Hitler expected the totalitarian machinery to outlive mediocre future leaders

Evidence

See Hitler’s statements on this question in Hitlers Tischgespräche, pp. 253 f. and 222 f.: The new Fuehrer would have to be elected by a “senate”; the guiding principle for the Fuehrer’s election must be that any discussion among the personalities participating in the election should cease for the duration of the proceedings. Within three hours Wehrmacht, party and all civil servants will have to be newly sworn in. “He had no illusions about the fact that in this election of the supreme head of the state there might not always be an outstanding Fuehrer personality at the helm of the Reich.” But this entailed no dangers, “so long as the over-all machinery functions properly.” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2753

Categorization

• XREF: Hitler’s confidence that the machinery functions independently of leadership quality feeds into Arendt’s broader discussion of how the totalitarian structure outlasts the individual leader.