To what extent can Nazism in power be seen as totalitarianism in the period 1933–1939?
Just struggling with how to structure this answer. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Just adding to the great answers already, I got 25/25 for this question in half yearlies and this was my intro (my structure was based upon whether Nazism fit the requirements of a totalitarian state as put forward by Friedrich and Brzezinski):
In order to qualify as a totalitarian state, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party must not only have ensured it was the only party that controlled Germany. Rather, according to the definition of a totalitarian state put forward by political scientists Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1956, an official ideology, single mass party, control over mass communications and a systematic regime of terror and police control was necessary. Therefore, although the Nazi party was able to achieve a considerable amount of control through propaganda, it ultimately does not qualify as a total totalitarian state as it lacked a clearly defined ideology and organised government, did not crush all its opposition and was not a completely systematic state of terror.
So pretty much I argued:
NOT single mass party as it was a "polycratic state" due to Hitler's inability to make decisions and the duplication within his Govt. eg. the Ministry of Labour being in direct competition with the German Labour.
NOT an official ideology as Nazism continued to evolve from what was specified in Mein Kampf (undergoing a process of "spiralling radicalisation" according to Brozsat)
DID NOT crush all opposition as eg. opposition from the Church still remained as did in youth groups such as the Uberweiss Pirates and Swing Group.
WHILE Propaganda was successful in gaining control, I argued that it wasn't solely responsible for this as the disillusionment at the time (context) meant that it was not overly difficult to gain the people's support.
SIMILARLY, Nazi terror and repression did not in itself secure total control, rather it relied on denunciations from members of the public and as mentioned earlier, there was popular support for the Nazis due to their message of hope and distaste for Weimar etc. and therefore, the need to enforce loyalty through systematic terror was rarely required.
Anyway, that is what I argued!
Hope it helps!