Gleichschaltung

Gleichschaltung Template:IPA-de), meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian (WP) control and tight coordination over all aspects of society.

Among the goals of this policy were to bring about adherence to a specific doctrine and way of thinking and to control as many aspects of life as possible.

The historian Richard J. Evans translated the term as "forcible-coordination" in his most recent work on Nazi Nazi Germany.

Gleichschaltung, as a compound word, is better comprehended by those who speak other languages by listing its predecessory uses in German. The word gleich in German means alike, equal, or the same; schaltung means something like switching. The word Gleichschaltung had two uses in German for mechanical, rather than political, meanings, which gave the political word a certain trendiness in a time in history when the products of the Industrial Revolution were more universally accepted unequivocally:

1. A locking clutch, as used in some machines for connecting two shafts that would otherwise rotate freely such that they rotate at the same speed when in the locked condition.
2. A certain means of wiring an alternating current electrical generator, and AC electric motors, so that when the generator is made to turn at a given speed, or even turned to a certain angle, each motor connected to it will also turn at that speed, or at the same angle. This is the meaning which is most commonly referred to explain the Nazi use of the word: the political party is considered the generator, and every member of a political body, a professional group or society is considered a motor wired to it. See selsyn.

However, because of the Nazi associations of the term, its use for these physical meanings has largely been abandoned since the war.

Overview

The period from 1933 to 1937 was characterized by the systematic elimination of non-Nazi organizations that could potentially influence people, such as Wikipedia:trade unions and political parties. Those critical of Hitler's agenda, especially his close ties with industryTemplate:Citation needed, were suppressed, intimidated or murdered. The regime also assailed the influence of the churches, for example by instituting the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs under Wikipedia:Hanns Kerrl. Organizations that the administration could not eliminate, such as the education system, came under its direct control.

The Gleichschaltung also included the formation of various organisations with compulsory membership for segments of the population, in particular the youth. Boys served as apprentices in the Wikipedia:Pimpfen ("cubs") beginning at the age of six, and at age 10, entered the Wikipedia:Deutsches Jungvolk ("Young German Boys") and served there until entering the Wikipedia:Hitler Youth proper at age 14. Boys remained there until age 18, at which time they entered into the Wikipedia:Arbeitsdienst ("Labor Service") and the armed forces (Wikipedia:Wehrmacht). Girls became part of the Wikipedia:Jungmädel ("Young Maidens") at age 10, and at age 14 were enrolled in the Wikipedia:Bund Deutscher Mädel ("League of German Maidens"). At 18 BDM members went generally to the eastern territory for their Pflichtdienst, or Landjahr – a year of labor on a farm. In 1936 membership of the Hitler Youth numbered just under 6 million.

For workers an all-embracing recreational organization called Wikipedia:Kraft durch Freude ("Strength through Joy") was set up. In Nazi Germany, even hobbies were regimented; all private clubs (whether they be for chess, football, or woodworking) were brought under the control of Wikipedia:KdF and, in turn, the Nazi Party. The Kraft durch Freude organization provided vacation trips (skiing, swimming, concerts, ocean cruises, and so forth). With some 25 million members, KdF was the largest of the many organizations established by the Nazis. Workers were also brought in line with the party through activities such as the Wikipedia:Reichsberufswettkampf, a national vocational competition.

Specific measures

In a more specific sense, Gleichschaltung refers to the legal measures taken by the government during the first months following January 30, 1933, when Wikipedia:Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. It was in this sense that the term was used by the Nazis themselves.

