Adolf Hitler's Directives
Adolf Hitler made many hundreds of directives, orders and decrees while Führer of Nazi Germany, many of them related to military policy, and the treatment of civilians in occupied countries. Many of them are direct evidence of the commission of ...
, or Führer Directives (''Führerbefehle''), were instructions and strategic plans issued by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
himself. They covered a wide range of subjects, from detailed direction of the
German Armed Forces
The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
' operations during
World War II, to the governance of
occupied territories and their populations.
History
After
seizing
Seizings are a class of stopping knots used to semi-permanently bind together two ropes, two parts of the same rope, or rope and another object. Akin to lashings, they use string or small-stuff to produce friction and leverage to immobilize la ...
full power, Hitler quickly began to make plans to fulfil the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
' agenda of territorial expansion. As he did so, he wanted to ensure the maximum participation of the German people in the execution of the plans. However, the failure of the Nazis' attempted
coup in 1923 made the Nazis realize that force was not always the best solution. The failure taught the Nazis that mass participation also required legal basis, in order to ensure the public co-operated as a
civic duty
Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...
.
Hitler had put this lesson into practice as soon as he became
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
, successfully convincing
the President to issue
Reichstag Fire Decree
The Reichstag Fire Decree (german: Reichstagsbrandverordnung) is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State (german: Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat) issued by Ger ...
and
Reichstag to pass
Enabling Act, which gave the Chancellor the power to make laws without the approval of the Reichstag. He used this power to great effect during the war, issuing orders in the form of executive instructions, the Führer Directives, which ensured that his orders had a legally-sanctioned obligation to be obeyed.
Under the
Nazi system, the Directives were absolutely binding. They were to be followed to the letter and superseded any other law, including the Constitution. However, they should not be confused with the Führer's Orders, issued late in the war, which were more precise and low-level, and could be written or oral. They were as binding as the more general Directives.
The Directives
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuhrer Directives
Military plans
World War II documents