The Nazi Impact on a German Village

Finds that the residents of Oberschopfheim, a small, rural village, mostly Catholic, in southwestern Germany, accepted the Nazi regime with the same resignation with which most people have always accepted the dominant government. A contrast to the majority of such studies, which focus on urban, educated, Protestant Germans. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

In this excellent study, the authors describe in rich detail the political, economic and social structures of a village in southwestern Germany from the turn of the century to the present, and reveal that the villagers of Oberschopfheim held Hitler in high esteem as the first national leader to improve their material lot but were relatively indifferent to the Nazis, who interfered only sporadically with their liberties. Rinderle and Norling assess the impact on the village of two world wars, the French military occupations of 1923 and 1945, the catastrophic inflation of the 1920s, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the postwar years, which have included the West German "economic miracle." The villagers were shaken more profoundly by the Depression than by either world war or by the rise and fall of the Nazis. The authors conclude with an analysis of postwar problems such as severe food shortages (largely caused by French occupation policies) and the current flood of East German refugees. Rinderle is adjunct professor of humanities and social sciences at Vincennes University in France; Norling is professor emeritus of European history at Notre Dame. Illustrations.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The horror of the Nazi experience is for many a narrow question of Hitler's extermination of Jews and why the German people allowed this period of their history to occur. Readers will be intrigued by the authors' ability to place the Nazi era in the context of Germany's consistent history of plagues, wars, famines, and mistrust from the age of serfdom to the present. Some, however, may feel that the authors' fairness is excessive when they reveal that the people of Oberschopfheim "venerated Hitler just as Americans with WPA jobs esteemed Franklin Roosevelt." Scholars will value the appendix, the notes, and the bibliography.
- Mary Chitty, Biotrends Re search, Natick, Mass.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.