Führer
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Pp Template:Pp-pc Template:Italic title Template:Use dmy dates Template:Refimprove Template:Lang (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell Template:IPA, spelled Fuehrer when the umlaut is unavailable) is a German word meaning Template:Gloss or Template:Gloss. As a political title, it is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler officially called himself der Führer und Reichskanzler (Template:Gloss) after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, as well as the subsequent merging of the offices of Reichspräsident and Reichskanzler.
Nazi Germany cultivated the Template:Lang (Template:Gloss), and Hitler was generally known as simply Template:Lang (Template:Gloss).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In compound words, the use of Template:Lang remains common in German and is used in words such as Template:Lang (Template:Gloss), Template:Lang (Template:Gloss), Template:Lang (Template:Gloss) and Template:Lang (Template:Gloss). However, because of its strong association with Hitler, the isolated word itself usually has negative connotations when used with the meaning of leader, especially in political contexts.
The word Template:Lang has cognates in the Scandinavian languages, spelled Template:Linktext in Danish and Norwegian. In Norwegian, the word has the same meaning as the German word. The Norwegian word for mayor is ordfører, literally meaning word leader. In Swedish Template:Lang means Template:Gloss and applies to a wide range of situations, for example in corporate boards or as the head of an official gathering of members. In Swedish and Danish, Template:Linktext and fører normally means Template:Gloss (of a vehicle), a meaning Führer can also have in German. However, in the compound word Template:Linktext and Template:Linktext, that part does mean Template:Gloss, and is a cognate of the German Heerführer (military leader).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
Background
Template:Lang has been used as a military title (compare Latin Template:Lang) in Germany since at least the 18th century. The usage of the term "Führer" in the context of a company-sized military subunit in the German Army referred to a commander lacking the qualifications for permanent command. For example, the commanding officer of a company was titled "Kompaniechef" (Template:Lit), but if he did not have the requisite rank or experience, or was only temporarily assigned to command, he was officially titled "Kompanieführer". Thus operational commands of various military echelons were typically referred to by their formation title followed by the title Template:Lang, in connection with mission-type tactics used by the German military forces. The term Template:Lang was also used at lower levels, regardless of experience.
Origins of the political concept
The first example of the political use of Template:Lang was with the pan-German Austrian Georg Ritter von Schönerer (1842–1921), a major exponent of pan-Germanism and German nationalism in Austria, whose followers commonly referred to him as the Template:Lang, and who also used the Roman salute – where the right arm and hand are held rigidly outstretched – which they called the "German greeting".<ref>Mitchell, Arthur H. (2007). Hitler's Mountain: The Führer, Obersalzberg, and the American Occupation of Berchtesgaden. Macfarland, p. 15 Template:ISBN</ref> According to historian Richard J. Evans, this use of "Template:Lang" by Schönerer's Pan-German Association, probably introduced the term to the German far-right, but its specific adoption by the Nazis may also have been influenced by the use in Italy of "Template:Lang", also meaning "leader", as an informal title for Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Prime Minister, and later (from 1922) dictator, of that country.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Template:Lang of the Nazi Party
Adolf Hitler took the title to denote his function as head of the Nazi Party; he received it in 1921 when, infuriated over party founder Anton Drexler's plan to merge with another antisemitic far-right nationalist party, he resigned from the party. Drexler and the party's Executive Committee then acquiesced to Hitler's demand to be made the chairman of the party with "dictatorial powers" as the condition for his return.Template:Sfn
Template:Lang and Chancellor
Template:Redirect Template:Infobox official post
In 1933, Hitler was appointed Template:Lang (Chancellor of the Reich) by President Paul von Hindenburg.
A month later, the decision to vote with the Nazi Party taken by the MPs of the Centre Party allowed the Nazi-dominated Reichstag to reach the qualified constitutional two-thirds majority required for passage of the Enabling Act allowing the cabinet to promulgate laws by decree, rendering in practice the system of checks and balances defunct. The Act became the official legal justification for such decrees later routinely issued by Hitler himself.
Template:Lang and Chancellor of the German Reich
One day before Hindenburg's death, Hitler and his cabinet decreed the "Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich", which stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of the president was to be merged with that of Chancellor.<ref name="1934 law">Gesetz über das Staatsoberhaupt des Deutschen Reichs, 1 August 1934:
"§ 1 The office of the Reichspräsident is merged with that of the Reichskanzler. Therefore the previous rights of the Reichspräsident pass over to the Führer and Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler. He names his deputy."</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Thus, upon Hindenburg's death, Hitler became Template:Lang – although eventually Template:Lang was quietly dropped from day-to-day usage and retained only in official documents.<ref>Richard J. Evans (2005) The Third Reich in Power. New York: Penguin Books. p. 44. Template:Isbn</ref> Hitler therefore assumed the President's powers without assuming the office itself – ostensibly out of respect for Hindenburg's achievements as a heroic figure in World War I. The Enabling Act had specifically prohibited legislation that would affect the position or powers of the Reich President, but the first one-party Reichstag elected in November 1933 had passed an act on the first anniversary of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, 30 January 1934, abolishing those restrictions. It was then approved by a referendum on 19 August.<ref name="bdp_2003">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="winkler_germany">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Lang and Chancellor of the Greater German Reich
On 28 July 1942, the title was changed to "Template:Lang" (Leader and Chancellor of the Greater German Reich).<ref name="jong" />
Template:Lang and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht
Template:Further According to the Weimar Constitution, the President was the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Unlike "President", Hitler did take this title (Template:Lang) for himself. When conscription was reintroduced in 1935, Hitler created the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a post held by the Minister of War. He retained the title of Supreme Commander for himself. Soldiers had to swear allegiance to Hitler as "Template:Lang" (Leader of the German Reich and Nation). Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, then the Minister of War and one of those who created the Hitler oath, or the personal oath of loyalty of the military to Hitler, became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces while Hitler remained Supreme Commander. Following the Blomberg–Fritsch affair in 1938, Hitler assumed the commander-in-chief's post as well and took personal command of the armed forces. However, he continued using the older formally higher title of Supreme Commander, which was thus filled with a somewhat new meaning. Combining it with "Führer", he used the style Template:Lang (Leader and Supreme Commander of the Template:Lang), yet a simple "Führer" after May 1942.
