Oxford Historical Monographs
1 total work
This is a study in administrative policy-making and the organization of the Civil Service in Germany between 1918 and 1945, aiming to throw light on the relationship between the German bureaucracy, and politics and society. The main focus is on the period of National Socialist rule; but Dr Caplan contends that the politicization of the administration between 1933 and 1945 cannot be judged in isolation from the longer term history of German bureaucracy, or from the specific policy problems of the Weimar Republic. The book analyzes National Socialist administrative policy in the context of two broad propositions - that the status of the Civil Service as an apolitical and supra-social institution was under extreme strain by the 1920s; and that the National Socialist regime was but one episode in the fragmentary process of building the modern German State. Discussion of these issues is complemented by a series of case studies in administrative policy-making after 1933, which focus on the role of the Reich interior ministry.
The author emphasizes the extent to which the changing image of Nazi Germany as a political structure may be seen as an artefact of the research process itself, rather than as a progressively revealed truth about its essential nature.
The author emphasizes the extent to which the changing image of Nazi Germany as a political structure may be seen as an artefact of the research process itself, rather than as a progressively revealed truth about its essential nature.