This thesis is an analysis of the nature and mechanics of public opinion in Nazi peacetime society. Its aim has been to break down the society of the Third Reich into its essential components, and through an investigation of its institutions, and more particularly of the individuals who composed them, to gain an insight into the action and interaction of the forces that created public opinion.
Special attention has been paid to the German Army, the Church and the Diplomatic Service. Through representative cases of these three bodies an attempt has been made to create an informed picture of three important sections of the public mind.
Great stress has been laid on the contingency between Nazi controls, especially Hitler's propaganda techniques, and opinion-forming. The basic questions of how all sections of German society reacted to Hitler's policies, why, and with what consequences are answered.
A detailed interpretation has been made of the relationship between public opinion in the period and the mainstream of history in the Nazi era , and also to set this particular facet of Nazi history against the whole background of modern German history. In that interpretation several fundamental philosophical questions of historical interpretation have been raised and a standpoint established.
The work is divided into nine main parts - beginning with a definition of the problem involved, including interpretive ones, followed by a prelude, dealing with the relevant aspects of the period leading up to the Nazi takeover in 1933. Then come five central chapters on the period 1933-1939, organised chronologically; the epilogue makes a final analysis of public opinion, and the work is concluded with an index of the references used
