Nazi Germany

Global History and Geography IV

INTRODUCTION
 Anti-Intellectualism
A sentiment of hostility towards, or
mistrust of, intellectuals and
intellectual pursuits
Attacks merits of science, education,
literature
Not just about hating intellectualism:
also about what values fill its place
 What would be the
consequences of
Anti-Intellectualism?
A society where --
individual thought is compromised
the preservation of truth is minimal
authorities have more power
there is no challenge to the state
 Consequences of
Anti-Intellectualism

Emergence of Pseudoscience
(i.e. Eugenics)
Rewriting of History
Destruction of Literature
NAZI BOOK BURNINGS
 Why?
A way of venting anger
Symbolic transition of cultural values:
Intellectualism to radical emotionalism
Unity through ritual
Intimidates intellectual
community
 State Policy
May 10, 1933
Nazi Party declares that any book
which acts subversively on our future
or strikes at the root of German thought,
the German home and the driving forces
of our people... is to be burned.
Who would be the target of such a
policy and why?
 The Burning Spectacle
Students marched through the streets
rampaging libraries, synagogues, and even
private homes to loot books
 Some Authors of Books Burned
on 5/10/33
Albert Einstein Hugo Preuss
Havelock Ellis Marcel Proust
Lion Feuchtwanger Walter Rathenau
Sigmund Freud Erich Maria
Andr Gide Remarque
Franz Kafka Margaret Sanger
Erich Kstner Arthur Schnitzler
Helen Keller Upton Sinclair
Alfred Kerr Jakob Wasserman
Jack London H. G. Wells
Heinrich Mann Stefan Zweig
Thomas Mann Emile Zola
Karl Marx
 EDUCATION IN
THE THIRD REICH
 Nazi Education
The Curriculum
Racial biology and
eugenics
Celebratory German
history
Discipline, duty,
obedience, courage
Physical training
Body over mind The Jewish Nose is Wide
at the End and Looks like
No concern for the the Number Six
spirit of academics
 The Nazi Classroom
Task of the Educator
Strengthen the soul and spirit of youth
Instill nationalism in younger generation
Root out values of
Liberal individualism
Rationalism
Intellectualism
Trained children
to be good soldiers
to benefit the state
 Adolf Hitler on Education
"Universal education is the most
corroding and disintegrating poison
that liberalism has ever invented
-Adolf Hitler
"Through clever and constant
application of propaganda, people
can be made to see paradise as
hell, and also the other way round
Adolf Hitler
The Hitler Youth
Clip From Triumph of the Will

Click image to see video on YouTube

Notice direction of film
Shows how admired Hitler is
Promotes radical emotionalism
Notice serious faces, militarism of
young boys
 Necessity of Hitler Youth
Future of Nazi Germany was in its
children
Composed of a generation that knew
only Nazism
No need to suppress individual thinking
Trained:
Children for roles as Nazi citizens
Men for Wehrsport (Military training)
Women for Aryan motherhood
The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men
and women who can suffer pain... -- Adolph Hitler
Nazism
 Nazi Populism
Whoever can conquer the street will
one day conquer the state...
Joseph Goebbels

Struggle against privileged elite

Intellectuals are elitists and tricksters

 The Volksgemeinschaft
The Peoples Community
Established collective national spirit
Based on racial and national pride
Subliminal influence on culture
Bureaucratization of censorship &
propaganda

PEOPLE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO

THINK FOR THEMSELVES
 The Reichskulturkammer
Reich Culture Chamber
Managed by Hans Hinkel
Goals:
Promote Good Culture
Root out, ban Bad Culture
Compulsory membership for all
members of German media
 Ministry of Propaganda
Spread and
enforced Nazi
ideology
Antithesis of
intellectual-based
culture
Rampant anti-
Semitism
Infected all
mediums of art
and literature
 Goebbels The Big Lie Theory
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only
for such time as the State can shield the people from the
political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It
thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its
powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of
the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy
of the State.
 What is the Purpose of Nazi
Propaganda?
public opinion must be
molded to fit the state
Undo Intellectualism:
No marketplace of
ideas
No tolerance of
dissent
No ability to
question authority
No independent
thought
No formulation of
rational ideas
 The Nuremberg Laws (1935)
Denaturalization Laws
Placed severe
restrictions on Jews
Could not marry
non-Jews
Not allowed to
attend or teach at
German schools Established a pseudo-scientific
basis identification
or universities Only those with four German
Prohibited from grandparents were of "German
blood."
government jobs,
Jewish is who descends from three
practicing law or or four Jewish grand-parents
medicine or In the middle stood people of
publishing books "mixed blood" of the "first or
second degree."
 Kristallnacht
Night of the Broken Glass

The mob trumps

individualism
 The Rise of Hitler
The Expansion of the Nazi State
The Holocaust