1. One day after the Wikipedia:Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933, President of Germany Wikipedia:Paul von Hindenburg, acting at Hitler's request and on the basis of the emergency powers in article 48 of the Wikipedia:Weimar Constitution, issued the Wikipedia:Reichstag Fire Decree. This decree suspended most Wikipedia:human rights provided for by the constitution and thus allowed for the arrest of political adversaries, mostly Wikipedia:Communists, and for general terrorizing by the SA, the Nazi paramilitary force, of other voters before the upcoming election.
2. In this atmosphere the Reichstag general election of March 5, 1933 took place. This election yielded only a slim majority for Hitler's Wikipedia:coalition government and no majority for Hitler's own Wikipedia:Nazi party.
3. When the newly elected Reichstag first convened on March 23, 1933, (not including the Communist delegates, since their party had already been banned by that time) it passed the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz), transferring all legislative powers to the Nazi government and, in effect, abolishing the remainder of the Weimar constitution as a whole. Soon afterwards the government banned the Social Democratic Party, which had voted against the Act, while the other parties were intimidated into dissolving themselves rather than face arrests and concentration camp imprisonment.
4. The "First Gleichschaltung Law" (Erstes Gleichschaltungsgesetz) (March 31, 1933) dissolved the diets of all Länder except Wikipedia:Prussia and ordered them reconstituted on the basis of the votes in the last Reichstag election (with the exception of Communist seats). It also gave the state governments the same powers the Reich government possessed under the Enabling Act.
5. A "Second Gleichschaltung Law" (Zweites Gleichschaltungsgesetz) (April 7, 1933) deployed one Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) in each state, apart from Prussia. These officers, responsible to Interior Minister Wikipedia:Wilhelm Frick, were supposed to act as local Wikipedia:proconsuls in each state, with near-complete control over the state governments. For Prussia, which constituted the bulk of Germany in any event, Hitler reserved these rights for himself and delegated them to Prussian minister-president Wikipedia:Hermann Göring.
6. The trade union association ADGB (Wikipedia:Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) was shattered on May 2, 1933 (the day after Labour Day), when SA and NSBO units occupied union facilities and ADGB leaders were imprisoned. Other important associations including trade unions were forced to merge with the Wikipedia:German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront — DAF), to which all workers had to belong.
7. The Gesetz gegen die Neubildung von Parteien ("Law against the establishment of political parties") (July 14, 1933) declared the Nazi Party to be the country's only legal party. However, for all intents and purposes, Germany had been a one-party state since the passage of the Enabling Act.
8. The Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reiches ("Law concerning the reconstruction of the Reich") (January 30, 1934) abandoned the concept of a Wikipedia:federal republic. Instead, the political institutions of the Länder were practically abolished altogether, passing all powers to the central government. A law dated February 14, 1934 dissolved the Reichsrat, the representation of the Länder at the federal level. This law actually violated the Enabling Act, which specifically protected the existence of both legislative chambers.
9. In the summer of 1934 Hitler instructed the SS to kill Wikipedia:Ernst Röhm and other leaders of the Nazi party's SA, former Chancellor Wikipedia:Kurt von Schleicher and several aides to former Chancellor Wikipedia:Franz von Papen in the so-called Wikipedia:Night of the Long Knives (June 30, 1934/July 1, 1934). These measures received retrospective sanction in a special one-article Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defense (Gesetz über Maßnahmen der Staatsnotwehr) (July 3, 1934).
10. The Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich (August 1, 1934) prescribed that upon the death of the incumbent president, that office would be merged with the office of the chancellor, and that the competencies of the former should be transferred to the "Wikipedia:Führer und Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler", as the law stated. Hindenburg died at nine o'clock, making Hitler head of state as well as head of government. This law abolished the last remedy by which Hitler could be legally dismissed—and with it, the last remaining checks on his power. Like the law abolishing the Reichsrat, this law actually violated the Enabling Act, which specifically forbade Hitler from tampering with the presidency. Additionally, in 1932 the constitution had been amended to make the president of the High Court of Justice, not the chancellor, acting president pending new elections. However, no one raised any objections. Following the Wikipedia:Reichswehr purge of 1938, Hitler could be described as the absolute dictator of Germany until his suicide in 1945.

Sources and further reading

This article contains content from Wikipedia. Current versions of the GNU FDL article Gleichschaltung on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article

WP

• Karl Kroeschell, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte 3 (seit 1650), 2nd ed. 1989, ISBN 3-531-22139-6
• Karl Kroeschell, Rechtsgeschichte Deutschlands im 20. Jahrhundert, 1992, ISBN 3-8252-1681-0
• Lebendiges virtuelles Museum Online: Die Errichtung des Einparteienstaats 1933
• Wikipedia:Claudia Koonz The Nazi Conscience. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003.
• Wikipedia:Karl Dietrich Bracher "Stages of Totalitarian "Integration" (Gleichschaltung): The Consolidation of National Socialist Rule in 1933 and 1934" pages 109–28 from Republic To Reich The Making of the Nazi Revolution Ten Essays edited by Wikipedia:Hajo Holborn, New York: Pantheon Books, 1972.
• Wikipedia:Everett HughesThe "Gleichschaltung" of the German Statistical Yearbook: A Case in Professional Political Neutrality. The American Statistician Vol. IX (December, 1955, pp. 8–11.

Notes

Wikipedia:Template:Nazism