ABSTRACT
The Nazi state with its vast and endlessly complex bureaucratic structures, competing party organisations and private interest groups was not constrained by a constitution or by legal norms: its essential function was to act as the executive organ of the will of the Führer. The process whereby the Weimar Republic, which had become increasingly authoritarian in its final years, was converted into an absolute dictatorship was lengthy and, for those who stood in the way, exceedingly painful. The ‘Führer state’ was to reach its final, grotesque and revolting form during the war.
