To what extent was Hitler a 'weak dictator'? The debate as to whether Hitler was a 'weak dictator' or a 'Master of the Third Reich' has been contested by historians of Nazi Germany for many years and is at the heart of the intentionalist-structuralist debate. On the one hand, historians such as Bullock, Bracher, Jackel and Hildebrand consider Hitler's personality, ideology and will as the central locomotive of the Third Reich. Others, such as Broszat, Mason, and Mommsen, argue that the regime evolved through pressures and circumstances rather than Hitler's intentions. They highlight the regime's institutional anarchy as the result of Hitler's "weak" leadership. The most convincing view is the synthesis of the two schools, which recognizes both the centrality of Hitler in explaining the essence of Nazi rule, but also the external forces that influenced Hitler's decision-making. In this sense, Hitler was not a weak dictator because he possessed supreme authority but, as Kershaw argues, neither was he the "Master of the Third Reich" because he did not wield unlimited power. Within the Nazi government, Hitler acted as the ultimate source of authority. , which serves as evidence against the idea that Hitler was "weak". Having consolidated power in 1934, Hitler was, at least theoretically, omnipotent, being Chancellor, Head of State and “supreme judge of the nation”. However, the idea that the Nazi government systematically pursued the Fuhrer's clear objectives is challenged by the reality of the Nazi government's structure. It has been widely accepted by historians that the Nazi state was a chaotic collection of rival power blocs. Mommsen's explanation that this was the result of Hitler's apathy towards the government at...... middle of paper ......versity Press, 2001Hinton and Hite, Weimar and Nazi Germany, Hodder Education, 200, p.184Housden, Martyn, Hitler: A Weak Dictator?, 2002, essay Johnson, Eric, The Nazi Terror, Basic Books, 1991 Kershaw, Ian: The 'Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich, Oxford Pap erbcks, 2001 The Nazi Dictatorship, Bloomsbury Academic, 2000Layton, Geoff, Germany: The Third Reich 1933-1945, Hodder Murray, 2005Lee, Stephen J., European Dictatorships 1918-1945, Routledge, 1999McDonough, Frank, Hitler and Nazi Germany, Cambridge University Press, 1999Noakes and Pridham, Nazism 1919- 1945: A Documentary Reader, Exeter, 1983Overy, Richard, The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, Penguin, 2005Von Manstein, Eric, Lost victories, TBS The Book Service Ltd, 2004Williamson, David , Was Hitler a Weak Dictator?, History Review, March 2002, article