Nazim as Totalitarianism Essay - 1812 Words

The Oxford Dictionary defines totalitarianism as ‘a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state’ . A totalitarian regime possesses power over affairs of the state and its inhabitants under one party and bears no opposition. A key attribute of a totalitarian government is that is looks to shape the mind and actions of society through determination, philosophy, and in general, force. Historians argue that in Nazism, ‘the value of the totalitarian concept seems extremely limited’ as they compare the regime to other totalitarian states. They state that Nazism could not have been totalitarianism because it wasn’t as organized and monolithically structured as Stalin’s Russia. The†¦show more content†¦This notion is evident through the key characteristic features of totalitarianism possessed under Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The first element of a totalitarian state encompassed by Nazism is the charismatic leadership of a totalitarian dictator. Hitler was the political leader of Nazi Germany and was referred to as Der Fuhrer. Hitler remained irrefutably unchallenged for the duration of the Third Reich especially following the elimination of the leaders of the Sturm- Abteilung (SA) on Die Nacht der langen Messer (The Night of Long Knives) 30 June 1934. Through the publicity of Hitler, he became much more than a politician to the p ersonification of a nation’s hopes and ambitions. The consolidation of the Nazi Party grew to such an extent that they became the only existing party in Germany by July 1933. The Enabling Act of March 24 1993 gave Hitler the ultimate control of the Reichstag by allowing him to alter the constitution and pass laws without the approval of the Reichstag or president. The bill was passed 441 votes to 94 with two-thirds of the Reichstag in opposition to Democracy. Hitler then began banning and abolishing party after party until there remained none, and by 14 July 1933, passed the Law Against the New Establishment of Political Parties. Article 1 of the Act stated ‘The National Socialist German Workers’ Party constitutes the only political party in Germany’ and the following Article