How Germans Fell for the 'Feel-Good' Fuehrer

[Dover]

How Germans Fell for the 'Feel-Good' Fuehrer

By Jody K. Biehl in Berlin
http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,328975,00.jpg


Hitler not only fattened his adoring "Volk" with jobs and low taxes, he also fed his war machine through robbery and murder, says a German historian in a stunning new book. Far from considering Nazism oppressive, most Germans thought of it as warm-hearted, asserts Goetz Aly. The book is generating significant buzz in Germany and it may mark the beginning of a new level of Holocaust discourse.

Hitler took great care to pamper and coddle his people and they loved him -- and the Nazi regime -- for it.
A well-respected German historian has a radical new theory to explain a nagging question: Why did average Germans so heartily support the Nazis and Third Reich? Hitler, says Goetz Aly, was a "feel good dictator," a leader who not only made Germans feel important, but also made sure they were well cared-for by the state.

To do so, he gave them huge tax breaks and introduced social benefits that even today anchor the society. He also ensured that even in the last days of the war not a single German went hungry. Despite near-constant warfare, never once during his 12 years in power did Hitler raise taxes for working class people. He also -- in great contrast to World War I -- particularly pampered soldiers and their families, offering them more than double the salaries and benefits that American and British families received. As such, most Germans saw Nazism as a "warm-hearted" protector, says Aly, author of the new book "Hitler's People's State: Robbery, Racial War and National Socialism" and currently a guest lecturer at the University of Frankfurt. They were only too happy to overlook the Third Reich's unsavory, murderous side.

Financing such home front "happiness" was not simple and Hitler essentially achieved it by robbing and murdering others, Aly claims. Jews. Slave laborers. Conquered lands. All offered tremendous opportunities for plunder, and the Nazis exploited it fully, he says....>

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,347726,00.html

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,123262,00.jpg

[Stand and Fight]

1. Let's get this kicked and talked about! n/t

[info being]

2. I don't think we need to look to history to understand this

Just look around.

[Kinkistyle]

3. Well, they were the National "SOCIALISTS"

So it wouldn't be surprising that Hitler would implement social and welfare programs in line with socialist policy.

Again, you can't win over the people with fear alone. Being a leader means gaining the respect and approval of the people. Being a complete jerk is probably not going to accomplish that.

[Just Me]

18. Well, except that, it was really nationalistic "elitists",....

,...having served only a particular group of citizens to whom he most appealed. Anyone who failed to fall within his well-defined, preferential box, was handed over to poverty, destruction, death.

[tavalon]

20. We can only hope

It sure seems like these days you can be a complete jerk but if you're "born again" you get a free pass.

[Sequoia]

4. Cool! I have to get him in for an interview.

This is really interesting. Thank you.

[Wat_Tyler]

5. It wasn't called National Socialism for nothing.

That name was mostly inaccurate, but as long as you were within the boundaries of what was considered the Volk, you were well treated. I imagine Nazism was quite profitable up until early 1943, when the disasters at Stalingrad and Tunis forced Nazi Germany on to the defensive.

[K-W]

16. Yes, but the reason has nothing to do with Hitlers social spending.

It was a socialist party before the Nazi's took over and kicked out anyone who clung to actual socialist beliefs. They did, however, use socialist propaganda, they claimed to be working for social welfare, but I dont really think we have to consider Hitler and his crew socialists of any degree.

[Just Me]

19. True. He squashed sociologists, humanitarians, intellectuals,....

,...anyone who challenged his authority.

"Socialist" propaganda was heavily utilized to make "the people" FEEL good and cared for.

The Hitler regime cannot possibly be rationally characterized as "socialists". No way.

[Wat_Tyler]

22. No, I wouldn't consider them socialists,

but it's clear they used certain tenets of socialism to further their real political agenda.

[Cleita]

6. Of course this was only for Germans.

Jews, slavs, and other undesirables were excluded from the good life. He also made cheap vacations and cruises available for the working class German. He went as far on occasion to promise every German girl a husband.

