​WHAT WERE THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF NATIONAL SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT? 

How: Research different perspectives which analyze the nature of Nazi Government and discuss the merits that Hitler was a 'Weak Dictator'
In pairs research the following analytical frameworks and be prepared to present to class with a handout to explain the meaning of the ideas:

  1. Polycratic State/Dualism
  2. Feudal State
  3. Working towards the Fuhrer/Fuhrer Princip
  4. Intentionalism
  5. Structuralism





Your research should include:
  1. A description of the historians interpretation/ideas
  2. Examples used by historians to support their ideas/perspective
  3. Does your idea suggest a Strong or Weak dictator, a Strong or Weak Government?
Ian Kershaw - Working Towards the Fuhrer
The Feudal State
Kershaw disagrees with Mommsen's "Weak Dictator" thesis: the idea that Hitler was a relatively unimportant player in Nazi Germany. However, he has agreed with his idea that Hitler did not play much of a role in the day-to-day administration of the government of Nazi Germany. Kershaw's way of explaining this paradox is his theory of "Working Towards the Führer", the phrase being taken from a 1934 speech by the Prussian civil servant Werner Willikens:
Everyone who has the opportunity to observe it knows that the Fuhrer can hardly dictate from above everything which he intends to realize sooner or later. On the contrary, up till now, everyone with a post in the new Germany has worked best when he has, so to speak, worked towards the Fuhrer. Very often and in many spheres, it has been the case—in previous years as well—that individuals have simply waited for orders and instructions. Unfortunately, the same will be true in the future; but in fact, it is the duty of everybody to try to work towards the Fuhrer along the lines he would wish. Anyone who makes mistakes will notice it soon enough. But anyone who really works towards the Fuhrer along his lines and towards his goal will certainly both now and in the future, one day have the finest reward in the form of the sudden legal confirmation of his work.
Kershaw has argued that in Nazi Germany officials of both the German state and Party bureaucracy usually took the initiative in initiating policy to meet Hitler's perceived wishes, or alternatively attempted to turn into policy Hitler's often loosely and indistinctly phrased wishes. Though Kershaw does agree that Hitler possessed the powers that the "Master of the Third Reich" thesis championed by Norman Rich and Karl Dietrich Bracher would suggest, he has argued that Hitler was a "lazy dictator"; an indifferent dictator who was really not interested in involving himself much in the daily running of Nazi Germany. The only exceptions were the areas of foreign policy and military decisions, both areas that Hitler increasingly involved himself in from the late 1930s.

Was Hitler a Weak Dictator?

Was Hitler a Weak Dictator?

Hans Mommsen: Historian who believed that Hitler was a 'weak dictator'

Hans Mommsen was one of the foremost authorities on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, though his views were not without controversy. He saw the Final Solution as a result of what he called the "cumulative radicalisation" of the German state rather than a long-term plan on the part of Adolf Hitler.

Hitler's Leadership Style

Whatever the problems with his generals, however, there is no doubt that Hitler lacked many of the qualities he needed to control military affairs with consistent success. There have been examples - Churchill was one - of political leaders who successfully interceded in the details of military strategy and operations, but Hitler had neither the experience nor the personality for such a role.

Feudal Aspects of National Socialism on JSTOR

Robert Koehl, Feudal Aspects of National Socialism, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Dec., 1960), pp. 921-933