Germany As A Totalitarian State (1 Viewer)

[miss-teek]

Hi, in the trials, who did 'To what extent was Germany Totalitarian in the period - 1933 - 1945? I did, and I only got 13 / 20. Could someone please help me with this subject; our teacher seems to think we'll get the same question in the HSC and tomorrow I have to write an essay on it in class. Please help me!

 

[*dont_tempt_me*]

modern trial

hey miss-teck, i did that question and today i got my result, i have no idea how i got it but i got 17 out of 20. Um basically you just have to talk about how wether you think if hilter had total control of germany such as in education, how he targeted three groups women, youth and industrial workers, through mass media, thru propaganda, cinema, radio e.t.c, and how he had control over the poeple thru nazi ideology. thats kind of a breif ober view of what i wrote, i cant tell you all of it coz she just handed it back to see the mark that we got coz poeple that were sick are doing theres now. best of luck. msg if you need further help

 

[miss-teek]

thank you very much i hope i go OK when we have to write about it tomorrow i thought i did well but......what international study do you do

 

[*dont_tempt_me*]

modern

i do germany 1918-1945, its pretty boring what about you

 

[miss-teek]

the same what about internation eg Arab - Israeli, Indonchina...........

 

[*dont_tempt_me*]

modern

sorry i wasnt with it, i am doing south africa 1948-1994, its BORING AS HELL

 

[miss-teek]

I did Arab Israeli- and I don't understand 1 bit of it!

 

[*dont_tempt_me*]

god i can imagine, and i thought i had it bad, i dont know anyone who does that topic otherwise i would of got their notes. sorry

 

[Jennibeans]

For the totalitarian question use a historian's list of criteria for totalitarianism and go through and evaluate how Hitler and Nazi Germany fit each criteria. I used Ken Webb's model.
Don't forget historiography

 

[miss-teek]

i gave my teaher my draft and she said to put in info on the role of the army; but i don't know what angle i could write from?

 

[Supra]

role of the army eh?u cud talk bout the the state within a state, i.e the ss and wehrmacht and how they enforced totalitarianism (terror state, treatement of minority groups camps etc..), and how they had to sear an oath of allegiance to hitler personally (reinforces the concept of totalitarianism)...If u want i can also type out hte charicterisitics of a totalitarian state but i doubt ud need that...ive also got wot mmy teachers wanted in that response if u wanted, very basic outline tho

 

[miss-teek]

yes please if you wouldn't mind

 

[Supra]

According to Carl Friedrich adn Zbigniew Brzezinski (they're political scientists), the characteristics of totalitarianism are:
- a single mass party usually led by a charismatic leader
- an official ideology
- total control over the economy
- control over mass communications
- a system of terror and police control
- control over the armed forces of the state

u cud basically structure the essay based on that...

 

[Supra]

and the teachers' outline:
- explain totalitarianism- one party or one rules, party control of key infrastructure e.g legal system, education, media, army, terror organisation
- gleichshaltung e.g trade unions etc.
- volksgemeinshaft e.g women youth etc.
- period of consolidation 1933-44 --> enabling act + death of hindenburg led to fuhrerhood

Thus you could argue Germany was totalitarian by control of the aforementiones elements. OR you could point out weaknesses:
- church and economy not fully controlled
- evidence of resistance e.g army (july plot), Edelweiss Pirates, organised resistance in every occupied territory
- historiography (structuralists vs intentionalists)
- polycratic nature of Nazi leadership

 

[miss-teek]

what aspect of a totalitarian state would the role of the army come under? 'Extensive use of terror' or 'the weaponry monopoly'?

 

[life4_rent]

i think the role of the army would come under 'terror'.. im not sure about it being 'extensive' but the army WERE involved in the concentration camps wher they killed the jews during the early stages of the war

btw, are we allowed to use the 'Webb' model? do our totalitarian model's have to be from well known political science dudes? went to all of Webb's lectures.. VERY USEFUL INFORMATION =)

basically just use one or two (no more than two, u'll get REALLY confused and ur under exam conditions too!) totalitarian models and keep referrgin to it throughout the essay and ASSESSING (i always forget to assess, i always go, bang, yes it was, bang, but here it wasn't) the EXTENT to which it fits the model that ur using..

hope that helps.. my teacher tends not to give us useful info. its basically us students shooting in the dark with these questions..

 

[miss-teek]

thanks that does help and i think we are allowed to use the webb model- it's basically just the friedrich model anyway so they probablye won't know the diff

 

[Candypants]

You really need to research the intentionalist and structuralists arguments for whether the Nazi state was Totalitarian or not; the former thinks it was, the latter disagrees. You need a lot of quotes to back you up.

I did this essay for the half-yearly and continued that argument throughout, but arguing either for or against the points that constitute a Totalitarian state, that Supra put up. I got 20/20.

It's actually a VERY good topic to argue - lot's to talk about - but you have to do a lot of, and I mean a LOT of research to get all those historian's opinions. I was lucky because I did an assessment on Hitler and his intentions for Nazi Germany and did a huge section on totalitarianism.

 

[Sophie777]

cANDY pants, how would you organise an essay on totalitarianism? Do you put it under sections, or what?

 

[KarmaKitten]

So you have to either argue it is or it isnt?
cant you say...yes to an extent BUT