1024 Ch. 25 • Economic Depression and Dictatorship“night of the long knives” also swept up some conservatives and military
officers, as Hitler had feared trouble from the old right as well as from the
S.A. Hitler convinced President Hindenburg that the gory purge had saved
the German Third Reich (Third Empire) from a plot.
Hindenburg’s death in August 1934 allowed Hitler to combine the titles
of chancellor and Fiihrer (“leader”), which replaced that of “president,” a
title that smacked of a republic. The army agreed to take an oath of personal
allegiance to “the executor of the whole people’s will.” Ninety percent of
those voting in a plebiscite approved Hitler’s assumption of both functions.
The Nazi program of “coordination” was applied to most aspects of civil
society, such as organized groups and activities outside the family. The
Nazis had already gradually taken over voluntary associations, such as pro
fessional associations and sports clubs. Depoliticized, closely monitored
voluntary associations and churches could remain centers of local public
life without threatening Nazi domination. The Nazis worked to convert
schools into mouthpieces for Hitler’s state, providing new textbooks with
instructions for teachers as to what should be taught, including “racial the
ory” and “Teutonic prehistory.” Instead of students fearing their teachers,
as had often been the case in German schools, non-Nazi teachers now had
reason to fear their students; members of the Hitler Youth organization
were quick to report to Nazi Party members teachers who did not seem
enthusiastic about Nazism. New university chairs in “racial hygiene,” mili
tary history, and German prehistory reflected Nazi interests. Pictures of
Hitler went up in every classroom and radios broadcast his speeches.
The Nazis brought hundreds of thousands of active Germans into care
fully controlled Nazi organizations, the goal of each being to “reach toward
Hitler”—that is, to share the racist, nationalist goals of the Fiihrer. By
1936 the Hitler Youth included almost half of all German boys between
ten and fourteen years of age; a League of German Girls also flourished.
The Nazis reduced social life to its most basic component, the family. (At
Hitler paying homage to
Hindenburg shortly before