This thesis seeks to dispel the notion that Nazi ideology was merely an afterthought to numerous actions taken by the Nazis. The first chapter discusses how Nazism’s earliest adherents internalized notions from World War I into an ideology that would motivate the early Nazi Movement to launch the Beer Hall Putsch. The second chapter focuses on the Nazi Party’s electoral tactics and how those actions correlated with entrenched Nazi ideological notions of recognition and community. Finally, the third chapter will seek to demonstrate that the numerous repressive measures implemented by the Third Reich were part of a general plan to prepare a future generation of Nazi citizens for, the worldwide struggle for existence. This work exists as a counter to a considerable amount of literature in the historiography that, by maintaining Nazi ideology and Nazi actions were two separate entities, belittles the importance of Nazi ideology thereby fundamentally misunderstanding Nazism.

La présente recherche doctorale retrace l’histoire de la politique de « formation idéologique » (weltanchauliche Schulung ou weltanschauliche Erziehung) mise en oeuvre entre 1933 et 1945 par la SS (Schutzstaffel), organisation qui se voulait l’élite du nazisme. Elle s’attache à croiser quatre approches : L’histoire du réseau des institutions chargées de l’elaboration et de l’application de cette politique, au centre duquel se trouvait l’ « office de l’instruction » (Schulungsamt) de la SS, qui supervisait le travail d’un « appareil d’instruction » (Schulungsapparat) de plus d’un milliers d’instructeurs présents a tous les échelons de l’organisation; l’étude des discours idéologiques et des pratiques éducatives élaborés par ces institutions et de leurs tentatives pour vulgariser et transmettre l’ideologie nazie ; les biographies des hommes qui animèrent ces institutions, constituant un groupe particulier au sein de la hiérarchie nazie; et enfin l’analyse de l’impact de ces politiques sur la masse des militants et hommes des unités militaires et policières SS. En analysant la nature de la formation prodiguée par la SS à ses hommes – à la fois tentative de forger par l’education un homme nouveau considérant tous les domaines de l’existence à l’aune du national-socialisme et volonté de constituer un corps homogène de « soldats politiques » au service du regime – et en reconstituant l’evolution de cette formation dans le contexte de la croissance, de l’expansion et des transformations de la SS, cette étude tente d’apporter une contribution à la compréhension des mentalités des hommes qui se sont engagés et ont persécuté, combattu et tué au service du « Troisième Reich ». / The following doctoral research traces the history of the policy of « ideological schooling » (weltanschauliche Schulung or weltanschauliche Erziehung) developed between 1933 and 1945 by the SS (Schutzstafel), the organization that considered itself the elite of Nazism. It combines four complementary methodological approaches: an institutional history of the network of organizations tasked with elaborating and implementing the SS’s schooling program, at the center of which stood the SS-Schulungsamt (educational office), that oversaw the work an « educational apparatus » (schulungsapparat) of more than a thousand instructors present at all levels; an analysis of the ideological discourses and teaching methods elaborated by these institutions in their attempts to relay nazi ideology to the rank and file of the SS; the biographies of the men who operated the « educational apparatus », constituting a specific group of perpetrators in the Nazi hierarchy; and an evaluation of the way the SS’s own brand of education impacted those who served in its civil, military or police units. By assessing the nature of the ideological training the SS provided to its members, fruit of the attempt of forging both a new man seeing all fields of life through the lens of Nazi ideology and an homogenous troop of « political soldiers » at the service of the regime, and tracing the evolution of this educational project within the framework of the SS’s growth and transformations, this study seeks to bring a new perspective to the understanding of the mentalities of the men who committed to the cause of the « Third Reich » and fought and murdered in its name.

Diploma thesis "Nazi ideology in relation to mentally ill people" focuses on starting points and ideas of this ideology, which in its consequences led to social exclusion and subsequent systematic extermination of people with a certain handicap. Although the thesis is limited in time from 1933 - 1945, it also follows development line of selected scientific disciplines, which were significantly reflected in the Nazi ideology. Primarily it concerns historical science, medical disciplines, genetics, racial hygiene, eugenic origins and other related disciplines. The thesis also takes into account the economic situation of that time with its many social problems which arose as a result of the new geopolitical arrangement after the World War I and the changes in the social world of that period and it also captures the process of changes in the social status of mentally ill people in the course of history. Last but not least, it describes the practical consequences of these changes, which were "forced sterilization" and "euthanasia" of both children and adults. The Nazi ideology is viewed in this regard from three perspectives: legal, theoretical with a broader historical context and on the practical level in the form of the consequences of the two previous perspectives. Key words: nazi ideology, mental...