The original research element of this thesis consists of the study of an emerging· professional association of senior managerial employees in business and industry in Weimar Germany. This association which went by the name of VELA, Vereinigung der leitenden Angestellten, or the Organisation of Leading Salaried Employees, was founded in December 1918, and continued in existence until December 1934. Utilising a complete collection of VELA's bi-monthly members' periodical, the development of a coherent ideology of elitism is traced from 1919 to 1933, with the emphasis upon the crystallisation of a world-view compatible and congruent with that of National Socialism by 1924/25. Political convergence with, and support for, the Nazi Party then followed some time after the onset of the Great Depression. A detailed study of the process of Gleichschaltung, or co-ordination, in the spring and summer of 1933 is used to illustrate how easily, readily and enthusiastically VELA embraced the coining of a New Order in the Third Reich.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

During the time of Nazism, arts and music were severely curtailed by the Nazi machinery. Two of the Reich’s foremost orchestras, the Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonics, were both part of the cultural Gleichschaltung that occurred within the German Reich. Dealing differently with their new patrons, the orchestras developed a mixture of political cooperation, opportunism and opposition. While at times the orchestras attempted to bypass Nazi ideology and policies, such as in the case of the forced layoff of their Jewish members, the high party membership in Vienna in particular underlines how ambivalent reactions and attitudes towards the Hitler regime could be. While both orchestras underwent significant internal structural changes, the history of both philharmonic orchestras resembles one of privileged status and preferential treatment during the Third Reich.