Hitler as a Totalitarian Dictator

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Hitler as a Totalitarian Dictator Before I begin to answer the question, "to what extent was Hitler a totalitarian dictator", I must first expand on the meanings of these two widely used political terms. In the "Reader's Digest Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary", the definition of totalitarian dictator is as follows: "Totalitarian (adjective). Of, pertaining to, régime which permits no rival loyalties or parties and arrogates to itself all rights including those normally belonging to individuals." In short, totalitarian means a political system that has complete control over all aspects of people's lives. The very same tome that I previously quoted from contains this definition of dictator: "Dictator (noun). Absolute ruler, usually temporary or irregular, of a State; person with absolute authority in any sphere." These terms elaborated on, I will attempt to explain and dissect all aspects of Hitler's dictatorship and comment on how each of them contributed to Hitler's complete control. On the twenty-seventh of February 1933, the Reichstag burnt down. The Reichstag was much like the House of Commons, with the Reichstrat acting in a similar way to the House of Lords. A Dutch communist by the name of Marius Van de Lubbe was caught near to the scene in possession of matches and firelighters. He was taken away by the Nazis and 'questioned'. He is reported to have confessed, and was tried for treason. This gave an excuse for the Communist party to be banned from the government an thus eliminated opposition to Hitler as the Communist party was the second largest in Germany, and contributed to his rise to complete control by providing him... ... middle of paper ... ... Taking in to account all of the sections of the essay, I believe that Hitler did not have absolutely complete control of Germany. Referring back to the definitions of the words 'totalitarian' and 'dictator', a totalitarian dictator must have supreme authority in all spheres. I believe that these terms are in a sense virtual - it is nigh on impossible for someone to control all aspects of people's lives even if nearly all of them are controlled. With this in mind, I conclude that Hitler was to the greater extent a totalitarian dictator, and that it would be a fitting term for him. However, because there were many rival factions and groups that opposed him and were not completely destroyed, he did not have complete and absolute authority in every single sphere and therefore was not a complete totalitarian dictator.

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