Was Nazism Collectivistic? Redefining the Individual in Berlin, 1930–1945

The changing psychology of culture in German‐speaking countries: A Google Ngram study

“…In this article, we investigate whether Germany and the German‐speaking regions in the countries around moved from Gemeinschaft towards Gesellschaft during the last two centuries. Moreover, due to “Gleichschaltung” (establishing a system of totalitarian control and coordination, “from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture and education,” Strupp, ) of personal beliefs, desires and interests, and the sustained propaganda of collectivistic virtues such as responsibility, initiative and courage by National Socialist (i.e., Nazi) ideology (Föllmer, ), we predict a reversal at the time of World War II. In particular, given that changes can be bidirectional and shifts from Gesellschaft back to Gemeinschaft are possible (Inglehart & Baker, ; Park, Twenge, & Greenfield, ), we propose that although there is an overall trend from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft , during and shortly after World War II the German society moved from Gesellschaft towards Gemeinschaft .…”

“…In particular, we use the time period during and shortly after the war as a specific historical event with expected reversal of the global shift in cultural changes. We assume that the reported increase in the frequency of Gemeinschaft ‐indexed words might originate from Nazi‐controlled publishing and the sustained propaganda of collectivistic values (Föllmer, ). Moreover, our results show that the overall increase in individualistic values is highly correlated with an increase in urbanisation.…”