Hi there, I studied German history from 1871-1945 at college last year and one of the focussed case studies was on the nature of German support and opposition to nazi rule. It is a very controversial topic, and the consensus has changed a lot over the past 70 years and even the past 20. I'll copy and paste my summary notes I used when revising for exams (I got an A if that's any reassurance lol). They're pretty concise, but TL;DR: Germans supported the Nazis on quite a large scale in the 1930s but it declined during WW2. Non-conformity was more widespread than previously thought however it was never serious enough to pose a real threat to the regime.
GERMANS SUPPORTED THE NAZIS
Genuine – especially on Hitler’s accession / Early rule
• Newfound stability/prosperity contrasted to Weimar’s austerity, humiliation and chaos • Unemployment: 1932: 6-9 million, 1938: 0.2 million (PROV: Jews, women, conscripts excluded) = success • Ignoring Treaty of Versailles reparations and foreign policy successes/war gains (Rhineland, Sudetenland, Poland, France) • Nazis definitely supported before rule began: Volksgemeinschaft = appealed to patriotic Germans everywhere (cross class appeal), strength through joy won over workers • 1932 election: 37.3% of the vote, 1933: 33% - these are the hardest facts there are for Germans' support • Nazis kept promises of ‘making Germany great again’
Germans were indoctrinated:
• Goebbels’ Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda: in all walks of life – radio/film technology utilised to indoctrinate the nation • Hitler Myth: strong/omnipotent/benevolent leader Germans craved • Terror spun by media; Dachau concentration camp given fanfare/publicity • Most found little difficulty in conforming. resistance hugely absent, never huge problem of revolt or widespread strikes • Co-operation with Terror: -Gestapo structurally impossible to function without co-operation -50 Gestapo officers in Frankfurt (600,000 people) -80-90% crimes reported to Gestapo were denunciation of neighbours • Terror supported (especially 1933-1936) because “many still believed that the police and the laws were there to protect them.” i.e. with the Reichstag fire, fear of communism • Terror was targeted (didn’t affect most Germans but communists/Jews) • Germans made a grim pact. Freedoms willingly resigned as lesser of two evils in favour of peace from perceived communist threat
GERMANS DIDN'T SUPPORTED NAZIS
Support wasn’t genuine: Terror & Fear
• Fear of aforementioned denunciations, informers, SS brutality • Gestapo may have been small but were perceived to be omniscient • There was a polymorphous system of control -> social pressures (e.g. not saying Heil Hitler), block wardens, unannounced Gestapo inspections
Widespread minor opposition existed
• The historian Broszat theorised a complex nature of resistance: Resistenz (non conformity), Opposition (e.g. strikes) and Active Resistance • Resistenz widespread; only form of resistance achievable to most • Many lived a double life; apathy or non-conformity: private grumbling, women, youths • Most conformed, but most Germans weren't active Nazis. • 400 strikes 1933-1935 (probably more), HOWEVER they were never too serious and often conceded to • Churches were most autonomous non-Nazi body, opposing Euthenasia and Oldenburg 1937 (crucifixes) successful -> HOWEVER it was single-issue driven and not coherent • Resistenz increased post-1943 with deteriorating WW2: food shortages, propaganda unable to censor bombings killing 300,000 people and the losing defensive war • WW2: drop in Hitler Youth standards, increased church attendance • Most were only capable of Resistenz because discontent was atomised into a thousand individual voices due to illegality of free speech, banned parties, aforementioned social pressures, Enabling Act & Terror
Active Resistance existed, escalated with WW2
• Communists/priests etc. arrested because they were a threat; they could and did resist • 45,000 camp prisoners in April 1933 • Serious assassination attempts before WW2: Beck-Goebbler Group tried to sabotage Czech Crisis and replace Nazis with a less extreme but still authoritarian military rule • WW2: active resistance still small-scale but still increased: July Bomb Plot • KEY: during 1933-1945: 3 million arrested for political crimes, 800,000 sentenced for active resistance!!!
Conclusion
• Resistance much more widespread and complex than previously thought • HOWEVER never serious enough to pose genuine threat to regime even until 1945 • Support/opposition FLUCTUATED: widespread peacetime support, but compliant unenthusiastic support maintained through fear of terror which even then didn't stop many from not conforming/resisting. Resistance = widespread but never threatening