The Nazi regime was a totalitarian dictatorship led by Adolf Hitler, which ruled over Germany from 1933-1945. Throughout its existence, the regime had a notorious reputation, often characterized by the atrocities it was responsible for during the horrors of the Second World War and its many persecutions, which made the regime a phenomenon in European history. The regime has become a topic for debate amongst scholars, with many examining the motivations behind the brutal policies of the regime. A thorough examination into the regimes central policies, reveals that pragmatic thinking guided the earliest economic policies which provided the platform for more utopian ambitions to be fulfilled, thus utopian thinking shaped the major policies of
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Social policies in particular were driven by this utopian idealism as Hitler, bolstered by the the application of social Darwinism, pursued a goal of creating a pure Aryan race in Germany. Kirkpatrick highlighted that: ‘Hitler and Himmler, too, believed that God himself had created Aryans to be physically and spiritually a perfect race.’ Reichelt also noted that: ‘Hitler wanted the perfect pure race. Blond haired – blue eyed Arians.’ The Nazi utopian goal of establishing a master race, through narrow biological definitions, became central to the thinking and shaping of Nazi policies. In search for the Aryan race: ‘Hitler and the Nazi party claimed that their goal was to apply this ‘science’ of Darwinism to society.’ In turn, policies regarding youth were dictated by this thinking. Pine argued that: ‘education under National Socialism was used to disseminate the key components of Nazi ideology – in particular the creation of national identity and racial …show more content…
Goebbels wrote: ‘the mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world. This is not at all as unmodern as it sounds. The female bird pretties herself for her mate and hatches eggs for him.’ Acts such as the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage in 1933 encouraged the creation of Aryan families by providing a government loan of 1000 marks for newly married couples in which more births resulted in the loan not having to be repaid. A further signal of the regime’s commitment to its utopian goals was the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring which involved the sterilization of women who were non-Aryan. Such draconian laws exemplified the brutal extent the Nazis were willing to go in order to fulfil their visions of establishing a pure Aryan race in Germany.
This pursuit of the perfect Aryan race resulted in the persecution of many ethnic minorities in Germany, most notably the Jews. In Mein Kampf, Hitler declared the Jews as incompatible with his ideal Aryan race. He argued that: ‘the Jew has always been a people with definite racial characteristics and never a religion.’ Historian Gonen has argued that Germany needed: ‘a destruction of the Jews and a redemptive utopia for the Aryan race.’ In their aim to purify the Aryan race, the Nazis introduced
Social policies in particular were driven by this utopian idealism as Hitler, bolstered by the the application of social Darwinism, pursued a goal of creating a pure Aryan race in Germany. Kirkpatrick highlighted that: ‘Hitler and Himmler, too, believed that God himself had created Aryans to be physically and spiritually a perfect race.’ Reichelt also noted that: ‘Hitler wanted the perfect pure race. Blond haired – blue eyed Arians.’ The Nazi utopian goal of establishing a master race, through narrow biological definitions, became central to the thinking and shaping of Nazi policies. In search for the Aryan race: ‘Hitler and the Nazi party claimed that their goal was to apply this ‘science’ of Darwinism to society.’ In turn, policies regarding youth were dictated by this thinking. Pine argued that: ‘education under National Socialism was used to disseminate the key components of Nazi ideology – in particular the creation of national identity and racial …show more content…
Goebbels wrote: ‘the mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world. This is not at all as unmodern as it sounds. The female bird pretties herself for her mate and hatches eggs for him.’ Acts such as the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage in 1933 encouraged the creation of Aryan families by providing a government loan of 1000 marks for newly married couples in which more births resulted in the loan not having to be repaid. A further signal of the regime’s commitment to its utopian goals was the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring which involved the sterilization of women who were non-Aryan. Such draconian laws exemplified the brutal extent the Nazis were willing to go in order to fulfil their visions of establishing a pure Aryan race in Germany.
This pursuit of the perfect Aryan race resulted in the persecution of many ethnic minorities in Germany, most notably the Jews. In Mein Kampf, Hitler declared the Jews as incompatible with his ideal Aryan race. He argued that: ‘the Jew has always been a people with definite racial characteristics and never a religion.’ Historian Gonen has argued that Germany needed: ‘a destruction of the Jews and a redemptive utopia for the Aryan race.’ In their aim to purify the Aryan race, the Nazis introduced