¹ Ernst Nolte's contributions to the Historikerstreit reflect this tendency. See ‘Historikerstreit’. Die Dokumentation der Kontroverse um die Einzigartigkeit der nationalsozialistischen Judenvernichtgung. (Munich: Piper, 1987), 13–35, 39–47, and his book Der europäische Bürgerkrieg 1917–1945 (Frankfurt am Main/Berlin: Proplyäen Verlag, 1987).

² See, for instance, the recently published essay collection produced by Prinz, Michael and Zitelmann, Rainer, eds, Nationalsozialismus und Modernisierung (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991)Google Scholar, especially the editors' foreword (vii–xi) and Zitelmann's own essay, ‘Die totalitäre Seite der Moderne’, 1–20.

³ See on this the thoughtful comments of Maier, Charles, The Unmasterable Past. History, Holocaust, and German National Identity (Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press, 1988), 71–84.Google Scholar

⁴ The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is currently investigating the structures of differing authoritarian systems in twentieth–century Europe in a major research project, ‘Diktaturen im Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts: Strukturen, Erfahrung, Überwindung und Vergleich’.

⁵ I argue this case in chapter 2 of my Nazi Dictatorship. Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, 3rd edn (London: Edward Arnold, 1993).Google Scholar

⁶ The comparison becomes even more shallow where the focus shifts from Stalin's own regime to later ‘Stalinist’ systems. The revelations of the extent of repression in the German Democratic Republic have, for example, prompted simplistic notions of essential similarities between the Honecker and Hitler regimes. See on this the comments of Jäckel, Eberhard, ‘Die doppelte Vergangenheit’, Der Spiegel, 23 Dec. 1991, 39–43.Google Scholar

⁷ On the Sonderweg debate, see the sensible comments of Kocka, Jürgen, ‘German History before Hitler: The Debate about the German Sonderweg’, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol.23 (1988), 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸ Suny, Ronald, ‘Proletarian Dictator in a Peasant Land: Stalin as Ruler’ (thereafter Suny, Dictator') (unpublished), 10–11.Google Scholar

⁹ Lewin, Moshe, ‘Bureaucracy and the Stalinist State’ (unpublished), 26.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Werner, Jochmann, ed., Adolf Hitler. Monologe im Führerhauptquartier (thereafter Jochmann, Monologe (Hamburg: Albrecht Knaus Verlag, 1980), 158Google Scholar; trans. Hitler's Table Talk thereafter Table Talk, intro. H. R. Trevor-Roper (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1953), 153.

¹¹ Petzina, Dieter, Autarkiepolitik im Dritten Reich (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1968), 48–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hayes, Peter, Industry and Ideology. IG Farben in the Nazi Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 164–7.Google Scholar

¹² See Kubizek, August, Adolf Hitler, mein Jugendfreund, 5th edn (Graz/Stuttgart: Leopold Stocker Verlag, 1989).Google Scholar

¹³ Wiedemann, Fritz, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte (Kettwig: Velbert, 1964), 69;Google Scholar trans. Noakes, Jeremy and Pridham, Geoffrey, eds, Nazism 1919/1945. A Documentary Reader (thereafter Noakes and Pridham, Nazism) (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1984), ii. 207–8.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich, Nuremberg Document no. NG-5428; trans. Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, ii. 245.

¹⁵ Suny, ‘Dictator’, 11–13, 24, 34–5, 38.

¹⁶ Rebentisch, Dieter, Führerstaat und Verwaltung im Zweiten Weltkrieg (thereafter, Rebentisch, Führerstaat) (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1989)Google Scholar, has clearly shown that Hitler involved himself in civilian affairs to a far greater extent than was once thought. However, when he intervened it was usually at the prompting of one of the few favoured Nazi leaders graced with regular access to his presence, and providing him with one-sided information on specific issues of concern to them. He remained at all times alert to any extension of their power which could undermine his own. Other than this, there was nothing in his haphazard interventions to indicate any systematic grasp of or clear directives for coherent policy-making. In military matters and armaments production, from the middle of the war onwards, Hitler's involvement was on a wholly different scale. Here, his interventions were frequent – at daily conferences – and direct, though his dilettante, arbitrary and intransigent interference was often disastrously counter-productive. See Helmut, Heiber, ed., Hitlers Lagebesprechungen. Die Protokollfragmente seiner militärischen Konferenzen 1942–1945 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1962)Google Scholar, and Boelcke, Willi A. ed., Deutschlands Rüstung im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Hitlers Konferenzen mit Albert Speer 1942–1945 (Frankfurt am Main: Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1969).Google Scholar

¹⁷ See Lothar, Gruchmann, ‘Die “Reichsregierung” im Führerstaat’, in Günther, Doecker and Winfried, Steffani, eds, Klassenjustiz und Pluralismus (Hamburg, Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, 1973), 192.Google Scholar

¹⁸ See Diehl, Thiele Peter, Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich (Munich: Beck Verlag, 1969), 61–9.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Suny, ‘Dictator’, 28, 32.

