The Nazi Police State (Edexcel IGCSE History: Paper 1: Depth Studies): Revision Note
Exam code: 4HI1
Summary
Hitler ruled Germany as a totalitarian state
The Nazi Party controlled every aspect of public and much of private life
Beneath the propaganda and the rewards for "good Nazis" lay a policy of terror
The SS and the Gestapo could arrest, imprison and even execute Germans without a fair trial
Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, used strict censorship alongside carefully designed propaganda to win genuine popular support, not just obedience
Historians still debate how far ordinary Germans obeyed out of fear, and how far because they had genuinely come to believe in Nazi ideas
Methods of Nazi control: The police state
A totalitarian one-party state
Hitler's rule was totalitarian, with control over all aspects of people's lives and very little opportunity for opposition
Germany became a one-party state
The Nazis controlled systems such as:
the police
the courts
radio and newspapers
the arts
They even controlled everyday decisions
Women were told it was "un-German" to dye their hair or wear make-up
Indoctrination, censorship and propaganda aimed to win people over to Nazi beliefs
There were rewards for "good Nazis", such as medals for women with large families or cheap theatre tickets for good workers
The courts
German law became whatever the Nazi Party believed was right
Germans could be arrested and imprisoned without trial
The Nazis created the People's Court and Special Courts
They had no juries
Judges were expected to support Nazi policy
There was no right of appeal
Many opponents were sentenced to death and executed
The SS
The SS was created in 1925 to act as personal bodyguards to Hitler
Members had to be both "racially pure" and completely loyal to the NSDAP
Heinrich Himmler became leader of the SS in 1929
The SS wore black uniforms
Before 1933, the SS's roles included:
protect Hitler and other Nazi leaders
provide security during political meetings
urge people to subscribe to the Nazi newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter
marry ‘racially pure’ wives to create ‘racially pure’ children
From 1936, Himmler controlled all of Germany's police forces, including the Gestapo
The SS ran the concentration camps and carried out Nazi racial policy
The Gestapo
Hermann Goering initially created the Gestapo to 'investigate and combat all attempts to threaten the state'
By 1934, Reinhard Heydrich led the Gestapo
Gestapo officers wore plain clothes so they could not be easily identified
The Gestapo had several roles:
tapping phones and spying on opponents
arresting, questioning and torturing suspects
Around 160,000 people were arrested in 1939 for political crimes
sending people directly to concentration camps using protective custody
releasing information about concentration camp conditions to spread fear
They relied on denunciations from the public to target suspects
Only around 10% of political crimes committed were discovered by the Gestapo, compared to 80% reported by ordinary citizens
Examiner Tips and Tricks
The Gestapo was not just top-down terror but depended on large numbers of ordinary Germans choosing to inform.
Use this as strong evidence for how far Nazi control rested on genuine public complicity, not just fear
Concentration camps
Most arrests made by the police services were related to "political crimes", which involved speaking out against the Nazi Party
Dachau was opened in 1933 and became the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany
Concentration camps were created to imprison many groups:
minority groups such as Jewish people and Jehovah’s Witnesses
"undesirables" such as homosexuals, prostitutes and Romani
political opponents, including journalists, writers, intellectuals and communists
Conditions in concentration camps were brutal and inmates were forced to do hard labour
Censorship and propaganda
Censorship
Newspapers were strictly controlled and any anti-Nazi paper shut down
Owners, editors and journalists had to belong to the Reich Press Chamber
Radio was brought under the Reich Radio Company in 1934
German radios were designed to make it difficult to pick up foreign broadcasts
The Nazis created the Volksempfänger (The People’s Receiver), a cheap radio
The Ministry of Propaganda listed unacceptable literature
The Gestapo could seize banned books, and students were encouraged to burn books with "un-German" views
Writers, actors and musicians had to join the Reich Chamber of Culture
Jazz was banned because the Nazi's condemned it as "Black" music, reflecting their racist beliefs
Art without Nazi values was dismissed as "degenerate"
Goebbels's approach to propaganda
Joseph Goebbels co-ordinated Nazi policy towards the media, sport, culture and the arts
He believed propaganda worked best when subtle
People should come to believe Nazi ideas without realising they were being targeted
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Students often use "propaganda" and "censorship" as if they were the same thing, but they work in opposite directions.
