The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945 [Paperback]

Pierre Aycoberry (Author), Janet Lloyd (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000 | ISBN-10: 1565846354 | ISBN-13: 978-1565846357

Now in paperback, the "disturbing, brutally honest, and scrupulously fair " (Booklist) study of Germany during the Nazi years, by the celebrated author of The Nazi Question. In a highly praised study hailed by Library Journal as "thorough" and "balanced," Pierre Aycoberry combines mastery of German history with original research to give us an unparalleled account, now available in paperback for the first time, of life in Hitler's Third Reich. Aycoberry uncovers the struggles of individuals and social and professional groups who stood up to the pressures of the Nazi Party and often paid a high price, while he also sheds light on the attempts of others--mainly upper- and middle-class professionals--to salvage or improve their positions by casting their lots with the Fuhrer. In this complex answer to the easy judgments passed by many, Pierre Aycoberry writes what the Washington Post Book World calls "a subtle book that eschews facile generalizations and sensational accusations, and is full of prudent qualifications and warnings that what was true in one place and one time was not necessarily true twenty miles away or one year later."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Germany's legacy of belligerence, through the First and especially the Second World War, forced ordinary German people into a great deal of collective hand wringing and self-examination in the wake of their final defeat in 1945. The ensuing years saw Germans "keen to close this parenthesis and begin rebuilding society," as contemporary-history scholar Pierre Ayçoberry puts it, but they had to reconcile their role in a regime responsible for unprecedented atrocities, in near-full collusion with both industry and the church. Ayçoberry cites a broad range of postwar intellectual and political positions, "denunciations and apologias relating to the Prussian tradition ... alternated with diagnoses of the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic, suggestions for the rejuvenation of conservatism and liberalism, and attempts to answer the piercing question, 'Are we Germans different from other peoples?'"

Ayçoberry, the respected author of The Nazi Question, revisits this self-examination with an objective outsider's eye and an exceptional facility with German history. Systematically cataloguing the significant events, individuals, and organizations in Germany from 1933 to 1945, Ayçoberry sorts out the period's difficult questions, shining light on and giving explanation for the many who threw in with the Führer and recounting the penalties paid by those who didn't. Chronologically arranged sections deal with the violence and terror of the SA and SS (including the brutal Death's Heads), examine how the Nazi myth was packaged and sold to the German public, and describe day-to-day reality in fractured wartime Germany. A weighty, academic study by an authority in the field (translated from the original French), Ayçoberry's Social History of the Third Reich is a rigorous, evenhanded chronicle of a complex and chaotic time. --Paul Hughes --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The historian wishing to write a social history of German society during the Nazi era is confronted with a dilemma: Is it possible to arrive at some conclusion regarding the extent of opposition or collusion of the people in a totalitarian society? How does one interpret documents under such a regime? Should one accept the version of the SS ("which saw potential rebels on every side") or that of the opposition (who "detected cowards or accomplices everywhere")? Ay?oberry (author of The Nazi Question) has done an admirable job of painting a portrait of a people (in opposition to that of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen in Hitler's Willing Executioners) who are at once perpetrators and victims. From the Volk to the army, the diplomatic corps to the SS, the churches to the youth organizations, this is a fine overview, with Hitler, of course, at the center. Ay?oberry shows how Germans from all walks of life were seduced or corrupted by, or simply in agreement with, the F?hrer from the beginning. This work captures the essence of Nazi culture, what the author calls "a compound of kitsch and terror." Revealingly, he begins the book (contrary to conventional historiographical convention) with a discussion of Nazi violence. Equally important is the attention he devotes to the victims of that violence; often lumped together in an indiscriminate mass; Ay?oberry restores their humanity and identities, reminding us that the concentration camps opened in 1933. The "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" is examined in the larger context of racial pseudoscience, mass delusion and war. Although there is little here that is new, Ay?oberry displays an impressive command of the secondary sources in French, English and German, and he has consulted a wide collection of documents. The result is a synthetic and analytical work that reveals the complex nuances of life under the Third Reich.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565846354
• ISBN-13: 978-1565846357
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,304,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling & Rigorous Study of the Nazi Regime!, June 17, 2000

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945 (Hardcover)

With this scholarly & carefully researched book, author Pierre Aycoberry weighs once more into the ongoing debate concerning "who" within the National Socialist German state of the 1930s-40s participated in the Holocaust, & with as much import and significance, also details the "hows" & "whys". In a previous book, "The Nazi Question", the author examined the scope & breadth of Nazi violence & genocide, and described the participation of the populace in terms of both active involvement & passive acquiescence. Here he approaches the issues by systematically cataloguing the people, institutions, and individual events to see who actively participated, who didn't, and why.

