Nazi Terminology - G

G

• Gau, pl. Gaue – NSDAP regional districts which functioned as the de facto administrative organization of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945.

Further subdivided into:

• • Bezirke – districts
    • Kreise – counties or subdistricts; smaller units of the Bezirk
      • Ortsgruppen – Party branch or local branches. It took a minimum of fifteen members to be recognized
        • Hauszellen – tenement cells
        • Straßenzellen – street cells
        • Stützpunkte – strong points
• Gauführer - very early SA and SS rank, indicating the SA or SS leader for a Gau; renamed Oberführer in 1928.
• Gauleiter – the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau. They had to swear unconditional personal loyalty to the Führer and were directly answerable to him.
• Gau-Uschla - the level of the four-tiered Uschla system immediately below the Reichs-Uschla and immediately above the Kreis-Uschla.
• Gefrierfleischorden - ("Frozen flesh order" / frozen meat medal) Trench humor nickname for the service medal awarded for fighting on the Russian front. The decoration's official name was Die Medaille Winterschlacht Im Osten usually just shortened to Ostmedaille (East medal).
• Geheime Feldpolizei (GFP) - Secret Field Police. It was Germany's secret military police that was organised by the German high command (OKW) in July 1939 to serve with the Wehrmacht. It was mainly designed to carry out security work in the field, as the executive agent of the Abwehr.
• Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) – Secret State Police. Originally the Prussia secret state police and later (as part of the SiPo then merged into the RHSA) the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Gestapo was derived as follows: Geheime Staatspolizei.
• Gekrat - Either the Charitable Ambulance LLC or one of its distinctive gray buses. The actual purpose of such euphemistically named "charitable ambulances" was to send sick and disabled people to the Nazi killing centers to be murdered under the Action T4 eugenics program. Gekrat is an abbreviation of the company name: Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH.
• Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz – "The common good before the private good"; Rudolf Jung popularized it in his book Der Nationale Sozialismus, 1922, 2nd edition. This became Hitler's basic stance on the subordination of the economy to the national interest. (6)
• Gemeinschaftsfremde-"Community Alien". Anyone who did not belong to the Volksgemeinschaft.
• Generalgouverneur – Governor-general. Leader of the civil administration of the Generalgouvernement.
• Generalgouvernement (General Government) - official designation for the parts of pre-war Poland that were not directly incorporated into the Großdeutsches Reich, but were otherwise placed under a totally German-ruled civil government.
• Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete - (General Government for the occupied Polish territories) - complete title for the above-mentioned Generalgouvernement from 1939 to 1941. Note that this name did not signify the existence of a military government.
• Germania - Officially Welthauptstadt (world-capital-city) Germania (Latin term for Germany): the name Hitler wanted for his proposed world capital city of Berlin—implying planned German dominance of much of the planet. Hitler began sketching grand buildings, memorials, and broad avenues in the 1920s. Architectural model, redevelopment plans, and structural testing by Albert Speer, forced evictions, and preliminary demolitions got underway in the mid-late 1930s. Wartime needs sidelined the project. (Germania was also a the name of the second regiment of the SS-Verfügungstruppe).
• Gleichschaltung – the restructuring of German society and government into streamlined, centralized hierarchies of power, with the intention of gaining total control and co-ordination of all aspects of society.
• Goldfasanen ("golden pheasants") – derogatory term Germans used for high-ranking Nazi Party members. The term derived from the brown and red uniforms with golden insignia worn at official functions and rallies by party members that resembled the brilliant colours of a male pheasant.
• Goosestep (Stechschritt) – a ceremonial marching form of many countries especially of the ones in cold climates (Germany and Russia). The vigorous marching helps keep the participants warm. The form consists of stepping forward without bending the knees. After the Nazis' use of it in their parades it was later used when referring to other totalitarian governments. Still used by some countries today.
• Gottgläubiger, those who broke away from Christianity. The term implies someone who still believes in God, although without having any religious affiliation. Like the Communist Party in the USSR, the Nazis were not favorable toward religious institutions, but unlike the Communists, they did not promote or require atheism on the part of their membership.
• Gott Mit Uns "God with us" - traditional Prussian military motto, worn on the belt buckles of the Wehrmacht.
• Grand Cross - see Großkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes
• Gröfaz – mocking acronym for Größter Feldherr aller Zeiten ("greatest general of all time"), an appellation of Hitler.
• Großdeutsches Reich "Greater German Domain" - the official state name of Germany from 1943 to 1945; earlier used to refer to pre-1938 Germany (the Altreich) plus Austria and other annexed territories.
• Großgermanisches Reich "Greater Germanic Domain" - the official state name of the expanded empire that Germany's war aims set out to establish within Europe in World War II.
• Großkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, Grand Cross of the Iron Cross - Germany's highest military decoration. Established in two degrees, the Grand Cross and the Star of the Grand Cross; the former was awarded only once under the Third Reich, to Göring, and the latter never.
• Großraumwirtschaft – continental economic zone similar to Lebensraum.
• Großtraktor "large tractor" - code name for the Reichswehr's clandestine heavy tank design.
• Gruppenführer "group leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to (US/UK) Major General.