Gleichschaltung , meaning "
coordination", "making the
same", "bringing into line", is a
Nazi
term for the process by which the
Nazi
regime successively established a system of
totalitarian control over the individual, and
tight coordination over all aspects of society and commerce. The
historian
Richard J. Evans offered the term
"forcible-coordination" in his most recent work on
Nazi Germany.
One goal
of this policy was to eliminate individualism by forcing everybody to adhere
to a specific doctrine and way of thinking and to control as many
aspects of life as possible using an invasive police force
.
Overview
The period from 1933 to around 1937 was characterized by the
systematic elimination of non-Nazi organizations that could
potentially influence people, such as
trade
unions and
political parties.
Those critical of Hitler's agenda, especially his close ties with
industry, were suppressed, intimidated or permanently silenced. The
regime also assailed the influence of the
churches, for example by instituting the
Ministry of
Ecclesiastical Affairs under
Hanns
Kerrl. Organizations that the administration could not
eliminate, such as the education system, came under its direct
control.
The
Gleichschaltung also included the formation of various
organisations with compulsory membership for segments of the
population, in particular the youth. Boys served as apprentices in
the
Pimpfen ("cubs") beginning at
the age of six, and at age 10, entered the
Deutsches Jungvolk ("Young German
Boys") and served there until entering the
Hitler Youth proper at age 14. Boys remained
there until age 18, at which time they entered into the
Arbeitsdienst ("Labor
Service") and the armed forces (
Wehrmacht). Girls became part of the
Jungmädel ("Young Maidens") at age 10,
and at age 14 were enrolled in the
Bund Deutscher Mädel ("League
of German Maidens"). At 18 BDM members went generally to the
eastern territory for their
Pflichtdienst, or
Landjahr,– a year of labor on a farm. In 1936 membership
of the Hitler Youth numbered just under 6 million.
For workers an all-embracing recreational organization called
Kraft durch Freude
("Strength through Joy") was set up. In Nazi Germany, even hobbies
were regimented; all private clubs (whether they be for chess,
football, or woodworking) were brought under the control of
KdF and, in turn, the Nazi Party. The
Kraft
durch Freude organization provided vacation trips (skiing,
swimming, concerts, ocean cruises, and so forth). With some 25
million members, KdF was the largest of the many organizations
established by the Nazis. Workers were also brought in line with
the party through activities such as the
Reichsberufswettkampf, a national
vocational competition.
Specific measures
In a more specific sense,
Gleichschaltung refers to the
legal measures taken by the government during the first months
following January 30, 1933, when
Adolf
Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany.
It was in this sense that the term was used by the Nazis
themselves.
- One day after the Reichstag fire
on February 27, 1933, President of
Germany Paul von Hindenburg,
acting at Hitler's request and on the basis of the emergency powers
in article 48 of
the Weimar Constitution, issued
the Reichstag Fire Decree.
This
decree suspended most human rights
provided for by the constitution and thus allowed for the arrest of
political adversaries, mostly Communists,
and for general terrorizing by the Sturmabteilung
(SA) to intimidate the voters before the upcoming
election.
- In this atmosphere the Reichstag general election of
March 5, 1933 took place. These yielded only a slim majority for
Hitler's coalition government
and no majority for Hitler's own Nazi
party.
- When the newly-elected Reichstag first convened on
March 23, 1933, (not including the Communist delegates, since their
party had already been banned by that time) it passed the Enabling Act
(Ermächtigungsgesetz), transferring all legislative powers
to the Nazi government and, in effect, abolishing the remainder of
the Weimar constitution as a whole. Soon afterwards the government
banned the Social
Democratic party, which had voted against the Act, while the
other parties chose to dissolve themselves to avoid arrests and
concentration camp
imprisonment.
- The "First Gleichschaltung Law" (Erstes
Gleichschaltungsgesetz) (March 31, 1933) gave the governments
of the Länder the same
legislative powers that the Reich government had received
through the Enabling Act.
