The Age of Catastrophe: A History of the West 1914–1945 by Heinrich August Winkler

Author:Heinrich August Winkler
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Europe, 20th Century, Modern, Germany, World, History
ISBN: 9780300213096
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2015-09-27T23:00:00+00:00

different regions and transferring their sovereign jurisdiction to the Reich itself. From then on the regional governments came under the jurisdiction of the federal government, while the regional governors were placed under the supervision of the minister of the interior. The result was a far-reaching change that marked the definitive victory of unitarian forces over their particularist counterpart.

The more powerful governors had little or no inclination to submit unconditionally to ministries in Berlin, and since they were repeatedly able to win over Hitler to their point of view, their opposition was by no means ineffectual. Hitler was in any case fixated on his ultimate goals and had no clear ideas on questions of internal government, with the result that he preferred to avoid having to take any decisions at all. In consequence he repeatedly frustrated tendencies that a National Socialist regime would logically have followed, notably the systematic centralization demanded by Wilhelm Frick at the Ministry of the Interior. But in a certain sense there was a method even to this lack of coherence, Hitler’s policies being directed more at ‘movement’ than at ‘order’, perpetual dynamics being impossible to reconcile with the formation of stable structures. Rivalries between his followers also had the advantage that he himself would have to be called on to arbitrate, and even if he took no decision, this still meant that he remained in charge of the game.

In his relations with the country’s Christian Churches, Hitler likewise tried to present himself as the ultimate authority in the event of conflict. Papen, as his vice-chancellor, had largely been left to deal with relations between the Reich and the Catholic Church. The result was the Concordat which, signed in the Vatican on 20 July 1933, came into force on 10 September 1933. The Catholic Church was allowed to continue to regulate its own internal affairs and received an assurance from the state that it would be able to go on running faith schools, to teach religion and to organize Church societies, including youth groups. In return the Curia agreed that the Catholic clergy should no longer undertake any political activities. In this way the government had won a partial victory, for the political neutralization of the Catholic Church was necessary if the National Socialists were to reduce its ideological influence.

In Evangelical Germany, the National Socialists had already taken control of a number of powerful bastions even before 30 January 1933, although their influence was more widespread among local parishioners than among Church leaders, who were predominantly German Nationalist in their outlook. In the Prussian Church elections in November 1932 the National Socialist German Christian Faith Movement, which occasionally styled itself the ‘SA of Jesus Christ’ and the ‘Church SA, had already won one-third of the seats. In advance of the Evangelical Church elections in July 1933 Hitler - nominally still a Catholic - broadcast an appeal from Bayreuth, where he was attending that summer’s Wagner Festival, inviting his radio audience to vote for the Christian Faith Movement.

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