link back to the Thesis that is it complex and multifaceted

II. Propaganda and Ideological Indoctrination

● Role of propaganda in shaping public opinion
○ Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
○ Manipulation of media, art, and education
● Kershaw’s perspective on propaganda as a tool for sustaining control
○ Kershaw argues that the Nazis wanted more than to terrorise the people into
submission. They wanted to win the people over to the idea of Nazism and mobilise
the German spirit.
○ Hitler cult placed all successes at HItler’s door
● Link back to the Thesis that is it complex and multifaceted

III. Repression and Surveillance

● Establishment and role of the Gestapo
○ Evans’ assessment of the Gestapo's power
○ Evans makes the point that Nazi control could reach down to the lowest levels. He
describes how every group of houses or flats had a ‘block warden’. These were low
level officials who checked on a group of about fifty families to see that they were
sufficiently enthusiastic about the regime, e.g. hanging out Nazi bunting, attending
rallies.
● Surveillance state and the role of the SS
○ Shirer’s analysis of the SS and its influence
○ Examination of the impact of widespread surveillance on the German population
○ Shirer describes the activities of the Security Service, the Sicherheitsdienst or SD.
The SD was the intelligence branch of the SS formed by Himmler but placed under
the control of Reinhard Heydrich.
 ● The climate of fear and self-censorship
○ 1. Voices of dissent and resistance silenced
● Link back to the Thesis that is it complex and multifaceted

IV. Economic Policies and Social Engineering

● Economic strategies to maintain loyalty and support
○ AJP Taylor's views on the economic success of the Nazi regime:
○ The role of public works projects and military expansion in economic stability
○ A.J.P. Taylor similarly gave the Nazis credit for creating widespread prosperity,
concluding, "The Nazi secret was not armament production; it was freedom from the
then orthodox principles of economics. Government spending provided all the happy
effects of mild inflation; while political dictatorship, with its destruction of trade unions
and rigorous exchange control, prevented such unfortunate consequences as a rise in
wages, or in prices."
● Social engineering and control of public life
○ Nazification of society and the suppression of dissenting voices - Volksgemeinschaft
and the German Volk
○ Examples of social policies from Kershaw's analysis: Kershaw tends here to place
emphasis more on Hitler’s symbolic rather than personal role in the intensification of
persecution of Untermenschen (undesirables), in particular the Jewish people.
Commenting on the pre-war period, he notes: “Hitler needed to do little to push
forward the radicalization of the ‘Jewish Question’” (vol. I, p. 573). In regard to the
anti-Jewish violence in 1935, and the preparation of the Nuremberg Laws, he views
Hitler primarily as a leader acting under pressure from the party’s rank-and-file.
● Link back to the Thesis that is it complex and multifaceted

Conclusion
● Recap of key strategies employed by Hitler and Nazism: propaganda and ideology,
repression and surveillance, control of institutions, economic policies and social
engineering
● Consideration of the lasting impact of these mechanisms on the Nazi state and German
society
● Final thoughts on the complexities of maintaining control in authoritarian regimes.