Under the guidance of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, Germany underwent a slow evolution that targeted racial minorities during the nineteen-thirties. Striving to create a racially pure, Hitler stressed the creation of a new, Aryan community. By dominating every aspect of societal life, the Nazi regime promised to stabilize Germany’s economy through employment opportunities, militarization, and land seizures. Furthermore, they advocated for reinstating Germany to her former, pre-Treaty of Versailles, power position. By immersing public life in Nazism, ethnic Germans became active agents in supporting, and later implementing, Hitler’s racial laws and decrees. With the promise of a people’s community, or Volksgemeinschaft, majority of Germans
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After being elected chancellor, Hitler began filling every aspect of Germany life with Nazism because he understood the necessity of popular support. Throughout the National Socialists’ campaign during the Weimar Republic, he advocated for reinstating Germany through a people’s community. This new community, known as Volksgemeinschaft, would be established on racial purity. Any German categorized as ‘alien’, ‘hereditarily ill’, or ‘asocial’, was segregated from German society and politics (Burleigh and Wippermann, 305). Nazi propaganda inferred racial impurity from the Jews had weakened the state. Once the Nazi secured political office, they began Aryanizing Germany through categorizing citizens in accordance to blood heritage. Furthermore, the Third Reich government secured the societal divide by advocating for a classless society where only Aryan-Germans lived. This meant Jews were isolated from the Aryanized German state. A large section of society, especially the working class, was attracted to potential social mobility offered by the Volksgemeinschaft. Unlike the Weimar Republic, the People’s community offered any German success, as long as they were Aryan. Furthermore, the Volksgemeinschaft was the answer to the National Socialist party as they aimed to create a classless society. Forming a people’s Community, in the name of racial superiority, had a doubling effect. Firstly, it provided the Third Reich government with a national scapegoat. Secondly, it provided the German community with an objective to work towards. Ultimately, “…ethnic Germans were exhorted to expunge citizens deemed alien and to ally themselves only with people sanctioned as racially valuable,” (Koonz, 3). Additionally, the racial legislation implemented by the Third Reich, favored no specific class, only ethnic Germans. It could even be argued
After being elected chancellor, Hitler began filling every aspect of Germany life with Nazism because he understood the necessity of popular support. Throughout the National Socialists’ campaign during the Weimar Republic, he advocated for reinstating Germany through a people’s community. This new community, known as Volksgemeinschaft, would be established on racial purity. Any German categorized as ‘alien’, ‘hereditarily ill’, or ‘asocial’, was segregated from German society and politics (Burleigh and Wippermann, 305). Nazi propaganda inferred racial impurity from the Jews had weakened the state. Once the Nazi secured political office, they began Aryanizing Germany through categorizing citizens in accordance to blood heritage. Furthermore, the Third Reich government secured the societal divide by advocating for a classless society where only Aryan-Germans lived. This meant Jews were isolated from the Aryanized German state. A large section of society, especially the working class, was attracted to potential social mobility offered by the Volksgemeinschaft. Unlike the Weimar Republic, the People’s community offered any German success, as long as they were Aryan. Furthermore, the Volksgemeinschaft was the answer to the National Socialist party as they aimed to create a classless society. Forming a people’s Community, in the name of racial superiority, had a doubling effect. Firstly, it provided the Third Reich government with a national scapegoat. Secondly, it provided the German community with an objective to work towards. Ultimately, “…ethnic Germans were exhorted to expunge citizens deemed alien and to ally themselves only with people sanctioned as racially valuable,” (Koonz, 3). Additionally, the racial legislation implemented by the Third Reich, favored no specific class, only ethnic Germans. It could even be argued