The Führerprinzip, the German name for the leader
principle, refers to a system with a hierarchy
of leaders that resembled a military structure. This principle applied to
civil society at large in Nazi Germany.
Philosophy
The philosophy of this system sees each organisation as a hierarchy of leaders, where every leader (Führer, in German) has absolute responsibility in his/her own area, and complete subordination. This idea paralleled the functionality of
military organisations, which continue to use such a structure today. The notion behind the civil use of the Führerprinzip
saw unquestioning obedience to superiors producing order and prosperity in which those deemed 'worthy' would share. Given the
chaotic state of the Weimar Republic between 1919 and 1933, many Germans regarded this philosophy of 'cutting through
red tape' as a welcome change to what they had endured earlier.
This principle became the law of the Nazi party and later transferred onto the whole
German society. Appointed mayors replaced
elected local governments. The Nazis suppressed associations and unions with elected leaders, putting in their place mandatory
associations with appointed leaders. The authorities allowed private corporations to keep their internal organisation, but with a simple renaming from hierarchy to Führerprinzip. In practice, the selection of unsuitable candidates often led to
micromanagement and commonly to an inability to formulate coherent
policy. Albert Speer noted that many Nazi officials dreaded making
decisions in Hitler's absence. Rules tended to become verbal rather than
written; leaders with initiative who flouted regulations and carved out their own spheres of influence might receive praise and
promotion rather than censure.
Application
SS Obergruppenführer
Reinhard Heydrich invoked the Führerprinzip at the
Wannsee conference when several of the attendees voiced
bureaucratic obstacles to the proposed 'final solution' (Endlösung
der Judenfrage, in German). Heydrich responded by stating that as Adolf Hitler had verbally decreed that the Jews in occupied
Europe had to be eliminated, his word was final.
During the post-war Nuremberg Trials, many defendants attempted to use the Führerprinzip as a means to evade
responsibility for war crimes: "I only did what I was told".
Comparison with other doctrines
In 1999, United Kingdom's
Prime Minister Tony
Blair likened the Serbian régime of
Slobodan Milosevic to Hitler's Germany and his Führerprinzip. [1] (http://www.unol.org/messages/5377.shtml)
The Catholic Church's dogma of papal infallibility has a similar aspect
of unquestioning acceptance of a hierarchical authority, but in a much more limited form. Papal infallibility applies only to the
Pope himself, and only in matters of theology: in fact, Popes invoke the doctrine only on rare occasions.
External links
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