13 - Living standards and unemployment

Question 1

Explain why living standards improved for many Germans in the period 1933 to 1939 (3 points)

Answer 1

1 - new employment opportunities
2 - public works programmes
3 - worker benefits

Question 2

Explain why living standards improved for many Germans in the period 1933 to 1939 - new employment opportunities

Answer 2

• autobans and public work projects: September 1933, Nazis launched ‘autobahn’ project = build 7,000 mile network of dual-carriageway roads to improve transport. By 1935,125,000 men employed in it
• rearmament: 1935 = conscription for all men. By 1939, over 1.3 million men in armed forces. Created demand for weaponry = by 1935, number of people employed in aviation had grown to 72,000

Question 3

Explain why living standards improved for many Germans in the period 1933 to 1939 - public works programmes

Answer 3

• public works: funded the construction of public buildings, bridges, costal walls, and sports facilities. 1938, spent 37 billion marks on public works
• autobans: better roads and bridges helped industry and agriculture boom as it became quicker and cheaper to transport goods = created more jobs

Question 4

Explain why living standards improved for many Germans in the period 1933 to 1939 - worker benefits

Answer 4

• KDF (Strength Through Joy): provided leisure activities for workers e.g. sporting events, cinema trips, theatre shows, and holidays. Wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford them. By 1936, over 35 million members
• SDA (Beauty of Labour): campaigned for better facilities for workers e.g. toilets, changing rooms, showers, and canteens. Gave employers tax breaks to help with construction. By 1938, SDA claimed that 34,000 companies had improved their facilities

Question 5

Explain why improvements to living standards were limited in the period 1933 to 1939 (3 points)

Answer 5

• Reich Labour Service
• Workers’ rights were limited
• Ideological discrimination

Question 6

Explain why improvements to living standards were limited in the period 1933 to 1939 - Reich Labour Service

Answer 6

• provided paid work for the unemployed e.g. repairing roads, planting trees, and draining marshes
• compulsory for all men below age of 25 to serve for 6 months (1935)
• had military overtones = workers wore uniforms, lived in camps, and did military parades and drills after work each day
• rates of pay were very low and some complained that the work was like slave labour

Question 7

Explain why improvements to living standards were limited in the period 1933 to 1939 - workers’ rights were limited

Answer 7

• DAF: trade unions banned, workers’ rights negotiated by Nazi controlled DAF. Workers lost right to negotiate improvements to their pay and conditions. Strikes banned, and had power to punish workers who weren’t working hard
• fall in ‘real wages’: average wages increased from 86 marks per week in 1933 to 109 marks per week in 1939. However food prices rose by 20%
• hours of work rose from 42 hours per week in 1933 to 49 hours per week in 1939

Question 8

Explain why improvements to living standards were limited in the period 1933 to 1939 - legal discrimination

Answer 8

• Law for the Reduction of Unemployment (1933): banned women from working in government, education, medicine, or law. Employers instructed to pay women less than men, and women no longer allowed to work past the age of 35
• discrimination against Jews: banned from government, teaching, and civil service. Later ideological persecution led to boycotts of businesses and state sponsored violence
• concentration camps: hundreds of thousands of people were put into concentration camps, consequently losing their jobs and removing them from the record

Question 9

Explain why there was a great reduction in unemployment in the years 1933 to 1939 (3 points)

Answer 9

1 - Reich Labour Service (RAD)
2 - Job creation schemes and rearmament
3 - Invisible unemployment