Führerprinzip in the context of "Führer"

The People's Court (German: Volksgerichtshof pronounced [ˈfɔlksɡəˌʁɪçt͡shoːf] , acronymed to VGH) was a Nazi tribunal established in 1934 to try political crimes such as treason. It became one of the most notorious instruments of state terror in the Third Reich, and is associated with summary justice, execution, and denial of civil and legal rights.

The court was created on 24 April 1934, in response to acquittals in the Reichstag fire trial, and building on precedents such as the Bavarian People's Court. Based on factors such as the stab-in-the-back myth, the Enabling Act, and the Führerprinzip, the court aimed to impose severe penalties on the Nazis’ enemies under a facade of legality.

The government of Nazi Germany was a totalitarian dictatorship governed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party according to the Führerprinzip. Nazi Germany was established in January 1933 with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, followed by suspension of basic rights with the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act which gave Hitler's regime the power to pass and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or German president, and de facto ended with Germany's surrender in World War II on 8 May 1945 and de jure ended with the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945.

As the successor to the government of the Weimar Republic, it inherited the governmental structure and institutions of the previous state. Although the Weimar Constitution technically remained in effect until the German surrender, there were no actual restraints on the exercise of state power. In addition to the already extant Weimar government, the Nazi leadership created a large number of different organizations for the purpose of helping them govern and remain in power. They pursued a policy of rearmament and strengthened the Wehrmacht, established an extensive national security apparatus and created the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Proto-fascism represents the direct predecessor ideologies and cultural movements that influenced and formed the basis of fascism. The term protofascism is also used in a slightly more general sense to refer to any political movement whose activities make the emergence of fascism more likely.

Proto-fascist movements that preceded fascism featured some of the common characteristics of fascist ideology, such as the scapegoating of ethnic or religious minorities, the glorification of violence, and the promotion of the Führerprinzip, the belief that the party and the state should have a single leader with absolute power, but usually did not exhibit some characteristics of fascism, for example, were less radical or lacked totalitarian ambitions.

The political views of Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, have presented historians and biographers with some difficulty. Adolf Hitler's writings and methods were often adapted to need and circumstance, although there were some steady themes, including antisemitism, anti-communism, anti-Slavism, anti-parliamentarianism, German Lebensraum ('living space'), belief in the superiority of an Aryan race and an extreme form of German nationalism. Hitler personally claimed he was fighting against Jewish Marxism.

Hitler's political views were formed during three periods; namely (1) his years as an impoverished young man in Vienna and Munich prior to the First World War, during which time he turned to nationalist-oriented political pamphlets and antisemitic newspapers out of distrust for mainstream newspapers and political parties; (2) the closing months of the war when the German Empire lost, since Hitler claimed to have developed his extreme nationalism and allegedly pledged to "save" Germany from both external and internal enemies, who in his view had betrayed it (stab in the back myth); (3) and the 1920s, during which his early political career began and he wrote his autobiographical political manifesto Mein Kampf (lit. 'My Struggle'). Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925, but did not acquire German citizenship until almost seven years later in 1932, thereby allowing him to run for public office. Hitler was influenced by Benito Mussolini, who was appointed Prime Minister of Italy on 31 October 1922 after his March on Rome. Hitler in many ways epitomised "the force of personality in political life" as described by historian Friedrich Meinecke. Hitler was essential to National Socialism's political appeal and development in Germany. So important were Hitler's views that they immediately affected the political policies of Nazi Germany. He asserted the Führerprinzip ('leader principle'), which advocated the absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors. Correspondingly, Hitler viewed himself at the top of both the party and government in this structure.