²⁰ Ibid., 30; Koehl Robert, ‘Feudal Aspects of National Socialism’, American Political Science Review', Vol. 54 (1960), 921–33.

²¹ My main orientation was gleaned from the debates in The Russian Review, Vols 45–6 (1986, 1987), as well as from Getty, Arch Origins of the Great Purges. The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985);Google ScholarMoshe, Lewin, The Making of the Soviet System (New York: Methuen, 1985);Google ScholarTucker, Robert C., ed., Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation (New York: Norton, 1977); and the unpublished papers by Ronald Suny and Moshe Lewin (see above notes 8–9).Google Scholar

²² Suny, ‘Dictator’, 20, 27.

²³ Fröhlich, Elke, ed., Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Saur Verlag, K. G. 1987), iii. 198 (entry for 10 July 1937).Google Scholar

²⁴ A good example was his successful appeal to his old comrades, the Gauleiter, to close ranks at the moment of deep crisis following the sudden departure of Gregor Strasser in December 1932. See Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, i. 112–14 (based on an unpublished vivid, post-war account by Hinrich Lohse held in the Forschungsstelle für die Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg). I am grateful to Jeremy Noakes for letting me see a photocopy of this document.

²⁵ See Jochmann, Monologe, 158–60; Table Talk, 153–6.

²⁶ Trevor-Roper, H. R.The Last Days of Hitler (London: Pan Books, 1973), 202.Google Scholar

²⁷ See seeAnton, Hoch, ‘Das Attentat auf Hitler im Münchner Bürgerbräukeller 1939’, Viertel-jahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 17 (1969), 383–413;Google Scholar and Lothar, Gruchmann, ed., Autobiographie eines Attentäters. Johann Georg Elser (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1970).Google Scholar

²⁸ SeeHans, Mommsen, ‘Social Views and Constitutional Plans of the Resistance’, in Graml, Graml, et al., The German Resistance to Hitler (London: Batsford, 1970), 59.Google Scholar

²⁹ Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, i. 46.

³⁰ The term is that of Hans Mommsen. See his article, ‘Der Nationalsozialismus: Kumulative Radikalisierung und Selbstzerstörung des Regimes’, in Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon, Vol. 16 (1976), 785–90.

³¹ Suny, ‘Dictator’, 21–2.

³² See Martin, Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers (thereafter Broszat, Staat) (Munich: dtv, 1969), esp. chs. 8–9.Google Scholar

³³ The internal government of Germany during the war has now been systematically examined by Rebentisch, Führerstaat (see n. 16 above).

³⁴ Lochner, Louis D., ed., Goebbels Tagebücher aus den Jahren 1942–43 (Zürich: Atlantis Verlag, 1948), 241, 274, 296.Google Scholar

³⁵ Speer, Albert, Erinnerungen (Frankfurt am Main'Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1969), 271.Google Scholar

³⁶ See Broszat, Staat, 262, 361–2; Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 101, 421–2.

³⁷ Max, Weber, Economy and Society, ed. Guenther, Roth and Claus, Wittich (Berkeley'Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978), 241–54, 266–71, 1111–57.Google Scholar

³⁸ See André, Gorz, Farewell to the Working Class (London: Pluto Press, 1982), 58–9, 62–3.Google Scholar

³⁹ The model is interestingly deployed by M.Rainer, Lepsius ‘Charismatic Leadership: Max Weber's Model and its Applicability to the Rule of Hitler’, in Graumann, Carl Friedrich and Serge, Moscovici, eds, Changing Conceptions of Leadership (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986). My own attempt to use it is in my recent short study Hitler. A Profile in Power (London: Longman, 1991).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ For the imperialist traditions on which Nazism could build, see Smith, Woodruff D., The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986). The ways in which Nazism could exploit ‘mainstream’ nationalism are stressed by William Sheridan Allen, ‘The Collapse of Nationalism in Nazi Germany’, inGoogle ScholarJohn, Breuilly, ed., The State of Germany (London: Longman, 1992), 141–53.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Hans, Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens (Munich/Gräfelfing: Beck Verlag, 1953), 466–7; trans. Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, ii. 200.Google Scholar

