Führerprinzip
Categories: German loanwords | Nazi Germany | Politics
The Führerprinzip listen ▶(?), the German name for the leader principle, refers to a system with a hierarchy of leaders that resembles a military structure. This principle applied to civil society at large in Nazi Germany.
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Philosophy
The philosophy of the Führerprinzip sees each organisation as a hierarchy of leaders, where every leader (Führer, in German) has absolute responsibility in his own area, demands absolute obedience from those below him and answers only to his superiors. The supreme leader, Adolf Hitler, answered to no one. The Führerprinzip paralleled the functionality of military organisations, which continue to use a similar structure today. The justification for the civil use of the Führerprinzip was that unquestioning obedience to superiors supposedly produced 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
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 Milošević to Hitler's Germany and his Führerprinzip. [1]