Yes, pretty easy in this case, actually. After coming to power, they picked up a few Weimar social programs (including the Autobahns!) and tripled the hype; they didn’t nationalize much anything except stolen Jewish property, and even that was in practice mostly given away as loot; they worked with the old officer caste despite its frequent disloyalty and purged the SA when the stormtroopers wanted in on the influence and status; they kept a basically peacetime consumer-oriented economy until 1943, long after all other great powers introduced total-war central control; despite the Anti-Semitic propaganda, they couldn’t manage to get enough popular participation during the Kristallnacht, and Hitler cancelled further planned pogroms in favor of silent and secret repression...
Lots of propaganda, lots of killing, not too much change in society’s structures compared to e.g. 1914.
[Nazis] worked with the old officer caste despite its frequent disloyalty
I don’t think the historical record supports this assertion. The Prussian / Imperial military was a parallel institution to the post-1848 civilian government—both loyal to the Kaiser, but otherwise unrelated. (No, this isn’t a stable setup).
A substantial amount of the German army’s political maneuvering in Weimar period was an attempt to maintain independence from civilian government oversight even after there wasn’t really any German state separate from the civilian leadership.
Once Hitler took power, he broke the Army’s independence (eg the destruction of Generals Blomberg and Fritsch). In short, the Nazis were the first civilian government to place the German military in a subordinate position. “Working with the old officer class” is terribly misleading.
How convenient that this is so easy to tell apart.
Yes, pretty easy in this case, actually. After coming to power, they picked up a few Weimar social programs (including the Autobahns!) and tripled the hype;
they didn’t nationalize much anything except stolen Jewish property, and even that was in practice mostly given away as loot;
they worked with the old officer caste despite its frequent disloyalty and purged the SA when the stormtroopers wanted in on the influence and status;
they kept a basically peacetime consumer-oriented economy until 1943, long after all other great powers introduced total-war central control;
despite the Anti-Semitic propaganda, they couldn’t manage to get enough popular participation during the Kristallnacht, and Hitler cancelled further planned pogroms in favor of silent and secret repression...
Lots of propaganda, lots of killing, not too much change in society’s structures compared to e.g. 1914.
I don’t think the historical record supports this assertion. The Prussian / Imperial military was a parallel institution to the post-1848 civilian government—both loyal to the Kaiser, but otherwise unrelated. (No, this isn’t a stable setup).
A substantial amount of the German army’s political maneuvering in Weimar period was an attempt to maintain independence from civilian government oversight even after there wasn’t really any German state separate from the civilian leadership.
Once Hitler took power, he broke the Army’s independence (eg the destruction of Generals Blomberg and Fritsch). In short, the Nazis were the first civilian government to place the German military in a subordinate position. “Working with the old officer class” is terribly misleading.