21 - The Impact Of War On German Society

Question 1

What was the mood of the german people when war first broke out

Answer 1

Acceptance
No great enthusiasm

Question 2

What has civilian morale been like in ww1

Answer 2

Had collapsed in later stages due to severe shortages of foodstuffs

Question 3

Why was carefully rationing important for germany in ww2

Answer 3

So morale didn’t collapse like it had in ww1

Question 4

What was the progression of the rationing of meat

Answer 4

1939 allowed 500g
1942 allowed 400g

Question 5

When was food rationing introduces

Answer 5

August 1939 before war broke out

Question 6

What foods were rationed

Answer 6

Bread, meat, butter, margarine, cheese, eggs, canned foods and sugar.
Foods imported from outside Euroupe: bananas, coffee, chocolate

Question 7

When was clothing rationed from

Answer 7

NOVEMBER 1939

Question 8

What was the allocation of food rations based on

Answer 8

Age, occupation race
Manual labourers had more
Jews had less
Pregnant women, nursing mothers and sick had special allowances.

Question 9

How was rationing for first two years of war

Answer 9

Adequate food supplies, population not alienated.
Shortages of coal, shoes, soap and washing powder

Question 10

What event reduces food rations significantly

Answer 10

The invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, imports of food from there were stopped.

Question 11

When were rations reduces

Answer 11

April 1942

Question 12

When did supplies become precarious

Answer 12

Autumn 1944

Question 13

What happened to ration towards end of war (spring 1945)

Answer 13

Supply and distribution of food in Nazi German completely collapsed and many Germans faced the prospect of starvation

Question 14

How did Goebbels control propaganda to boost morale

Answer 14

Controlled the flow of information and enabled the regime to spread its own version of events.

Speeches, newsreel, film ,radio broadcast and printed media emphasised the successes and minimised the set backs for german forces.

Question 15

Was Goebbels propoganda entirely successfully in boosting morale

Answer 15

No, became less effective as the war progressed.

Question 16

What are the four phases of the war

Answer 16

Blitzkrieg September 1939-June 1941
The spreading war June-December 1941
The turning of the tide Jan 1942- jan 1943
Total war and defeat Feb 1943- may 1945

Question 17

What did the first phase ‘blitzkrieg’ involve?

Answer 17

Invasion of poland achieved victory within weeks
Spring 1940 invasion of Norway, Nemark, Holland, Belgium and France. All defeated quickly.
April 1941 german forces invade Yugoslavia and Greece and pushed on towards North Africa.

Question 18

How was morale during blitzkrieg

Answer 18

Quick and easy victories - optimism for quick war
Hitler presented as military genius
Hitler made major speeches, all were broadcast

Question 19

What happened during the second phase of the war ‘the spreading war’

Answer 19

Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941 and occupied vast areas of territory.
December red army halted german advance
December 1941 Germany declared war on USA following its ally Japan attacking the American fleet at pearl harbour.

Question 20

How was morale during phase two ‘the spreading war’

Answer 20

Invasion of USSR presented as a crusade against ‘Jewish Bolshevism’
Increase in anti semitic propaganda
In early stages as soviet forces retreated there was a boost in morale
German forces were halted outside Moscow in December and subjected to severe winter conditions.
Declaration of war on USA made it clear that the was would not be over soon.

Question 21

What was the third stage of war, ‘the turning of the tide’

Answer 21

British forces stopped the german and Italian advances in North Africa and defeated a German army at El Alamein in Nov 1942

The defeat of an entire german army at Stalingrad in Jan 1943 marked an important turning point in the war

Question 22

What was morale like during the third stage ‘the turning of the tide’

Answer 22

People began to think Goebbels had set unrealistic expectations of victory.
Letters home from soldiers undermined the propaganda.
War weariness became more evident and criticisms of the regime raised.
Attempts to boost morale included extra rations at christmas.
still a deep reserve of patriotism

Question 23

What was total war and the defeat of germany

Answer 23

British and American bombing of german cities caused destruction.
German forces retreating in the east.
Italy invaded and defeated by British and American forces in 1943
The d day landings in france in june 1944 opened up a second front in western Euroupe.
Berlin captured by soviet forces in April 195 and germany surrendered 8th May.

Question 24

What was morale like during total war?

Answer 24

Goebbels declared germany was in the war in his speech Feb 1943
Hitler appeared less often in public
Heavy bombing - downbeat mood
Goebbels tried to lift morale with talks of retaliation.
Final months of war - defeat accepted and seen as inevitable.

Question 25

What film was produced in jan 1945 to encourage retaliation

Answer 25

The propaganda film Kolberg showed heroic resistance to Napoleons army in 1807

Question 26

What was the aim of American and British bombing

Answer 26

To disrupt the production of war materials and break the will of the civilian population to continue fighting.

Question 27

How did propaganda cover the impact of the bombings

Answer 27

Spoke of the resillience of the civilians and their continuing support for the regime

Personal reminisciences of surviviors offer growing criticism of the authorities

Question 28

Examples of the damage the bombing caused to Germans

Answer 28

Extensive damage to buildings and high numbers of civilian casualties.

Around 410,000 german civilians killed in air raids

Millions made homeless

Question 29

What places were targeted in the bombings

Answer 29

Large cities like Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne

Also small towns

Question 30

What happened to civilian morale as a result of the air raids

Answer 30

Exhaustion (lack of sleep)
Constant fear

People continued to work and criticism was rare

Question 31

When did civilian morale collapse

Answer 31

As allied forces closed in on Germany in the last months of the war and air raids added to the hardships of the civilian population.

Question 32

What were the elites opinions of the regime

Answer 32

There was a diverse range of views

Many old conservatives shared the nazis authoritarian leanings

But especially after 1943 some were concerned that Hitler was leading the country to disaster

Question 33

How were workers impacted by the war

Answer 33

Longer working hours
Pressure on wages

Question 34

Did workers resist to the changes that came with war

Answer 34

Some evidence of worker resistance in the form of absenteeism and bad timekeeping

But the regime put measures in to enforce discipline in the workplace

Question 35

How were women affected by the change of war

Answer 35

Shouldered burdens of everyday living as mothers and housewives.

Increased number of women in work

Later stages of war increasingly used in auxiliary roles in the armed forces to release men for combat duties

Question 36

Why argue that women weren’t affected by the war?

Answer 36

There were still many exemptions from the compulsory conscription of women workers - pregnant women, those with two or more children and farmers wives.

Question 37

Impact of war on young people

Answer 37

Increasingly subjected to military training and conscription to the armed forces

Age at which men could conscript to the arm reduced from 19 to 17 in 1943.

Younger teenagers deployed through the Hitler youth

Later age of conscription reduce to 16

Younger boys conscripted for duties in volksturm (home guard)