ABSTRACT
In the months and years following his accession to power, Hitler gained full independence from the conservative elites who had helped him to power but who were then gradually displaced by party members in leadership positions in the institutions of Nazi Germany. Under the process of Gleichschaltung all independent associations were brought under direct Nazi control. Hitler’s powers expanded throughout the 1930s as a result of the compliance and collaboration of conservative elites and the muted responses of the Western democracies under the policy of appeasement, but also because the Nazi leader was genuinely popular among wide sectors of the German public. The perception of Hitler as executor of the will of the people and as guarantor of national unity and purpose was not just a triumph of Nazi propaganda but also reflected long-standing public longings for strong national leadership that would effectively get things done. Yet close investigation of how Germany was ruled under Hitler has challenged the conventional image of the Third Reich as an efficient bureaucratic monolith directly subject to Hitler’s authority. Historians have adopted Martin Broszat’s term “polycracy” to describe a system of rule characterized by competing authorities, personal rivalries, overlapping jurisdictions, a multiplication of offices, and administrative confusion.1
