After assuming political power in 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party implemented a mission of reviving German strength, acquiring territory for more living space or Lebensraum, and establishing a foundation for a pure “racial/supremist” state. In order to achieve these goals, Hitler needed to create a sense of Volksgemeinschaft or a national community unified in mind, will, and spirit. Volksgemeinschaft could only be attained through total state control; therefore, every facet of cultural and social life had to be controlled to achieve Nazi ideology.Culture, the press, movies, religion, education and children's activities were among the many aspects of the social life controlled by the Nazis, as well as control over the economy, education and family structure in the newly formed, totalitarian state. The Reichstag Fire Decree on February 28, 1933, permitted the suspension of basic civil rights--rights that had been guaranteed by the democratic Weimar Constitution.
The Third Reich became a police state in which Germans enjoyed no guaranteed basic rights and the SS, the elite guard of the Nazi state, wielded increasing authority through its control over the police.Political opponents, especially those in the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, along with Jews, were subject to intimidation, persecution, and discriminatory legislation. In the first two years of his chancellorship, Hitler followed a concerted policy of "coordination" (Gleichschaltung), by which political parties, state governments, and cultural and professional organizations were brought in line with Nazi goals. Culture, the economy, education, and law all came under Nazi control. In 1933, the real moves towards the future of Germany began.
Thousands of Nazis belonged to the Sturmarbeitelung (SA - Storm Troopers). Essentially street thugs in brown shirts, the SA had carried Hitler into the Chancellery with their fists, intimidating or killing his enemies. When the Nazi Racial Policy was introduced the first discriminatory laws against Jews came into effect. The Nazi Racial Policy was underpinned by four key components; Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, Social Darwinism and Lebensraum (Living Space). German authorities began eliminating Jews from governmental agencies, and state positions in the economy, law, and cultural life.
The SA stood in front of Jewish businesses and intimidated anyone attempting to enter. The next week Jews were removed from civil service positions. With the year, “non-Aryans” — anyone with one Jewish parent or grandparent — were removed from practicing professions like law, banking, medicine, and journalism. The Nazi government abolished trade unions. Workers, employees, and employers were forced into the German Labor Front, which was under the control of Nazi leader Robert Ley.
Unemployment dropped from 6 millions in 1932 to less than 1 million in 1936.Goebbels, his Minister of Propaganda, gave out radios to the populace and used the mass media to misinform German citizenry. All non-Nazi organizations were banned. Church youth groups, farmers’ unions, labor unions, all were made into affiliates of the Nazi Party.
The Hitler Youth, organizations for children, practiced extreme anti-Semitism and a highly militaristic regimen. Gender segregated, the young girls were taught to express their Teutonic virtue in motherhood, and to give Greater Germany children.The boys played military games, learned map reading, glider training, and field maneuvers. Every organization, from miners to mothers, held Hitler in cult-like fascination.
His memoir fMein Kampf sold thousands of copies. The Hitler youth movement was created in order to control and shape the entire youth of the nation to support the aims of the Nazi State. Membership of the Hitler Youth was made compulsory for German teenagers, and served as a conveyor belt to party membership.