- A "Second Gleichschaltung Law" (Zweites
Gleichschaltungsgesetz) (April 7, 1933) deployed one
Reichsstatthalter (proconsul) in
each state, apart from Prussia. These
officers were supposed to act as local presidents in each state, appointing the
governments. For Prussia, which constituted
the vast majority of Germany anyway, Hitler reserved these rights
for himself.
- The
trade union association ADGB (Allgemeiner Deutscher
Gewerkschaftsbund) was shattered on May 2, 1933 (the day
after Labor Day), when SA and NSBO
(Nationalsozialistische
Betriebszellenorganisation) units occupied union
facilities and ADGB leaders were imprisoned. Other important
associations including trade unions were forced to merge with the
German Labor Front (Deutsche
Arbeitsfront (DAF)), to which all workers had to belong.
- The Gesetz gegen die Neubildung von Parteien ("Law
against the establishment of political parties") (July 14, 1933)
forbade any creation of new political parties.
- The Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reiches ("Law
concerning the reconstruction of the Reich") (January 30,
1934) abandoned the concept of a federal republic. Instead, the
political institutions of the Länder were practically
abolished altogether, passing all powers to the central government.
A law dated February 14, 1934 dissolved the Reichsrat, the representation of
the Länder at the federal level.
- In the
summer of 1934 Hitler instructed the SS
to kill
Ernst Röhm and other leaders of the
Nazi party's SA, former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and several aides to
former Chancellor Franz von Papen in
the so-called Night of the Long
Knives (June 30, 1934/July 1, 1934). These measures
received retrospective sanction in a special one-article Law
Regarding Measures of State Self-Defense (Gesetz über Maßnahmen
der Staatsnotwehr) (July 3, 1934).
- At nine o'clock in the morning of August 2, 1934, Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg died at the age of
86. Three hours before, the government had issued a law to take
effect the day of his death; this prescribed that the office of the
Reichspräsident should be united
with that of the Reichskanzler and that the competencies
of the former should be transferred to the "Führer und Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler", as
the law stated. Hitler henceforth demanded the use of that title.
Thus the last separation of
powers was abolished. Following the Reichswehr purge of 1938, Hitler could be
described as the absolute dictator of Germany until his suicide in
1945.
Etymology
Gleichschaltung, as a
compound
word, is better comprehended by those who speak other languages
by listing its predecessory uses in German. The word
gleich in German means
alike,
equal, or
the same;
schaltung means something like
switching. The word Gleichschaltung had two uses in German
for physical, rather than political, meanings:
- A locking clutch, as used in some
machines for connecting two shafts that would otherwise rotate
freely such that they rotate at the same speed when in the locked
condition.
- A certain means of wiring an alternating current electrical generator, and AC electric
motors, so that when the generator is made to turn at a given
speed, or even turned a certain angle, each motor connected to it
will also turn at that speed, or to the same angle. This is the
meaning which is most commonly referred to explain the Nazi use of
the word: the political party is considered the generator, and
every member of a professional group or society is considered a
motor wired to it. See selsyn.
However, because of the Nazi associations of the term, its use for
these physical meanings has largely been abandoned since the
war.
Sources and further reading
- Karl Kroeschell, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte 3 (seit
1650), 2nd ed. 1989, ISBN 3-531-22139-6
- Karl Kroeschell, Rechtsgeschichte Deutschlands im 20.
Jahrhundert, 1992, ISBN 3-8252-1681-0
- Lebendiges virtuelles Museum Online: Die
Errichtung des Einparteienstaats 1933
- Claudia Koonz The Nazi
Conscience. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 2003.
- Karl Dietrich Bracher
"Stages of Totalitarian "Integration" (Gleichschaltung):
The Consolidation of National Socialist Rule in 1933 and 1934"
pages 109–128 from Republic To Reich The Making of the Nazi
Revolution Ten Essays edited by Hajo
Holborn, New York: Pantheon Books, 1972.
- Everett HughesThe
"Gleichschaltung" of the German Statistical Yearbook: A Case in
Professional Political Neutrality. The American
Statistician Vol. IX (December, 1955, pp. 8–11.
Notes
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