Andrew KimmelVerified account

The concentration of political and legislative power in the cabinet didn’t last long. Beneath the surface appearance of normality, the cabinet was being marginalized as Hitler appointed his own cronies & disciples to new positions or pushed out his conservative coalition partners

Hitler made sure that the armed forces were on his side by giving them massive increases in funding & a huge new armaments program...His program for making Germany great again included a new aggressive attitude in international affairs.

Hitler’s seizure and remaking of the state was buttressed by a wholesale reorganization of the education system and an effort to redefine German culture. The intellectual quality of German universities, which had led the world in research before 1933, plummeted.

Before Hitler took over, 1/5 of all university students were enrolled in the humanities; by the eve of the war, that portion had been cut in half, in a student body that was itself shrinking rapidly, from a total of 104,000 in all universities in 1931 to just under 41,000 in 1939

The regime’s assault on culture ex­tended to its policy toward the arts, which were “coordinated” by Goebbels in a Reich Chamber of Culture that ended funding for modern painting, sculpture, and music, and banned allegedly subversive artists from working.

The main objective of Nazi education and culture was not to distract people from issues of political importance; it was to instill a new sense of patriotism. Pupils were made to salute the flag before school every morning...

History lessons were turned into a celebration of German heroes from the past. Geography was Nazified in order to justify German claims on other parts of Europe...Such exercises pointed to the fact that the regime constantly targeted minorities to mobilize approval and support.

Elections & referendums were put to the voters, & they routinely delivered majorities in favor of whatever the gov’t proposed - results achieved by depriving opponents of the vote, by manipulating the electoral process, & by intimidating the great mass of people.