Inside Hitler's Germany: A Documentary History of Life in the Third Reich

by Benjamin Sax, Dieter Kuntz

A synthetic approach combining political, social, and ideological texts offers students a wide perspective on life in Hitler's Germany. Unit I considers the political history of Germany from 1918 to 1938; Unit II focuses upon National Socialist ideology and the dictatorship of 1938-1945; Unit III considers Nazi power in its police and military forms.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Germany, German Literature

522 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 1991

Reviews

[Valerie]

This is not the edition I read, but the edition I read (in three volumes) was a library edition, so the dust covers may have been removed.

The Nazi party existed before Hitler took it over. After WWI, Hitler was employed as a spy, infiltrating and analyzing various dissident groups, and reporting back on them to his superiors. He found the Nazi party having regular meetings (often in the Hofbrauhaus in Munich). He dismissed them rapidly as a beer-drinking and political gossip society (if they hadn't been Bavarians, he might have used terms like 'kaffeeklatsch')--at least officially. But he came back to them privately, because he saw a potential to use them as a vehicle for his own ambitions.

The original members of the party welcomed him ambivalently. They didn't in fact agree with him on many matters. Many of them really were 'socialists', in accord with the original name later shortened to 'Nazi'. Many didn't agree with him on methods. Some started as skeptics, mutated into true believers, then (as often as not) ended up dead on the Night of The Long Knives. There were a few who managed to weather all the changes.

One of the main things that Hitler and the early Nazis did that was most effective is a practice called 'gleichshaltung'. Essentially they created a mirror state, with all the departments and ministries that the actual state had...BEFORE they ever had any political power. Thus, when the time came, they had ministers already lined up and trained, and bureaucratic engines primed and ready to be fired up.

This book is sometimes heavy sledding. A lot of it is dry. Some is terrifying, as when schismatics were purged. But it forms an essential basis for understanding how the Nazis did what they did. They didn't just spring fully armed from the Earth, like the army from dragon-s teeth in the old myth. In order to ward against a repetition, it's necessary to understand how it happened in the first place.

[Constance Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of primary documents such as "Hitler's Speech Dedicating the House of German Art" in July 1937 to inside memos about the everyday workings with the government of the Third Reich. A required reading for my special topics class "The Third Reich," and a valuable teaching and resource tool.

[Jack]

i haven't read this one either. hitler? todd, isn't sax so post-post-modern? (by the way, ppm is a real school of thought.)

[Josh Liller · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of primary sources and I have yet to find such books very interesting. I was originally given this by a friend who had to read it for a History of Modern Germany college class. It sat on my bookshelf for a couple years before I ended up having it as assigned reading for my own Hitler & Nazi Germany class. I never did finish it, but still got an A in the class. With too many other books a higher priority, this one is going back on my bookshelf indefinitely. Maybe I will pick up where I left off at some point in the future...

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book when I was taking a Nazi Germany class as an undergrad. It was many different types of primary documents which allow the budding historian to get first hand knowledge of the Third Reich and allow them to make their own conclusions. It's a useful and interesting volume.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little dry and statistical at times but it covers the economics, politics, and culture of Germany from the early days of the Nazi Party through the war years.

[Joe Saloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading for my History of Modern Germany Class. It was a little boring of a read but very thorough in its investigation of every aspect of Hitler and his many influences to Germany.

[Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of first hand documents and accounts from the Nazi era. Read it for my class, but it was very informative.

[Lettie Laferriere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a class at WSU.