July 14, 1933 – In Germany, All Political Parties Are Outlawed Except One- the Nazi Party
The MAGA political party reminds me of a word fraught with an especially dark meaning: Gleichschaltung. It literally means “synchronization” or ”to bring into line”, but it refers to the process in Nazi Germany that ensured political conformity ”in all sectors, from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture, and education”. Gleichschaltung in Nazi terminology was the process by which Adolf Hitler successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over every aspects of German society from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture and education.
The Nazis were able to put their Gleichschaltung into law because of laws passed by the government in the months before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. After becoming the leader of the country, Hitler used the emergency powers of the Weimar Constitution to suspend most civil rights provided for by that constitution. This allowed the arrest of political adversaries and the terrorizing of political rivals by the SA (the Nazi paramilitary force) before the upcoming November election.
By the time of Nuremberg Rally of 1935, the symbols of the Nazi Party and the German State were fused, and German Jews were deprived of their citizenship.
Gleichschaltung meant stamping out the unions and political organizations hostile to the Nazis, while other institutions like the church and education systems were co-opted into intuitions for spreading Nazi ideology.
You might think it is farfetched, but with the current version of the GOP, it is not that hard to find the signs of the Christian White Nationalists’ drive to control and demand conformity over everything and every aspect of our society. That includes clamping down on communications by federal employees, publishing lists of the crimes committed by “aliens”, demanding the EPA remove climate change language from its website, stamping out any discussion about racism, banning books, launching investigations into voter fraud despite widespread agreement that none exists, and, of course, putting the brakes on LGBTQ Rights, plus their attempts to delegitimize the media which challenges their version of the facts, denigrating the FBI, and their frantic tweeting about slights real and imagined.
Gleichschaltung serves as a signal word to remind us to be extremely wary of MAGAs. We must recognize that they want to foreclose on any difference of opinion and they think they should prescribe what is and is not acceptable knowledge or expression.
Am I off base to be concerned that the party of the disgraced, twice-impeached, mango-hued 45th president, the current Governor of Florida, and the Republican collaborators in Congress, will look for a way to suspend the 2024 election?
The Nazis called for parliamentary elections for November 1933. Since the Nazi Party was the only legal party in Germany, voters were presented with ballots containing only Nazis and 22 pro-Nazi “guests”. To whip up nationalist sentiment, the Nazis intentionally timed the election to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the end of World War I. Compelled to vote in less than secret circumstances, 92.1% the electorate voted in favor of the Nazis, thereby formally replacing the Reichstag elected eight months earlier with a rubberstamp legislature. A referendum on Germany’s withdrawal from the League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations) was held on the same day under the very same circumstances, and it passed with 95.1% support.
Beginning 90 years ago, July 1933, and continuing afterwards, there was a systematic elimination of all non-Nazi organizations that could potentially influence people. Citizens critical of Herr Hitler and/or the Nazis were suppressed, intimidated, or murdered. Every national voluntary association, and every local club, were brought under Nazi control, including sports, choirs, and women’s organizations; the entire fabric of life was now Nazified. Politically organizations were merged into a single Nazi party. Any and all organizations expelled leftish, liberal members, and they declared their allegiance to the Nazi Party. The entire process went on all over Germany and within a few years, the only non-Nazi associations left were Christian churches.
An important part of Gleichschaltung was the purging of federal and state employees. Civil servants were fired if they weren’t sympathetic to the Nazi program, and Nazification took place at every level. People in government swiftly joined the Nazi Party, fearing that if they would lose their jobs if they didn’t. At the local level, mayors and councils were terrorized by Nazi stormtroopers, and were forced to resign or follow orders to replace officials and workers who belonged to other political parties.
When the newly elected Reichstag (parliament) first convened in spring 1933, it passed the Enabling Act, legislation that gave Hitler the right to make laws without the involvement of the Reichstag. The entire Weimar Constitution was rendered void. Afterwards, the Nazi government banned the Social Democratic Party, which had voted against the Enabling Act. By early July, other political parties had been intimidated into dissolving rather than face arrests and concentration camps, and all non-Nazi members of the government were compelled to resign.
During the debate on the Enabling Act, Social Democrat Otto Wels spoke the last free words in the Reichstag:
“You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honor. We are defenseless but not honorless.”
The Gleichschaltung also included the formation of organizations with compulsory membership for parts of the population, especially the young people of Germany. By 1936, membership in the Hitler Youth was six million strong. They were supposed to ensure the future of Nazi Germany. The Hitler Youth were indoctrinated with the myths of Aryan racial superiority and were taught to view Jews as subhuman. They broke up church youth groups, spied on religious classes and Bible studies, and interfered with church attendance. Training for the Hitler Youth was designed to undermine the values of traditional structures of German society, to be replaced and dominated by the political goals of Hitler’s dictatorship. Sacrifice for the Nazi cause was instilled into their training. They sang Nazi songs and read Nazi books. A fun activity was burning non-Nazi books.
A Little Book Burning Bash, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
A recreational organization for German workers, called Kraft Durch Freude (“Strength Through Joy”) sprung up, personal hobbies were regimented, and private clubs were brought under their control, providing vacations, skiing, swimming, concerts and cruises. With more than 25 million members, it was the largest of the many organizations established by the Nazis.
An Exciting Outing on the Nazi Train, photo: public domain
The nasty Nazis started persecuted gay men in summer 1933, closing gay bars and meeting places, dissolving gay associations, and shuttering the gay press. Then they arrested and tried tens of thousands of gay men using Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code, which made sex between men illegal. Uncovering the truth about what happened to gay men during the Nazi era was difficult until late in the 20th century because of the continued prejudice against LGBTQ people. Before 1933, so many queer communities flourished in Germany, especially in the larger cities, despite the fact that sexual between men was criminalized. Beginning in 1933, the Nazis harassed and dismantled Germany’s queer communities. At least 15,000 gay men were placed in concentration camps, and were typically required to wear a pink triangle on their camp uniforms as part of the prisoner classification system.
Remember Otto Wels? He escaped first to Prague and then to Paris where he was active in the Resistance. He died there in 1939, at 66 years old. He is considered to be Germany’s bravest man in the fight against Hitler.
