THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO NAZI GERMANY The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany combines a concise narrative overview with chronological, bibliographical and tabular information to cover all major aspects of Nazi Germany. This user-friendly guide provides a compre- hensive survey of key topics such as the origins and consolidation of the Nazi regime, the Nazi dictatorship in action, Nazi foreign policy, the Second World War, the Holocaust, opposition to the regime and the legacy of Nazism. Features include: • Detailed chronologies • A discussion of Nazi ideology • Succinct historiographical overview with detailed information on more than 60 major historians of Nazism • Biographies of 150 leading figures of Nazi Germany • A glossary of terms, concepts and acronyms • Maps and tables • A concise thematic bibliography of works on the Third Reich. This indispensable reference guide to the history and historiography of Nazi Germany will appeal to students, teachers and general readers alike. Roderick Stackelberg is Emeritus Professor of History at Gonzaga University. He is the author of Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies (1999) and Idealism Debased: From Völkisch Ideology to National Socialism (1981), and co-editor of The Nazi Germany Sourcebook (2002). Routledge Companions to History Series Advisors: Chris Cook and John Stevenson Routledge Companions to History offer perfect reference guides to key historical events and eras, providing everything that the student or general reader needs to know. These comprehensive guides include essential apparatus for navigating through specific topics in a clear and straightforward manner – including introductory articles, biographies and chronologies – to provide accessible and indispensable surveys crammed with vital information valuable for beginner and expert alike. 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No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-92696-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–30860–7 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–30861–5 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–30860–1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–30861–8 (pbk) CONTENTS List of illustrations vii Preface ix 1 Introduction and background 1 PART I Nazi Germany in historical perspective 7 2 Chronology 9 3 Historiography 22 4 A–Z of historians 54 PART II Nazi Germany: the major topics 105 5 Origins and consolidation of Nazi Germany 107 6 Dictatorship in action 122 7 Foreign policy, war, and the Holocaust 141 8 Opposition and legacy 164 PART III Key actors and terminology 179 9 Biographies 181 10 Glossary 254 Notes 314 Bibliography 326 Index 347 v ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS 1 The German Empire, 1871–1919 96 2 The German Reich, 1 January 1939 97 3 The height of German expansion, November 1942 98 4 Germany after 1945 99 TABLES 1 Reichstag elections, 1928–1933 100 2 Sociological structure of the NSDAP prior to 1933 102 3 Nazi concentration and extermination camps 103 vii PREFACE Like other volumes in the Routledge Companion series, this book is intended as a reference work for scholars, teachers, students, and general readers. It fits the German definition of Handbuch, a comprehensive, but handy, learning and teaching guide to a particular area of scholarship – in this case the history of Nazi Germany. It can be used in various ways: as a readily accessible source of historical, historiographical, biographical, bibliographical, and lexical infor- mation; as a guide to major developments in recent historical scholarship; and also, especially in Part II, as a condensed narrative history text of the Third Reich. The challenge in such a work is how to summarize and simplify historical and historiographical information without diluting the inescapable complexi- ties and ambiguities of history. This book makes no claim to completeness. Some readers will inevitably disagree with my choice of events to include in the chronology, which historians to select for detailed discussion, whom to tap for extended biographical coverage, and which books to list in the bibliography. In every case my criterion for inclusion was the following question: what information will be most helpful to readers to better understand the nature, history, and historiography of Nazism? Except for the section on historiography, I have kept end-note references to a minimum, usually documenting only direct quotes. My English-language sources are acknowledged in the bibliography at the end of this volume, to which I would like to add the very useful general reference work, Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture, 1871–1990, 2 vols., edited by Dieter K. Buse and Juergen C. Doerr, New York and London, Garland, 1998. To acknowledge all my German-language sources adequately would require a separate volume. However, I would like to mention several highly useful reference works from which I retrieved a great deal of information: Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus, edited by Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml, and Hermann Weiss, Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1997; Ernst Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945?, Frankfurt, S. Fischer, 2003; Biographisches Lexikon zum Dritten Reich, edited by Hermann Weiss, Frankfurt, Fischer, 1999; Lexikon des deutschen Widerstandes, edited by Wolfgang Benz and Walter H. Pehle, Frankfurt, Fischer, 2001; and Lexikon des Widerstandes 1933–1945, edited by Peter Steinbach and Johannes Tuchel, 2nd edition, Munich, Beck, 1998. Space limitations precluded a full discussion of archival resources on Nazi Germany. A useful guide is Archives in Germany: ix PREFACE An Introductory Guide to Institutions and Sources, edited by Frank Schumacher with Annette M. Marciel, Reference Guide No. 13, Washington, DC, German Historical Institute, 2001. The best source for up-to-date information on research on the Holocaust are the various publications of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies in Washington, DC. I would like to acknowledge the helpful suggestions and criticisms I received from four outside readers for Routledge who evaluated my original proposal. I want to express my thanks also to the efficient interlibrary loan services at Gonzaga University and to the secretarial staff, especially Sandy Hank, for help in preparing the manuscript. My greatest debt, as always, is to my wife Sally Winkle, who took the time from her own work to read and critique the manuscript and who also provided much-appreciated emotional support. Thanks also to my son Emmet, who frequently came to the rescue when his superannuated dad had trouble with the technological intricacies of the information age. Roderick Stackelberg Spokane, Washington 5 March 2007 x 1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Nazi Germany and particularly the Holocaust, the signature crime of the twentieth century, present perhaps the greatest challenge to the explanatory powers of historians. Many explanations for Nazism have been offered in the course of the nine decades since the first fascist movement was founded in Italy in 1919. The most important interpretations are discussed in the section on historiography that follows the chronology in Part I. Whether we understand why the Nazis rose to power and why the Holocaust happened any better at the beginning of the twenty-first century than contemporaries did at the time remains an open question. History is, after all, an ongoing argument conducted from different and ever-changing perspectives very much dependent on the unpredic- table course of events, changing public attitudes, and varying personal loyalties. But more than 60 years of intensive research have