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Images - The Nazi State
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1.   The Organizational Structure of the NSDAP (c. 1934)
In accordance with the authoritarian "Führer principle," Hitler had built up the NSDAP in the shape of a pyramid. Power flowed exclusively from top to bottom. Hitler himself stood at the pinnacle....
The Organizational Structure of the NSDAP (c. 1934)
2.   The End of the Constitutional State: Prussian Minister of Justice Hanns Kerrl Watches as the § Symbol (Traditionally Used to Denote German Legal Articles) is Hung from the Gallows (1934)
Within a few months of seizing power, Hitler had destroyed the fundamental legal principles of the Weimar Constitution. By invalidating basic civil rights, abolishing the separation of powers, and....
The End of the Constitutional State: Prussian Minister of Justice Hanns Kerrl Watches as the § Symbol (Traditionally Used to Denote German Legal Articles) is Hung from the Gallows (1934)
3.   Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner Opens the First Session of the People’s Court (July 14, 1934)
In the Third Reich, the law did not control the state; instead, the state controlled the law. The People's Court [Volksgerichtshof or VGH] is the best-known example in a series of new Nazi....
Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner Opens the First Session of the People’s Court (July 14, 1934)
4.   NSDAP Mass Rally at the Sportpalast in Berlin (August 15, 1935)
Mass rallies were among the NSDAP's most important and effective propaganda tools. They were supposed to symbolize the individual’s solidarity with – or better yet, complete subordination to – the....
NSDAP Mass Rally at the <I>Sportpalast</I> in Berlin (August 15, 1935)
5.   "Reich Party Rally for Freedom," Nuremberg (September 10-16, 1935)
"Reich Party Rallies of the German People" were the NSDAP’s most important mass propaganda events. From 1933 to 1938, they were held annually in Nuremberg, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors....
"Reich Party Rally for Freedom," Nuremberg (September 10-16, 1935)
6.   Display Window with Busts of Hitler: Souvenirs from the "Reich Party Rally for Freedom," Nuremberg (Fall 1935)
The most successful Nazi propaganda tool was the "cult of the Führer" that operated around Hitler. Within the NSDAP, Hitler had already been treated with near religious veneration since the early....
Display Window with Busts of Hitler: Souvenirs from the
7.   Zeppelin Field and Grandstand on the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg (1938)
Hitler dreamt of completely reshaping Germany’s architectural landscape. For his Thousand-Year Reich, he preferred massive neo-classical buildings that delivered a message of power, severity, and....
Zeppelin Field and Grandstand on the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg (1938)
8.   National Socialist Training School for the Party Elite [Ordensburg] in Sonthofen, Allgäu (1939)
On January 15, 1937, Reich Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach and the leader of the German Labor Front, Robert Ley, announced the founding of "Adolf Hitler Schools." Like Napolas,....
National Socialist Training School for the Party Elite [<i>Ordensburg</i>] in Sonthofen, Allgäu (1939)
9.   Model of the "World Capital City Germania," Built According to Plans by Albert Speer (1939)
In accordance with the dominant position he sought for Germany, Hitler decided to transform Berlin into a new "world capital" on the ancient model. Since the new capital was to be the center of a....
Model of the "World Capital City Germania," Built According to Plans by Albert Speer (1939)
10.   The New Reich Chancellery, Designed by Albert Speer (c. 1940)
Albert Speer's Reich Chancellery was the architectural embodiment of the Nazi dictatorship’s claim to totalitarian rule. The building was constructed as an annex to the Old Reich Chancellery (and....
The New Reich Chancellery, Designed by Albert Speer (c. 1940)
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