Adolf Hitler ruled Germany as her Führer for eleven years. For many, the Nazi Party’s relatively long time in power is surprising, or perplexing at best, due to their intense prejudices and barbarism. The most frequently applied reason for this is that the party stayed in power by using force. The late political scientist, Carl Friedrich, once described six major features of a totalitarian dictatorship- an official ideology, a single party, terroristic control by the police, monopolistic control over the media, a monopoly of arms and central control of the economy- which he believed were evident in Nazi Germany. However, historian Geoff Layton appears to disagree. He states that “Although the idea of Nazism as a form of totalitarianism held great sway in the 1950s, such a view is not now so readily accepted.” However, he also said that “there emerged in the SS an organisation which was the mainstay of the Third Reich” which would supports the view that force was the main factor in keeping the Nazi Party in power. This essay intends to analyse the significance of force as a tool to stay in power, through their creation of a Police State, the reformation of the German Courts as well as their elimination of both external and internal political opposition and their indoctrination of the German youth. It will also be necessary to analyse the various other factors which were employed by the Nazi Party between 1931 and 1939 such as control of the economy, the Kraft durch Freude programme and the media.

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