For many years, scholars have written a great deal about the extremely effective propaganda technique that Hitler and Goebbels used to sway the German people during World War II. Ironically, those scholars are often deceived by that propaganda even though they know what it is! We have a picture of the German nation all lining up behind Hitler with a common purpose and a collective will, but nothing could be further from the truth. True, many Nazis had the same goals, but they had very different ideas about how Germany should achieve those goals. Further, many Nazis used their positions to enrich themselves and expand their own political power at the expense of the Third Reich.
Although Hitler did wield considerable power within the Third Reich and the German people acknowledged him as their leader, Hitler was the opposite of a micromanager. He left most of the actual administration of Germany to his lieutenants. Unfortunately, he rarely gave clear instructions or clear job descriptions for any of his subordinates. This meant that those subordinates often fought with each other over projects and policy to protect what they believed was their own "turf" inside the Nazi government. Although the Third Reich had an extensive bureaucracy, it never had a clear chain of command because its leadership was always fighting with itself over who got the power.
Since Hitler was the ultimate source of all power within the Nazi state, his subordinates often looked to him to settle disputes. Unfortunately, he seldom did this. That is because Hitler encouraged these turf wars to a certain extent. He had a strong belief in the survival of the fittest and thought that whoever was strong enough to set up his won fiefdom within the Third Reich would be the best leader for whatever was in dispute. If it was a matter of policy, the "fittest" got his way. If he wanted control over a part of the army or a part of the economy, that might become his "turf" until someone else came along who was strong enough to take it away.
Obviously, these made for a very confusing chain of command. Because control of a certain organization within the Nazi government might pass back and forth between two rival factions several times, it was difficult to establish a clear chain of command. It was also difficult to know what Hitler wanted because, when arbitrating between two rival factions, he usually refused to make a decision until it appeared that one side was about to win. Then he would give that side his support to clench the victory. His unwillingness to make decisions quickly led many Nazi leaders to make decisions in his stead in the hope that he would be pleased by them. That was one of the reasons for the increasing radicalization of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich.
