Nazis’ Cultural Codes in the Weimar Republic : Decoding the German Youth Newspaper “Der Zwiespruch” from 1928 -1933

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the discourse of the newspaper Der Zwiespruch from the independent German youth movement between 1928-1933. With the help of cultural code theory and discourse analysis, the terms of antisemitism, racism, Volksgemeinschaft, Reich, Raum, and Führer are analysed in the form of cultural codes in Der Zwiespruch. In this work, these terms are understood to be the fundamental ideas of the radical discourse of the NS-regime. By evaluating these terms in the form of cultural codes, the understanding of the producers and consumers of the newspaper regarding these codes is made visible. With this approach it can be found out whether the discourse of Der Zwiespruch can be understood as similar to the radical discourse of the NS-regime. If this is the case, the Nazis’ rise to power did not implicate a significant change of worldview for the authors and readers of the newspaper. As such, the thesis focuses on one of the central questions and topics within Holocaust studies regarding the social reality of the ordinary Germans of the Weimar Republic that ultimately enabled the Nazi party’s rise to power in 1933 through their vote. Additionally, it provides a form of cultural analysis that has not been done in Holocaust studies nor in the research of the independent German youth movement.