Censorship removes messages: it stopped Germans hearing or reading anything critical of the Nazis.
Propaganda adds messages: it put pro-Nazi ideas in front of Germans through posters, rallies, radio and film.
A strong exam answer never treats "the Nazis controlled the media" as one point — it separates what was taken away (censorship) from what was put in its place (propaganda)
Public events
Rallies
The Nazi Party had used rallies throughout the 1920s and early 1930s
The declaration of Hitler as Führer in 1934 allowed him to merge the identity of the Nazi Party with that of Germany:
rallies became more frequent and created a sense of unity
rallies were used to show off the strength of the German army, in defiance of the military limits set by the Treaty of Versailles
Nuremberg is a major city in Germany and was chosen to host annual rallies from 1933 to 1938
Arenas
Hitler’s favourite architect was Albert Speer
He designed the grounds where the Nuremberg Rally took place
For example, 152 searchlights were used as pillars of light around the audience, known as the Cathedral of Light
The 1936 Berlin Olympics
The 1936 Berlin Olympics was an opportunity for Hitler to show the might of Nazi Germany to the world
The government stopped anti-Semitic propaganda during the Games
This was to show that Nazi Germany was more tolerant than it actually was
Jesse Owens, a Black American athlete, won four gold medals which undermined the Nazi claim of racial superiority
This angered Hitler
Leni Riefenstahl directed the film Olympia, which was released in 1938 and documented the events of the 1936 Berlin Olympics
How successful was the Nazi police state?
Evidence of its success
Terror and propaganda together left most Germans too frightened, too indoctrinated, or too content to organise open opposition
The courts, SS, Gestapo and camps gave the regime the means to crush any that did appear
Ordinary Germans' willingness to inform on neighbours shows the police state had real, not just imposed, support
Radio ownership and cinema attendance show propaganda reached almost the whole population
Evidence of its limits
Control was never absolute
Some Germans secretly listened to banned foreign radio, and a black market in banned books and jazz records survived
Opposition from the Churches shows even a totalitarian regime could not fully control every institution
Obedience out of fear is not the same as genuine belief
Conclusions
The police state was highly effective at preventing open resistance, which is why so little open opposition survived past 1934
However, measuring "success" only by the lack of opposition may overstate how far the regime had won genuine support, rather than simply silence
Worked Example
Study Extract C.
Extract C: From a history of Nazi Germany, published in 2007.
"The main technique used to create terror was the use of the law. It was against the law to belong to any political group apart from the Nazi Party. It was also illegal to tell jokes about Hitler and illegal to spread rumours about the Nazi government. The police had the legal power to open people's letters and listen to phone calls. The police could also imprison people without trial. For example, in 1933, 100,000 people were imprisoned without a trial. New laws were passed to extend the use of the death penalty."
What impression does the author give about how the Nazis controlled Germany in the years 1933 - 1939?
You must use the extract to explain your answer.
(6)
Partial answer:
The author gives the impression that the Nazis controlled Germany mainly by turning the law itself into a weapon of fear. They state that "the main technique used to create terror was the use of the law." They list everyday things that were made illegal, such as telling "jokes about Hitler" and spreading "rumours about the Nazi government". By choosing examples this ordinary, the author suggests that Nazi control reached into private conversation, not just serious political activity. They reinforce this by highlighting that the police "could... imprison people without trial", and "in 1933, 100,000 people were imprisoned without a trial." This makes Nazi control sound official, organised and already enormous within the regime's very first year.
Examiner Tips and Tricks
To continue this answer, use your own knowledge to identify what the author leaves out. The Nazis also controlled Germany through propaganda that won genuine belief, and through denunciations to the Gestapo that came from ordinary Germans rather than always being forced out of them
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