⁴² Huber, Ernst Rudolf, Verfassungsrecht des Groβdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1939), 230; trans. Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, ii. 199.Google Scholar

⁴³ For a compelling analysis of ‘national rebirth’ as the essence of the fascist doctrine, see Griffin, Roger, The Nature of Fascism (London: Pinter, 1991).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ See Broszat, Staat, ch. 8.

⁴⁵ The recently discovered, formerly missing, parts of Goebbels' diaries make explicitly clear Hitler's role in approving the most radical measures both as regards to pogrom itself and its aftermath. See the extracts published in Der Spiegel, No. 29 (1992), 126–8; an abbreviated version of the diary entry for 10 Nov. 1938 is available in Reuth, Ralf Georg, ed., Joseph Goebbels. Tagebücher (Munich: Piper, 1992), iii. 1281–2.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ I have attempted to present the evidence in my study The ‘Hitler Myth’. Image and Reality in the Third Reich (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).

⁴⁷ For an excellent study of how the medical profession exploited the opportunities offered by National Socialism, see Kater, Michael H., Doctors under Hitler (Chapel Hill/London: University of North Carolina Press, 1989).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Broszat, Martin, ‘Soziale Motivation und Führer-Bindung des Nationalsozialismus’, Viertel-jahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 18 (1970), 405.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang, Wippermann, The Racial State. Germany 1933–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), back cover.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ See Noakes, Jeremy, ‘Nazism and Eugenics: The Background of the Nazi Sterilisation Law of 14 July 1933’, in Bullen, R. J. et al. , eds, Ideas into Politics (London/Sydney: Croom Helm, 1984), 75–94, esp. 84–5.Google Scholar

⁵¹ See the documentation by Klee, Ernst, ‘Euthanasie’ im NS-Staat. Die ‘Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens’ 2nd edn (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1983).Google Scholar

⁵² Ibid., 100–1.

⁵³ Broszat, Martin, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik 1939–1945 (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1965), 11, 25.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Ibid., 200 n. 45.

⁵⁵ Ibid., 122.

⁵⁶ The correspondence between Greiser and Himmler on the subject, dated between 1 May and 3 Dec. 1942, is in the personal file of Arthur Greisler in the Berlin Document Center (thereafter BDC). For a more extended discussion, see my article, ‘Improvised Genocide? The Emergence of the “Final Solution” in the “Warthegau”’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th Series, Vol. 2 (1992), 51–78, here 71–3.

⁵⁷ BDC, Personal File of Arthur Greiser, Greiser to Himmler, 21 Nov. 1942.

⁵⁸ BDC, Personal File of Arthur Greiser, Greiser to Himmler, 1 May 1942.

⁵⁹ Examples in the Archive of the Polish War Crimes Commission, Ministry of Justice, Warsaw, Greiser Trial Documents, File 11, fol. 52, File 13, fol. 15. According to the post-war testimony of one of the heads of regional administration in the Warthegau, Greiser never missed an opportunity in his speeches to insist that he was ‘persona gratissima’ with the Führer (File 36, fol. 463). Another contemporary commented that his gratitude knew no bounds once Hitler had granted him this special plenipotentiary authority. See Burckhardt, Carl J., Meine Danziger Mission 1937–1939 (Munich: dtv, 1962), 79. I have provided a short pen-picture of Greiser for the forthcoming second volume ofGoogle ScholarSmelser, Ronald et al. , eds, Die braune Elite und ihre Helfer (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1993).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Niedersächisches Staatsarchiv, Oldenburg, Best. 131, nr. 303, fol. 131v, speech Werner Willikens, State Secretary in the Ministry of Food, 21 Feb. 1934; trans. Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, ii. 207.

⁶¹ See Arendt, Hannah, Eichmann in Jerusalem (London: Faber and Faber, 1963).Google Scholar

⁶² See Neumann, Franz, Behemoth. The Structure and Practice of National Socialism (London: Victor Gollancz, 1942).Google Scholar