[Dover]

7. U.S. policy has been blood for oil.....led by the Hitleresque corporate

dictates.

[SnoopDog]

8. This is why we are not like Nazi Germany...

This evil administration is:
1. looting our treasury
2. sending our jobs overseas
3. making laws to mandate the polluting our environment
4. Not funding education
5. Making laws to favor corporations at our expense
6. NO health care
7. Hated in the world
8. In general, we have nothing to look forward to.


Our presidential idiot is taking all our wealth while trashing us, the environment, our homes.

What * is doing is not creating a 'Nazi Germany' in the USA - he is creating the foundation for a civil war.

[caraher]

11. The main difference is the American Reich...

makes the cut between Volk and trash more on the basis of class than race. And exploits American indifference to class issues to disguise what's going on. After all, that's why *every* time someone points out the ways the rich benefit disproportionately from a new policy the immediate chorus from the right is "that's class warfare."

In other words, *engaging* in class warfare is OK, but pointing it out when it happens is verboten under the current rules of public discourse.

* is *very* kind to "his base" (i.e. the "haves" and the "have mores"), rewards them richly, does not ask them to share in wartime sacrifice, etc. His racket is even better than Hitler's because the folks who can be readily hypnotized by "cultural" issues like gay marriage and the Schiavo circus scarcely even notice as he picks their pockets and sends their children off to die for Halliburton.

[SnoopDog]

13. As with all Bushisms...

This sonuvabitch is drastically diving our nation. The first step was to divide all citizens based on 'touchy' and extra-credit items of gays and abortion. While the idiots of our nation worry only about gays and abortion, this evil administration is dividing the haves and have nots.

There are many problems with this. A healthy and happy populace makes all life better. Perty soon, the have nots will make demands for social and economic improvements - at any cost...

[tavalon]

21. I am seeing an influx of new folks lately

Welcome Caraher!

Very good, precise post, BTW.

[kk897]

28. class warfare...

Interesting post, caraher! Made me think we're seeing a kind of "silent holocaust"-- soon, there will be few undesireable poor people left; their jobs outsourced, their homes repossessed, thrown out onto the streets, they'll have no place to go... except into the military, where they'll get thrown into physical warfare. Maybe the plan, unspoken of course, and perhaps even subconscious, is to literally starve the poor, who are often non-white. Or make health care unattainable for them, or just wait until they are forced to retire. No concentration camps necessary... better PR-wise... sounds like a "solution" of sorts to me.

Gulp!

[bpilgrim]

24. but they CERTAINLY spout the SAME rhetoric - n/t

peace

[AlienGirl]

9. This is a silly and OT comment, be warned...

But, oh man, Hitler had bad hair! It looks worse than Rumsfeld's!

Tucker

[regnaD kciN]

27. Maybe he used the Wolfowicz combing technique?

(P.S.: Don't worry. If a Jewish person isn't fully entitled to make "silly and OT" comments about Hitler, who is?)

[clem_c_rock]

10. Wow - Even Bush can't treat us half this well.

Just think how all the redneck/bible bashers will be feeling a year from now when the economy tanks and they lose their jobs.

Bush is cutting food stamp benefits so he can't even keep his people fed.

Great article.

[Bluebear]

12. Stop! You'll only make DU "look bad" comparing Bush to Hitler

:sarcasm:

cool, I get to use a new 'smily'!

[Eloriel]

14. I always like to post this link as well, which is fascinating

an excerpt from a book:

They Thought They Were Free
http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free.html

It's also on the subject about how Germans could allow it all to unfold.

[Lisa]

15. they also tried to co-opt the environmentalists ...

Fascinating account of this in Schama's book. Hitler's people utilized existing movements that were inspired by Romanticism and calling for a return to nature, more sustainable economic activities, ecological restoration, and a healthier lifestyle.