This is an exhaustive, rigorous, and carefully documented academic study, and Aycoberry obviously has taken care to be as deliberate and detailed as possible in grounding his assertions in the substantive facts he can marshal to support them. What results from this scrupulous approach is an illuminating look at who within the Nazi regime participated, who didn't, as well as the respective rewards and punishments or consequences associated with such individual choices. The comprehensive picture that emerges is one of a complex modern industrial state in which some segments of the population perceived the social circumstances as offering opportunities for personal gain and took them, while others resisted such temptations consistently, often to their own disadvantage, detriment, and ultimate danger.

Of course, in all of this is an implicit understanding that in modern societies the average man tends to simply try to survive in whatever prevailing social and cultural conditions he may find himself located within. What is more difficult to piece together is the often puzzling question as to why so many seemed to just go on with the growing violence with apparent indifference, willing to acquiesce with whatever madness is presented as long as it doesn't personally affect them or their loved ones. Such mass evidence of moral cowardice is likely at the seat of the so-called "German question"; i.e., how could a civilized, cultured people countenance or participate in this kind of violence & genocide?

One must consider the author's findings in terms of recent tomes by authors such as Daniel Goldhagen and Eric Johnson, each of whom interprets the answers to the "German Question" in terms of active and willing mass participation in the violence and genocidal activities of the regime. Aycoberry is more circumspect, and much more specifically locates pockets of both active participation and passive resistance. Thus, Germany did become 'Nazified' through all its institutions; the military, churches, schools, industry, and within the bureaucracies as well. In this sense, it is difficult to deny the complicity of the people in the criminal actions of the state. However, one must also recognize the frailties of millions of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, trapped in an oppressive society with a cultural history compelling obedience and requiring passive acquiescence to its rules. Certainly this book will not end the debate regarding who, how, and why, but does add important new evidence more specifically locating pockets of participation and resistance within the regime, and adding a scholarly thoughtfulness to the issue of the complexity of the cultural situation leading to the Holocaust. This is an important book, and one I would heartily recommend to all serious students of 20th century history.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Competing structures in the Third Reich., July 1, 2000

By 

John Barry Kenyon - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945 (Hardcover)

This is an extremely well written (and translated) insight into what made nazi Germany tick. The author's skill lies in his adroit use of paradigms or frameworks of assumptions within which his scholarly insight shines forth. For example, he shows clearly how the four powers that dominated society - state bureaucracy, the nazi party, business bosses and the army - changed with the advent of war. In general, the power of the party and of the business leaders grew after 1940 whereas the army high command and the state bureaucrats lost ground as defeats multiplied. His account of nazi propaganda is succinct but revealing. Thus he illustrates, through SD reports and other sources, how Goebbels' official line that Germans did not commit atrocities was often refuted by ordinary people's experience on both the war and the home fronts. This is not an introductory guide to the power structures of the Reich, but a masterful and semi sociological review of why and how Hitler's Germany took the course it did. And why its many contradictions were a key element in its eventual demise.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging But Extremely Valuable Analysis, September 7, 2001

By 

Bruce M. Ezerski (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945 (Hardcover)

I found this analysis of the Hitler period both challenging and profoundly disturbing reading. It is not for the faint of heart. It requires considerable analytical ability on the part of the reader! But, having said that, the translation is excellent. The message..."it could happen here"...is clear. It provides a chilling look at Nazi Germany from the viewpoint of ordinary citizens caught up in the megalomania of a charismaric leader. It makes abundantly clear the fact that many, if not a majority, of Germans knew that atrocities were being committed by their government and that they accepted these acts in a kind of "pact with the devil". The masses saw economic and political stability, despite its totalitarian nature, as preferable to the perceived chaos of the Weimar democracy. Thus, "looking the other way" became the status quo, despite statements to the contrary made by so many after the war. This book demands that the reader look deeply into his or her own soul, and it makes each of us consider what darkness might lie in any one of us, given circumstances of privation, starvation, and the widespread perception of national humiliation engendered by the onerous reparations exacted by the victors of World War I.