Anja Stanciu
Completed PhD project

The comprehensive enforcement of the Nazi dictatorship in the Reich capital city would scarcely have been possible without the local party functionaries at the point of intersection between rule and society. From 1933, their key tasks included the integration of the heterogenous metropolitan society of Berlin into the structures of a racially defined ‘ethnic community’, its control and its mobilisation for the aims of the regime. Using the example of the National Socialist city councillors and Kreisleiter, the project analyses the social structure of the local leadership corps of the Berlin NSDAP. On this basis, the study enquires after the importance of political socialisation, professional qualifications and social networking for the career paths of the Nazi functionaries. In order to comparatively understand the correlation between political dedication and social advancement, the project also includes the ‘years of struggle’ and the period of denazification. With its approach, the study makes a contribution to a social history of the Nazi period that links social historical findings with a history of power on the dictatorship.