Gleichschaltung: The flawless scheme in gaining control over the citizens of Northeim. Unification is another word for Gleichschaltung. The Nazis emphasizes unification of the German race. One can see this playing out in Northeim on a small spectrum. The town consisted of various interest clubs that focused on: economy, nationalism, religion, etc... The Nazis were able to target these diverse ranges of clubs, infiltrating their stance into clubs’ ideologies, winning their votes.
I was intrigued to study the Nazis’ technique in winning the hearts of Germany. While the Nazis had some outrages methods to attract audiences (such as the battle of the bands fiasco), their broad outreach becomes the basis of their support.
Looking back on the reading, I see how clever and devious the Nazi’s were in emphasizing unification. Creating unification of the ‘German race’ made the Germans feel a sense of nationalistic community. The Nazi party was able to put this unified community solely under their control. Allen writes about the effects of the Nazi power on the community, “to a great extent the individual was atomized. By the process of Gleichschaltung individuals had a choice: solitude or mass relationship via some Nazi organization…By it [Gleichschaltung] the externals of the rigid class structure were destroyed, and Northeimers were molded into the kind of unorganized mass that dictators like so well.” (p.232) The Nazis succeeded in creating this ‘unorganized mass’, where society’s lack of structure allowed the Nazi party to intervene, taking charge of this mass.
This image nearly parallels the process of herding sheep. How do you make sheep happy? Sheep (Northeimers) seem like content animals (people) but introduce them to wolves (antagonists) and you will produce fear. So now how do you then make them feel safe? You provide a solution that will surpass the living condition than what they live in now. For example, a fenced-in field that protects against wolves, but not the power of the herders. This represents a similar sly Nazi totalitarianism tactic: convincing Germans to give up their freedom in order to live under a totalitarian rule that claims to ameliorate life.
I agree with Cat in this post and agree that the Nazi continuous promotion of the ideal “German race” played a large role in gaining power. The Nazis strongly emphasized autonomy, and used it as a tool in unifying the people to do what they wanted. To the average Northeimer, they seemed to be a well-organized political party with favorable goals, a youth backing, and a knack for rooting itself into the community. After gaining the trust of the people, it allowed the Nazis to get away with more things without the people thinking something is amiss. I agree with the sheep analogy, as the Nazis preached change, they instilled laws such as the Gleichschaltung, and even acts of social violence against political enemies. However, they told the people (who believed them or were otherwise too afraid to say otherwise) that this is what it takes for change to occur, and that even though some of these methods might be harsh, it is all with the goal of the prosperity of the German race in mind.
ReplyDeleteWith every reading, I have grown more and more fascinated by how strategically the Nazis approached the masses and permeated their every domain. I found the sheep analogy to perfectly illuminate the Nazi phenomenon and it does so very cleverly. Allen continually suggests how the Nazi’s capitalized on the close-knit community of Northeim and by adding a unifying component, such as race, to get at the nationalistic core of the community was yet another illustration of how tactfully the Nazis enveloped an entire community. They understood how essential it was to gain the trust of the people and perhaps even anticipated that once their trust was attained they could implement any laws and essentially eradicate anything that could potentially stand in opposition to Nazism without the people becoming weary because by then the Nazi’s had built themselves an image of trust and an image of a group which would accomplish things. Provides insight and gives one perspective as to how these seemingly good people could become so involved in what we consider such a horrific movement/organization.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cat and James. I think it is interesting the way that the Nazis targeted divisions in order to ultimately create unification. They did this, as Cat and James described, by inserting themselves into all facets of daily life and finding a way to appeal to different social classes, clubs, and lifestyles. They recognized the differences in these groups while still uniting them with the common ground of German unification. The Nazis also promoted unification through division on a larger scale: they united the German people on the premise of separating them from "inferior" races. Both of these methods allowed people to feel as if they were keeping their individual beliefs and lifestyles, while still uniting under a much greater cause.
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