Dead Funny: Humor in Hitler’s Germany by Rudolph Herzog Read Free Book Online Page A

own reputation, thanks to the fire the Nazis had taken a decisive step toward consolidating their rule. The party was able to maintain the pretence that Hitler had accrued power by entirely legal means, even as it dismantled the Weimar Constitution, and to generally rely upon the maxim that never is a people more ready to accept injustice than at the beginning of a new dictatorship.
    IN THE MONTHS following Hitler’s assumption of extraordinary power, the Nazis were assiduous in eradicating the protections offered by the German legal system. Their goal was to see all of society brought into line with Nazi ideology, if not voluntarily then forcibly. One of the first steps was the ordinance “For the Protection of the German People,” issued on February 4, 1933, allowing the new government to ban publications and assemblies by their political opponents. Hitler warned journalists against making “mistakes” in their reporting, accompanying thewarnings with the direst threats of what would happen if they failed to do so. Other measures followed, one after another. The red, black, and gold flag of the Weimar Republic was replaced by the swastika, and the federal structure of Germany was abolished by decree.
    The Nazis were particularly unscrupulous about eradicating hubs of local power and centralizing political authority. In Bavaria, Himmler and SA chief of staff Ernst Röhm forced the local state premier to step down, and Göring took violent measures against anyone who opposed the “national uprising” the Nazis were propagating. The speed with which events were proceeding, the increasing license enjoyed by the SA, the combination of patriotic agitation and naked brutality had the desired effect on the German populace. The new regime presented two faces: one euphoric and one dark and threatening. Those who were proof against fascist enthusiasm were systematically bullied into submission. That inspired the following witticism, playing on
braun
, German for “brown”—the color associated with the SA—and
schweigen
, “to remain silent”:
    Since all the federal states have been brought into line, we are once again one people. There are no longer any Prussians, Bavarian, Thuringians, or Saxons. Instead, we’re all Braunschweigers
.
    The punch line gained extra pungency from the fact that the city of Braunschweig had elected a Nazi local government very early, in September 1930, and had indeed given Hitler, who was born in Austria, German citizenship. Naturalization, of course, had been a key prerequisite for Hitler becoming German chancellor.
    From the beginning, Braunschweig’s fascist rulers had playeda crucial role not only in the party’s rise to national power but also in its attempt to bring the Protestant Church into its fold. The Weimar Republic had secularized the German state. State subsidies to churches had been reduced, and in many parts of Germany religion no longer played a dominant role in the schools. That had angered many German clergy. The Nazi government in Braunschweig reintroduced school prayers and paid outstanding subsidies. Those policies had their desired effect. One third of Protestant clergymen in Braunschweig joined the Nazi party, and before long the cross and swastika were blazoned side by side on church publications.
    After assuming power on the national level, the Nazi leadership continued and even expanded such church-friendly policies. Official acts of state always featured religious trappings, and Hitler never tired in his speeches of thanking God for his newly acquired power. This was little more than maneuvering, of course, to get the church in step with Nazi ideology, but such masterpieces of propaganda paid long dividends. Some pastors even began appearing in the pulpit wearing brown shirts and jackboots. Skeptics had once joked: “Hitler is powerless against incense (religion) and garlic (supposed Jewish influence).” Hitler, however, proved them wrong.
    The Protestant