THE TWELVE-YEAR REICH: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

by Richard Grunberger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 1971

A toxic blend of delirium and banality characterized day-to-day life and thinking in the Third Reich. In the words of one party official ""the only person still leading a private life is the one who sleeps."" Grunberger has reconstructed the penetration of the Nazi zeitgeist into every aspect of German society; wages, living conditions, consumption patterns, crime rates, education, health, and family life all underwent quantifiable shifts during the Hitler years and all were subject to Nazi mythification. Attributing the success of the regime to solid material gains coupled with the spurious satisfaction of ""the craving for a return to the womb of community,"" Grunberger briefly surveys such standard topics as the Army, Business, The Party and The Civil Service before turning to such elusive touchstones as Humor (the penalty for anti-Hitler jokes was death) and Nazi Speech (superlatives, moral imperatives and incantations flourished). Mingling anecdotes with press clippings, music-hall gags, excerpts from novels, letters and speeches and providing an unobtrusive skeletal outline of political events, the author achieves a happy blend of description, illustration and low-keyed interpretation. Statistics are employed with considerable originality as when Grunberger points to the soaring birth-rate (up by 22% immediately after Hitler's seizure of power) as a biological vote of confidence in the regime. Since Grunberger is chiefly interested in the invasion of private, even psychic life, he devotes a good deal of time to the family -- real and imagined -- and succeeds in showing that despite Nazi trumpeting of primordial family virtues (Kinder, Kirche and Kuche were the sacred duties of Gretchen), the family suffered severe erosion as reflected in the increase of suicide, divorce and sexual crime among the young. An absorbing companion piece to George Mosse's compilation of original sources, Nazi Culture (1966), testifying to the success of the ""regime's aim of permanent emotional mobilization.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION