So originally I just wanted to read "Der Senats und Ordensgedanke im dritten Reich" but there was no ebook version and I have to wait for the order. Maybe some enlightened anons could answer some of the questions I have surrounding what would have been the post war reich1) Where would the members for the reichssenat come from beyond the original people who were probably just going to be old NSDAP members.2) Would there be a seperation of powers in the sense of different legislative and executive. I know Hitler talked about this in table talks, but I didn't really understand how this would look in practice3) What was going to be the difference between Reichskanzler and Reichspräsident, was it just going to be the weimar system?
>>18246411Are you able to read German because as far as I know there is no official English translation. That being said, from what I remember. 1) As you said the membership of the Reich Senate, both the Large and Small Senates, were to be mostly drawn from the highest echelons of the Party leadership, so the Gauleiters and other components of the Reichsleitung (unless Bormann got his way and simply abolished the Reichsleitung and absorbed its functions into the Party Chancellery). Rosenberg suggested having all Field Marshalls of the Wehrmacht as Senators, but Hitler rejected that idea on the grounds that political and military matters should not bleed into each other. If I recall however, not all Senators would actually be Gauleiters and such, there was a proposal to also include important personalities from a range of backgrounds (science and culture for example) although their tenure as Senators was not to be for life as the other Party affiliated Senators. 2) It just means actually letting the Reichstag do what it was intended to do without Hitler's scrutiny. It was more or less a reason Hitler could give to allow himself to enter a state of semi-retirement. Though he would still hold on to the title of 'Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor' maintaining his position as both Head of State and Head of Government, his deputy (resurrecting the post of Vice-Chancellor was considered for this) would handle the actual day to day running of Germany while Hitler chilled in Linz or wherever (legally that meant Hermann Goering by the way).3) There would be no Reich President. And as I said above, Hitler would still hold both offices (and the powers that came with them) of Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. In some draft proposals, there is made mention of a separation between the two offices in which case the Reich Chancellor would the Head of Government and the Fuehrer the Head of State, but I think the question was still left undecided by the time the war was over.
>>18246443thx for the answer + yeah I am a native german speakeron the second point, does that mean that the Reichstag would still exist as we would understand a parliament today, or would it be more of a collection of people who have all been assigned there different spheres of work coming together.
>>18246450As far as I remember, the Reichstag would still fulfil the same function as it always did, as a representative body of the people, albeit with representatives being allowed from the only legal authority in the country, that being the NSDAP itself. So I suppose it would be a parliament as we understand today, but more like the parliament of a one-party state like China than a pluralistic, parliamentary, liberal democratic parliament as you'd find in most modern European countries.
>>18246443>while Hitler chilled in Linz or whereverObersaltzberg
>>18246496Yes, at the Berghof also, but I mean moreso Linz because Hitler wanted to transform it into the cultural capital of Europe and give surprise impromptu tour guides to people at the Fuehrermuseum.
>>18246477well doesn't that kinda go against his führer-principle and the disdain against majority voting
>>18246509I don't believe so. The book goes into it more. However, it's not as if the Reichstag or the general populace for that matter, elect the Fuehrer. In fact technically speaking, Reichstag elections still took place every four years during Hitler's reign, but they were obviously closed-list, that is to say, you could only choose from a pre-approved list of candidates provided by the NSDAP. That the Fuehrer himself was elected by the 'Small Senate' was considered not to be in contradiction to the Fuehrer-Principle within the context of Hitler's 'Germanic Democracy' concept (which stood in contrast to 'Jewish Democracy', that is to say, parliamentary democracy as existed during the Weimar years). When you read it book, it goes in much more detail than I could.