Template:Lang of the German Reich and Nation
Soldiers had to swear allegiance to Hitler as "Template:Lang" (Leader of the German Reich and Nation).<ref name="auto">Template:Cite book</ref> In his political testament, Hitler also referred to himself as Template:Lang (Leader of the Nation).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Germanic Führer
Template:Further An additional title was adopted by Hitler on 23 June 1941 when he declared himself the "Germanic Führer" (Template:Lang), in addition to his duties as Führer of the German state and people.Template:Sfn This was done to emphasise Hitler's professed leadership of what the Nazis described as the "Nordic-Germanic master race", which was considered to include peoples such as the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Dutch, and others in addition to the Germans, and the intent to annex these countries to the German Reich to form the Greater Germanic Reich (Template:Lang). Waffen-SS formations from these countries had to declare obedience to Hitler by addressing him in this fashion.<ref>Bramstedt, E. K. (2003). Dictatorship and Political Police: the Technique of Control by Fear, pp. 92–93. Routledge. Template:ISBN</ref> On 12 December 1941, Dutch fascist Anton Mussert also addressed him as such when he proclaimed his allegiance to Hitler during a visit to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.<ref name="jong">Template:Cite book</ref> He had wanted to address Hitler as Template:Lang ("Führer of all Germanics"), but Hitler personally decreed the former style.<ref name="jong" /> Historian Loe de Jong speculates on the difference between the two: Template:Lang implied a position separate from Hitler's role as Template:Lang ("Führer and Reich Chancellor of the Greater German Reich"), while Template:Lang served more as an attribute of that main function.<ref name="jong" /> As late as 1944, however, occasional propaganda publications continued to refer to him by this unofficial title.<ref>Template:Usurped. Storm, 1944.</ref>
Template:Further One of the Nazis' most-repeated political slogans was Template:Lang – "One People, One Empire, One Leader". Historian Template:Ill says the slogan "left an indelible mark on the minds of most Germans who lived through the Nazi years. It appeared on countless posters and in publications; it was heard constantly in radio broadcasts and speeches." The slogan emphasised the absolute control of the leader over practically every sector of German society and culture – with the churches being formally the most notable exception.<ref name="auto"/> The designation Template:Lang itself was initially used only in the context of the Nazi Party, though its meaning gradually sprawled to cover the German state, the German Armed Forces, the German nation, and ultimately all the Germanic peoples.
Hitler's word became in practice absolute and ultimate, even when incompatible with the constitution, as he saw himself as the sole source of power in Germany, similar to the Roman emperors and German early medieval leaders.<ref>Schmidt, Rainer F. (2002) Die Aussenpolitik des Dritten Reiches 1933–1939 Klett-Cotta Template:ISBN</ref> In spite of that, he took great care to maintain the pretence of legality of his dictatorship. He issued thousands of decrees that were based explicitly on the Reichstag Fire Decree. That decree itself was based on Article 48 of the constitution, which gave the president the power to take measures deemed necessary to protect public order. The Enabling Act was renewed in 1937 for four years and again in 1939 for four years by the Reichstag. In 1943, it was extended indefinitely by a decree from Hitler himself. Those extensions by the Reichstag were merely a formality with all other parties having been banned.
However, Hitler had a narrow range of interest – mostly involving diplomacy and the military – and so his subordinates interpreted his vaguely formulated orders and wishes in a manner beneficial to their own interests or those of their organisations.<ref name="auto"/> This led to vicious power wrangles that were immensely beneficial to Hitler in aiding him to ensure that no subordinate amassed enough power to challenge or jeopardise his absolute rule.
Usage in lower ranks of Nazi Germany
Regional Nazi Party leaders were called Template:Lang, "Template:Lang" also meaning "leader". Almost every Nazi paramilitary organisation, in particular the SS and SA, had Nazi Party paramilitary ranks incorporating the title of Template:Lang. The SS including the Waffen-SS, like all paramilitary Nazi organisations, called all their members of any rank except the lowest one a Template:Lang of something; thus confusingly, Template:Lang was also an official rank title for a specific grade of general. The word Template:Lang was also a generic word referring to any commander or leader of troops and could be applied to NCOs or officers at many different levels of command.
See also
Template:Portal Template:Col-beginTemplate:Col-break Terms derived from Template:Lang
Template:Col-break Other
References
External links
Template:Adolf Hitler Template:NSDAP Template:Nazism Template:Authority control