Two Examples Of Dualism In Nazi Germany

The dualism of Nazi Germany makes it difficult to ascertain the level of Nazification present in state-level institutions prior to 1935. John Herz writes that the ‘underlying purposes and tendency of the originators and leaders of the Nazi regime was to create a completely party-dominated and party-permeated state and society’. However, Herz argues that completely restructuring and reorganising existing government institutions and personnel was soon recognised as being detrimental to the plan to rapidly gear Germany for war. Therefore, the Nazi leadership chose ‘to use, modify, and adapt existing institutions to its specific purposes and policies, while profiting from their efficiency and technical skill.’ As a result, a ‘dualism’ between the

Functioning alongside each state’s minister-president was a Nazi-appointed Reich Minister, who also usually served as Gauleiter—that is, leader of that state’s regional subdivision of the Nazi Party. Albrecht Tyrell cites political scientist Ernst Fraenkel’s personal observation of this ‘dual state’ system of power, in which he describes the normative state, respectful of established and new laws, and the prerogative state, ready to break those same laws, existing side by side. It is therefore difficult to assess the level of Nazification of German state-level institutions prior to 1935, as they existed independent of the Nazi Party yet usually remained explicitly linked to the Nazism due to the infiltration of Nazis into positions of power and influence within the

John Herz writes that the civil servant was therefore recognised by the Nazi Party as the ideal candidate for the role of ‘political soldier’—a corp envisioned to use their positions of influence to ‘positively and enthusiastically promote the specific ideologies and policies of the new regime’. The promulgation of the April 7 ‘Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service’ in 1933 accordingly presents one of the first precedented steps in Nazifying the civil service through enforcing the removal of the so-called ‘undesirables’; that is, primarily, those deemed unreliable to the Nazi regime due to their previous political affiliations or on the basis of being ‘non-Aryans’. Consequently, as a result of the law, around 1.2 percent of all civil servants were removed from their posts. The effect of these purges on the level of Nazification in the civil service, however, is thought to be rather minimal. Although there was a monumental surge in applications from civil servants to join the Nazi Party in the months following April, it is difficult to ascertain what percentage of applications were mere superficial gestures done as a way to ensure the retention of position and prospects in career advancement. Martin Broszat highlights