The Nazi regime set out to gain total control of Germany by focusing on three main areas, regulatory, 
persuasive and intimidatory action. Regulatory measures indicates the legislative and structural changes 
such as the Enabling Act, the Emergency decree and the changes to the education system. Persuasive 
actions were the saturation of biased views that occurred through the media and the youth groups, 
whereas intimidatory measures were the policing  of the Emergency Decree through a scare campaign. 
These three elements created a vicious circle of control for the National Socialist. Regulations allowed 
the use of propaganda, intimidatory measures allowed for the policing of the legislation, and propaganda 
allowed them to retain support through indoctrination. Clearly, the Nazi’s aim of total control was very 
close to the outcome achieved, because this totalitarian regime were able to remain in power. 

Regulations introduced by the Nazi Party in the early part of 1933 were the catalyst to the transformation 
of Germany to a nazified, centralised state. Firstly, the emergency powers introduced on the 28th 
February allowed the Nazi’s to strip assemblies and individuals of their rights to privacy and to speak 
freely. Secondly, the Enabling Act transferred the budgetary and legislative powers of the Reichstag over 
to the cabinet. These two measures, were, in effect, an open invitation for the National Socialists, to rule 
as they pleased, without any opposition for four years, and to do this legally. Essentially, these two 
legislative measures spelt the destruction of the Weimar Republic and the transformation of Germany to 
a dictatorship. Clearly, this proved to be true, when Hitler utilise these laws to systematically abolish the 
other parties, and replace the cabinet ministers with Nazi representatives. These measures enabled Hitler 
to abolish the power of the State Governments and opposition parties therefore centralising the control of 
Germany to the cabinet, and achieving total control.

Now that a political foundation had been secured, the Nazi party saw the importance in Nazifying 
education so that support for their policies amongst the German youth could be achieved and maintained.  
Nazi ideas of anti-Semitism, militarism, and Hitler, “the saviour of the ‘Aryan’ race”,  became advertised 
to children on a daily basis, in all elements of the syllabus. A dictation given at a Munich school in 1934 
began “Just as Jesus saved people from sin and from hell, Hitler saved the German nation from 
ruin.”(Spencely, G. 1988) History was transformed to emphasise the superiority of German civilisation, 
with German heroes coming to the forefront. German failures were either left out of the unit or blamed on 
the Jews. Their was emphasis on the roles the children were to play in the Third Reich, “Male education 
was transformed to emphasise hardness, and military pursuits, while females were taught the joys of 
motherhood.” The Nazi’s were able to successfully capture the minds and bodies of the children,  because 
propaganda is most easily indoctrinated into people when don’t have the knowledge to question it. 
Consequently, regulated changes in education were another form of highly successful propaganda, which 
made German children more likely to accept National Socialist ideas.

While these changes were made to the education program, further persuasive action was being taken in 
an attempt to create a mass-production line of male soldiers, labourers and Nazi women, by the 
establishment of the Hitler Youth groups. These groups, primarily pushed for loyalty to Hitler’s, ‘and 
thus’ Germany’s cause. As Spencer comments, the children’s acceptance of Nazi policy had one major 
factor working with it, the teaching that ‘Hitler is always right’. Scholl uses the example where a child 
cannot understand why Hitler is pushing anti-Semitism,  but she is immediately reassured by another 
child that Hitler must know what he is doing. Likewise, according to Professor Spencer, when children 
were questioned on the belief of some ideal, they consistently answered, “Because the Fuhrer wills it.” 
Secondly, the Youth groups developed a sense of unity under one cause. As Shirer states, their was a 
strong sense of fellowship amongst the Hitler Youth, a faith in the future of their nation. Clearly, the 
youth movements reinstated Hitler’s position by the persuasion that he was unquestionable. This, 
together with the reinforcement of Nationalism,  produced loyal Nazis willing to fight and labour for 
Nazi ideas.

Fundamentally, the Nazi’s aimed to appeal to people’s instincts with establishment of a widespread 
propaganda. This was achieved in two main ways. Firstly, the Ministry of culture, an organisation that 
exercised total control of the media, entertainment business and art, was formed. The Nazi’s then 
saturated all aspects of the average German’s life with pro-Hitler, pro-nationalist, and anti-Semitic 
propaganda . Vast amounts of leaflets, posters and broadcasts of Hitler’s speeches, gave the impression 
that Hitler was a fearless leader who could not fail in his quest to save Germany. (Spencely, G) Poster’s 
lined the streets “ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer - one people, one empire, one leader.” In this way, 
saturation of propaganda was able to succeed, purely because the Nazi’s controlled all information. 
Political stunts, such as the annual Nuremberg rallies and the 1936 Olympics, were another form of 
appeal to people. The rallies used the knowledge of mass psychology to highlight Hitler’s importance. 
“[Hitler appeared] God-like, in a searchlight beam, on a rostrum high above the crowd” (Henderson, N. 
1940) In this way, the Nazi revolution was able to appeal to the instincts of the average person’s nature. 
Conclusively, these elements of psychological persuasion were another way in which the Nazi’s could 
exercise their control over the people and use this control to develop support for Hitler and the National 
Socialists. 

In order to exercise complete control of the Reich, the Nazi’s used intimidatory measures as a motive for 
opposition groups to remain silent. Their stance on this issue was made clear, “Any attempt to uphold 
different political ideas would be ruthlessly dealt with.” (Ziemke, E. 1991). People who spoke against 
the Reich were simply imprisoned in concentration camps. Secondly, the Gestapo, the secret police 
organisation began looking after political crimes and were notorious for their torturing techniques of 
“enemies of the state.” Neighbours were encouraged to spy on each other, and even children were told to 
spy on their parents through the youth groups, and inform the authorities on anti-nazism, that is, “of 
enemies to the state”. As a result, their was a general feeling of isolation amongst the groups who rejected 
Nazism as they were frightened of losing their lives.

Undoubtedly, the Nazi’s used the powers they were given to manipulate the people into accepting nazism 
either through fear or propaganda. They proceeded towards their long term of living space and racial 
purity, with startling efficiency, as seen by the programs that developed for the youth. In doing so, they 
created a static society whereby people acted unquestionably, and did little thinking for themselves. This, 
however is the ideal definition of what true control is, and is why the Nazi’s were able to remain in 
power.






