Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies

318 Pages·1999·1.54 MB·English

by  R. Stackelberg

Hitler’s Germany
Hitler’s Germany provides a comprehensive narrative history of Nazi Germany, and
sets it in the wider context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century German history.
The book analyses how it was possible that a national culture of such creativity and
achievement could generate such barbarism and destruction.
This book includes discussion of:
(cid:127) the relationship of Nazism to great ideological movements, such as conservatism,
socialism, liberalism, fascism and communism
(cid:127) the weakness of the Weimar democracy
(cid:127) the causes and foundations of the emergence and triumph of Nazism
(cid:127) the consolidation of Nazi power across a diverse society and in everyday life in
Hitler’s Germany
(cid:127) the aftermath of Nazism and military defeat in Germany
(cid:127) the sporadic revival of the radical right up to the present
(cid:127) the afterlife of Nazism in German historical memory
(cid:127) the challenges of writing about National Socialism
Roderick Stackelberg is the Robert K. and Ann J. Powers Professor of the
Humanities at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.

Hitler’s Germany
Origins, interpretations, legacies
Roderick Stackelberg
London and New York
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
© 1999 Roderick Stackelberg
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or
in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Stackelberg, Roderick.
Hitler’s Germany: origins, interpretations, legacies/Roderick Stackelberg
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
2. National socialism—Philosophy.
3. Hitler, Adolf, 1889–1945.
4. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945) Causes. 5. Political culture—Germany.
DD256.48.S73 1999
943.086’072–dc21 98–48166 CIP
ISBN 0-415-20114-4 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-20115-2 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-00541-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-20862-5 (GlassBook Format)
To my students at Gonzaga University—
past, present and future.

Contents
Preface ix
Introduction: the problems of writing about National
Socialism 1
1 Fascism and the conservative tradition: fascist ideology,
constituency, and conditions for its growth 12
2 The problem of German unity: absolutism and particularism 24
3 The German Empire: the containment of democracy, social
imperialism, and the road to war 33
4 Germanic ideology: nationalism, vulgarized idealism, and
anti-Semitism 42
5 The First World War: the crisis of imperial Germany 54
6 The Weimar Republic and the weakness of liberal democracy 63
7 The collapse of the Weimar Republic: the Great Depression
and the rise of the Nazis 82
8 The Nazi consolidation of power, 1933–4 100
9 Society, culture, and the state in the Third Reich, 1933–9 119
10 Persecution of the Jews, 1933–39 145
viii Contents
11 The origins of the Second World War 156
12 The Second World War: from European to global war, 1939–41 181
13 The Second World War: from triumph to defeat, 1942–5 199
14 The Holocaust 215
15 Continuities and new beginnings: the aftermath of National
Socialism and war 233
16 The historians’ debate: the place of Hitler’s Reich in German
history and memory 249
Notes 263
Select bibliography 279
Index 299
Preface
The purpose of this book is twofold: first, to provide an accurate and
reasonably complete narrative account of the period of Nazi rule and the
events leading up to it; and equally importantly, to provide an interpretive
framework that makes some sense out of this extraordinary episode in
German and European history. The scholarly literature on National Socialism
has grown to huge proportions since the fall of the Third Reich more than
half a century ago. My aim throughout has been to make some of the findings
and best insights of this vast scholarship accessible to readers without
distorting the complexities of historical causation or foreclosing the
contingency, indeterminacy, and open-endedness of events as they were
experienced by contemporaries who lived through these tragic and turbulent
times.
Every work of historical synthesis is essentially a collective project that
draws and builds on the work and inspiration of colleagues and predecessors.
I owe too many intellectual debts to too many fellow-historians (and scholars
in other fields) to list them all. I would like to acknowledge, however, special
debts to Ann LeBar, Professor of History at Eastern Washington University,
and to my wife Sally A.Winkle, Professor of German and Director of
Women’s Studies at Eastern Washington University, both of whom read the
manuscript and made many useful suggestions and corrections. I would also
particularly like to thank two of the readers for Routledge, Shelley
Baranowski of the University of Akron and David F.Crew of the University
of Texas; their many helpful comments and criticisms led to a much-
improved text. Whatever shortcomings the book may still have are entirely
my own responsibility.
The unsung heroes of the academic enterprise are the clerical staff
without whom no university could function. I am most grateful for the
cheerful support and assistance I have received over the years from Nancy
Masingale, Sandy Hank, Fawn Gass, Diana Lartz, Janet Cannon, Paulette
Fowler, and Gloria Strong. I would also like to thank my students at Gonzaga
University whose interest, appreciation, and intellectual curiosity have created
the incentive to write this book. Their contribution to its successful