One example -- one of Hitler's pet projects was the German Autobahn network, as the article notes. It created thousands of jobs and won international awards for its design (attempting to blend the roads into the surrounding countryside). The Rollins paper in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers talks about it. Rollins concluded that the designers weren't Nazis, but they went along with the early regime because it was in their economic/political interest to do so -- and Hitler and Co. were pushing all the right buttons. Going on about how they had to safeguard the German family, and protect the precious German forests from invasive weeds and pathogens -- of course, that made it easier to rally people against the "foreign" threat to German culture (Jews, Slavs, etc.). Associate yourself with popular, respectable ideas, and you can get away with a lot, as Hitler discovered.

And as for the workers -- a job, and an affordable car (some of which are still with us today, albeit more expensive!), and being able to drive out of town for the weekend -- no wonder so many people were able to turn a blind eye. I can think of plenty of North Americans who would do the exact same thing, suppressing their suspicions about the new regime.

[K-W]

17. It all comes down to dishonesty.

A liar has no trouble finding common cause with everyone and being on the right side of every issue.

Hitler could adjust his dogma strategically because he had no regard for the truth.

It is one of the reasons that republicans win elections incidentally.

[tavalon]

23. The other reason republicans win

is they cheat. It certainly seems to be a winning combo, this lying and cheating thing. If only I didn't have a strong sense of ethics that includes treating people fairly and honestly, I could be a republican too! :sarcasm:

[Helga Scow Stern]

25. I am thinking of the recent movie, Der Untergang,

whose exact historical accuracy may be in question, but that nonetheless makes quite a striking impression, because of its portrayal of Hitler's human qualities, and the warmth and respect shared by members of his inner circle--just like in the White House, I imagine.

Both this movie and the more factual documentary, Blindspot, the memories of Hitler's secretary of his last days in the bunker (the same subject matter as Untergang), left me with a feeling of having a better understanding of the appeal of our current administration. First, both share the belief of partaking in a superior vision and way of life and the bonding thus created. Cruelty to outsiders is absolutely justified, but never talked about as such. Hitler's secretary remembers how Hitler was always knowingly shielded from seeing the havoc wreaked on the city and coutryside. Why clutter up one's beautiful mind with visions of the war dead?

The insane adherence to some far reaching ideal is the same. I can see fundies righteously putting their lives on the line because life isn't worth living unless their values dominate, like Frau Goebbels putting her own children "to sleep" because she cannot bear to think of them living in a world without National Socialism.

Everyone within his circle absolutely admires and is in love with Der Fuhrer, temper tantrums not withstanding. Such awestruck loyalty is deadly and I have seen it in the faces of people when they are near our own little tyrant.

Whereas Hitler, like Bush, had a charming, charismatic effect on the people close to him, and on the German people overall, in the end he didn't really care about them. According to Der Untergang (as the dialogue line from the movie in my subject line attests), when it came time to evacuate Berlin, or provide food at the end for the long suffering German population in the final days, Hitler called any such measures a sign of weakness.

"I have learned to avoid the temptation of compassion at all costs," Hitler proudly declares, as if it is a great moral virtue, which he truly believes it is. Everything is for the principle, not for the people, when it comes right down to it. Hitler coddled the German people, perhaps, while it matched his principles, while they were "strong," but when it was a question of their weakness, they deserved to be destroyed. Unless Frist and DeLay and the powerful network of hate and Xian radio can continue to whip followers into a frenzy of doing their god's work, and provide such reward, the payoff of remaining loyal to this administration will wear thin, except for the rich, of course. They will have to do something to hook the masses, not just the fringe.

The main difference is in the particular cult ideology--National Socialism vs. Dominionist Christianity?

Our only hope may be if indeed there is more of a mixture of cults, rather than absolute unification under one. Time will tell.

[regnaD kciN]

26. Watch...

To do so, he gave them huge tax breaks and introduced social benefits that even today anchor the society. He also ensured that even in the last days of the war not a single German went hungry.

...the next thing you know, passages like this will be held up as "proof" that Hitler was a "liberal."

:eyes: