How did the Nazis turn the chancellorship of 1933 into a total dictatorship, and how did the regime control and persecute the German people?
Nazi Germany 1933 to 1945: the consolidation of dictatorship, the machinery of the police state, propaganda and society, persecution and the Holocaust, and Germany at war.
A WJEC A-Level History depth study of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, covering the consolidation of Hitler's dictatorship, the police state and the SS, propaganda and the control of society, the persecution of Jews and the Holocaust, and Germany at war.
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What this dot point is asking
This WJEC depth study asks you to explain in detail how the Nazis built and maintained a total dictatorship and how they controlled and persecuted German society between 1933 and 1945. Depth studies reward precise knowledge (dates, institutions, legislation) and close analysis, especially of the balance between terror and consent and the escalation from persecution to genocide.
The answer
Consolidating the dictatorship, 1933 to 1934
This process, Gleichschaltung ("coordination"), gave dictatorship a veneer of legality. Other parties and trade unions were banned by mid-1933 (the law against the formation of new parties, 14 July 1933), the states were brought under central control, and the one-party state was complete. The Night of the Long Knives both removed the radical SA and secured the army's backing for Hitler.
The police state
The SS under Heinrich Himmler, the Gestapo (secret state police), the SD and the concentration-camp system (beginning with Dachau in March 1933) enforced terror and surveillance. Block wardens and informers extended control into daily life, and the courts were Nazified, including the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) from 1934. Recent research stresses that the Gestapo was relatively small and depended heavily on denunciations from ordinary Germans, suggesting a partly self-policing society rather than an all-seeing terror machine.
Propaganda and society
The regime aimed to manufacture consent as well as compel obedience, presenting a national community (Volksgemeinschaft) from which "outsiders" (Jews, Roma, the disabled, political opponents) were excluded. The fall in unemployment from around six million in 1933 to near full employment by 1939, and schemes such as "Strength through Joy" (Kraft durch Freude), won real popularity.
Persecution, the Holocaust and war, 1933 to 1945
Antisemitic persecution escalated in stages: the boycott of Jewish businesses (April 1933), the Nuremberg Laws (1935) which stripped Jews of citizenship and banned intermarriage, and the pogrom of Kristallnacht (9 to 10 November 1938). During the Second World War this became systematic genocide: the Einsatzgruppen shootings from 1941, the Wannsee Conference (January 1942), and the death camps, in which around six million Jews were murdered, alongside Roma, disabled people (the T4 programme) and others. Germany's war of conquest ended in total defeat in 1945.
Examples in context
Model paragraph (terror versus consent). The regime's grip on German society rested on both terror and consent, but the balance shifted with circumstance. Fear was real: Dachau opened within weeks of the seizure of power, the Gestapo could send a person to a camp without trial, and the People's Court delivered savage sentences. Yet the historian Robert Gellately has shown that the Gestapo was thinly staffed and relied on a stream of denunciations from neighbours and colleagues, which implies a population that largely policed itself and often approved. Consent was also bought with results: the collapse of unemployment, the spectacle of national revival, and the Fuhrer cult won genuine enthusiasm, especially among the young through the Hitler Youth. Terror and consent were therefore not alternatives but partners; the regime intimidated its declared enemies while securing the active or passive support of the majority, which is why open resistance remained marginal.
Try this
Q1. What two measures let Hitler rule by decree in 1933? [2 marks]
- Cue. The Reichstag Fire Decree (February 1933) and the Enabling Act (March 1933).
Q2. What were the Nuremberg Laws? [2 marks]
- Cue. The 1935 laws that stripped German Jews of citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and non-Jews.
Q3. How far did the Nazi regime rely on terror rather than consent before 1939? [20 marks]
- What the marker wants. A weighing of the police state against propaganda, economic recovery and the Fuhrer cult, engaging the historians and reaching a judgement.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
WJEC 201820 marksTo what extent did the Nazis consolidate their power through legal means between 1933 and 1934?Show worked answer →
A depth essay testing AO1 knowledge and a balanced judgement weighing legality against terror.
Top-band answers argue a clear line rather than listing events.
Legal methods: the Reichstag Fire Decree (28 February 1933), the Enabling Act (24 March 1933) passed by the Reichstag, the banning of parties and unions, and the merging of chancellor and president on Hindenburg's death (August 1934), each clothing dictatorship in legality.
Terror: the SA's violence against opponents, the first concentration camps (Dachau, March 1933), and the Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934) that murdered Rohm and rivals.
The decisive top-band feature is a judgement on whether the "legal revolution" (Gleichschaltung) or terror mattered more, noting they worked together, supported by dated evidence.
WJEC 202220 marksHow far did the Nazi regime rely on terror rather than consent to control German society between 1933 and 1939?Show worked answer →
A depth question rewarding a weighing of repression against the manufacture of consent.
Terror: the SS and Gestapo, the concentration camps, block wardens and informers, and the Nazified courts created a climate of fear, though the Gestapo was smaller and more reliant on public denunciation than its image suggests.
Consent: propaganda (Goebbels, radio, film, rallies), the cult of the Fuhrer, the appeal of recovery from unemployment through rearmament and public works, the Hitler Youth, and "Strength through Joy" won genuine support.
The top band engages the historians' debate (the functionalist picture of a self-policing society versus a terror state) and judges how far consent and terror were intertwined, with evidence.
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Sources & how we know this
- WJEC A-level History specification — WJEC (2015)