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.In fact, acts of moralor outright criminal misconduct could even help stabilize the system,if the misdeeds were seen by devout National Socialists not as sympto-matic of, but rather as a violation of, authentic National Socialist normsand values.104Therefore, although the Nazi Party had lost the respect of signifi-cant segments of the public and thereby concrete social influence,the National Socialist system of norms and values, centred on theconcept of Volksgemeinschaft , remained untouched.This social ordercontinued, but less through the supposedly exemplary behaviour ofthe Nazi regime s representatives, and more through the behaviourof the populace itself, in its continued conformity to the ideals ofthe racial community.Therefore, the Volksgemeinschaft actually didfunction as an act of self-empowerment, if not exactly in the man-ner originally described by Michael Wildt in regard to the exclusion-ary dimension of Nazi social policies.105 To some extent, the Partyhad ceased being the embodiment of the National Socialist idea,because its local and regional representatives often seemed incapableof measuring up to their own political ideals.These guiding princi-ples (working for the common good, equitably sharing burdens andopportunities within a racially pure Volksgemeinschaft ) were still 228 Daniel Mühlenfeldhighly respected, and the populace invoked them in criticizing theParty s obvious acts of misconduct.Here, the previously mentionedsentiment if only the Führer knew about this. was highly applica-ble.It expressed the fact that a large section of the population stillfelt spiritually aligned with their distant Führer , despite all adver-sity.The National Socialist worldview was embodied not only by thepolitical icon of Adolf Hitler, but now also by the populace itself, asit arranged its daily activities according to this value system.In thiscontext, the Volksgemeinschaft no longer existed because of the lead-ership of the Nazi Party, but in spite of it.By the conclusion of the war, the position of the Nazi functionaryhad lost any remaining sense of enjoyment or fulfilment.Those whohad held these positions not only forfeited such prestige as was attachedto their role as political soldier but were indeed reviled by all.For theAllies, emigrants and surviving victims of the regime the party func-tionaries epitomized this most invasive and criminal political order complicit until the very end of the war, and yet now in denial of theirroles as perpetrators.In the end, nothing remained of the social status,ésprit de corps and accompanying pleasures of their position since theKampfzeit.Notes1.T.Kühne, Der Soldat , in U.Frevert and H.-G.Haupt (eds), Der Mensch des20.Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt a.M., 1999), 344 372, 346.See also ThomasKühne s chapter in this volume.2.C.Schmitz-Berning, Vokabular des Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 2000), 472f.3.B.Wegner, Hitlers politische Soldaten: Die Waffen-SS 1933 1945.Leitbild,Struktur und Funktion einer nationalsozialistischen Elite, 6th edn (Paderborn,1999).4.T.Mergel, Der Funktionär , in Frevert and Haupt (eds), Mensch, 278 300.Iuse the term functionary as a collective name for all officials of the Nazimovement, regardless of whether they took the title of Politische Leiter( political leaders ) or Amtswalter ( administrators ) in the subunits andassociated organizations of the Nazi Party.5.Ibid., 360.6.U.Frevert, Pflicht , in E.François and H.Schulze (eds), DeutscheErinnerungsorte, 3 vols, 4th edn (Munich, 2002), vol.2, 269 285.7.D.Cesarani, Adolf Eichmann.Bürokrat und Massenmörder.Eine Biografie(Berlin, 2004), 420.8.M.Wildt, Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus (Göttingen, 2008), 17.9.S.Haffner, Geschichte eines Deutschen.Die Erinnerungen 1914 1933 (Munich,2002), 22f.10.W.T.Angress and Bradley F.Smith, Diaries of Heinrich Himmler s EarlyYears , Journal of Modern History, 31 (1959), 206 224, 207. The Pleasures of being a Political Soldier 22911.A.Donson, Why did German youth become fascists? Nationalist malesborn 1900 to 1908 in war and revolution , in Social History, 31 (2006), 337358, esp.358.12.S.Reichardt, Faschistische Kampfbünde.Gewalt und Gemeinschaft im itali-enischen Squadrismus und in der deutschen SA (Cologne, 2002), 373.13.Cited in S.Meinl, Nationalsozialisten gegen Hitler.Die nationalrevolutionäreOpposition um Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz (Berlin, 2000), 42.14.R.Dahrendorf, Homo Sociologicus.Ein Versuch zur Geschichte, Bedeutung undKritik der Kategorie der sozialen Rolle, 16th edn (Wiesbaden, 2006).15.S.Behrenbeck, Der Kult um die toten Helden.Nationalsozialistische Mythen,Riten und Symbole 1923 bis 1945 (Vierow, 1996).16.Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 572, 574f, 585f.17.Ibid., 575.18.R.Bessel, The Potempa Murder , in Central European History, 10 (1977),241 254.19.B.Moore, Ungerechtigkeit.Die sozialen Ursachen von Unterordnung undWiderstand (Frankfurt a.M., 1987), 527 572.20.Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 361.21.T.Mergel, Führer, Volksgemeinschaft und Maschine.PolitischeErwartungsstrukturen in der Weimarer Republik und dem Nationalsozialismus1918 1936 , in W.Hardtwig (ed.), Politische Kulturgeschichte der Zwischenkriegszeit1918 1939 (Göttingen, 2005), 91 128, 91f.22.The German Historical Museum, Berlin, documents this poster in its mul-timedia exhibition: www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/pli04734/index.html(accessed 17 October 2009).23.H.Flügel, Wir träumen vom verborgenen Reich.aber Zilles Miljöh kan-nten wir nicht.Der Weg von der menschlichen Unordnung zur unmen-schlichen Ordnung , in R.Pörtner (ed.), Alltag in der Weimarer Republik.Kindheit und Jugend in unruhiger Zeit (Munich, 1993), 168 181, 174, 181.24.R.Bessel, Violence as Propaganda.The Role of the Storm Troopers in theRise of National Socialism , in T.Childers (ed.), The Formation of the NaziConstituency, 1919 1933 (London, 1986), 104 130.25.D.Blackbourn, Die meisten von ihnen haben Räder .Kraftfahrzeugeund der Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus , in C.Dipper, A.Gestrich and L.Raphael (eds), Krieg, Frieden und Demokratie.Festschrift für Martin Vogt zum65.Geburtstag (Frankfurt a.M., 2001), 141 152.26.See my Zur Bedeutung der NS-Propaganda für die Eroberung staatlicherMacht und die Sicherung politischer Loyalität , in C.A.Braun, M.Mayerand S.Weitkamp (eds), Deformation der Gesellschaft? Neue Forschungen zumNationalsozialismus (Berlin, 2008), 93 117, 102f.27.P
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