ABSTRACT
The use of terror was an integral aspect of Nazism from its very beginnings. However, the functions terror performed, the forms that it took, and the personnel who employed it underwent significant change over time. The Nazi movement was born and passed the first and formative years of its existence in a climate saturated with political violence and terror. Nazi terror during the phase prior to the take-over of power culminated in a campaign of unprecedented violence in the late summer of 1932 concentrated mainly in the eastern provinces of Prussia. Terror tactics employed by the stormtroopers and Schutzstaffel played a crucial role in the Nazi take-over of power during the first months of 1933. Between 1934 and 1939 the need to employ terror was limited by the significant degree of consent in Nazi Germany and by the fact that where dissent existed both on the part of individuals and social groups it was normally only partial rather than total.
