Chapter 15 (NOT FINAL)

Question 1

What was the unemployment rate by 1933?

Answer 1

6 million

Question 2

What were the Nazi’s short-term aims when they came to power?

Answer 2

Economic recovery from the Depression and a reduction in unemployment.

Question 3

What was the Nazis’ long-term economic aims?

Answer 3

An economy capable of sustaining a major rearmament programme and geared to the needs of war.

Question 4

What is autarky?

Answer 4

Economic independence and self-sufficiency.

Question 5

What positions did Hjalmar Schacht hold between 1933 and 1936?

Answer 5

President of the Reichsbank and after August 1934, Economics Minister.

Question 6

What position did Hjalmar Schacht take over in August 1934?

Answer 6

Economics Minister

Question 7

How did Schacht stimulate economic recovery?

Answer 7

• Built homes and autobahns.
• Generated demand by giving tax concessions to individuals.
• Subsidising private firms.
• Controlled wages and prices.
• Introduced the New Plan.
• Introduced Mefo bills.

Question 8

Why were homes and autobahns important?

Answer 8

• They were visible signs of economic revival.
• They created jobs.
• Both of the above generated support for the Nazis.

Question 9

What was the unemployment problem called by the Nazis?

Answer 9

The ‘battle for work’.

Question 10

When was the Reich Labour Service introduced?

Answer 10

1935

Question 11

What was the Reich Labour Service?

Answer 11

Unemployed young men were compelled to do six months’ labour in farming or construction.

Question 12

When was the New Plan introduced?

Answer 12

1934

Question 13

What did the New Plan introduce?

Answer 13

Controls placed on imports and exports and access to foreign currency to control the balance of payments.

Question 14

What did Schacht initiate with foreign countries?

Answer 14

Trade agreements with the Balkans and South America whereby Germany imported food and raw materials paid for in Reichsmarks. This money could then only be used to purchase goods from Germany.

Question 15

What were Mefo bills?

Answer 15

They were credit notes that could be exchanged for money from the Reichsbank, but they increased in value by 4% per annum, giving companies an incentive to defer cashing them in.

Question 16

What did the introduction of Mefo bills allow the government to do?

Answer 16

It allowed the rearmament programme to be started in 1935 despite the government not having the funds.

Question 17

Why was the rearmament programme able to be kept a secret?

Answer 17

The Mefo bills used to finance it did not appear on government records.

Question 18

What was the conflict in priorities that arose in 1935-36 called?

Answer 18

‘guns or butter’ - the government could import food to alleviate shortages but this would mean less funds to for rearmament programme.

Question 19

What solved the ‘guns or butter’ conflict?

Answer 19

The strive for autarky, the basis of the Four Year Plan.

Question 20

When was the Four Year Plan introduced?

Answer 20

1936

Question 21

Who was put in charge of the Four Year Plan and why?

Answer 21

Hermann Goering, because Schacht opposed the move to autarky.

Question 22

What was the aim of the Four Year Plan?

Answer 22

It wanted to achieve autarky so that the country could be ready for war within 4 years.

Question 23

How did the Four Year Plan intend to get the country ready for war within four years?

Answer 23

• create a managed economy with controls on labour supply and prices.
• setting production targets for private companies.
• establishing state-owned industrial plants such as the Hermann Goering Steelworks.

Question 24

What did the Nazi Party programme claim autarky would do?

Answer 24

‘free Germany from the chains of international capital’

Question 25

What did the regime do in 1937 to make up for shortages in raw materials?

Answer 25

They launched a campaign to collect scrap metal from peoples’ homes and public spaces.

Question 26

How much of Germany’s raw materials were imported by 1939?

Answer 26

1/3

Question 27

What was the largest industrial enterprise in Europe by 1939?

Answer 27

The Herman Goering Steelworks.

Question 28

Who actually introduced many of the job creation schemes the Nazis used?

Answer 28

Heinrich Bruning in the early 1930s.

Question 29

What did the Nazis offer married women?

Answer 29

Marriage loans to persuade them to give up their jobs to give to unemployed men.

Question 30

When was conscription reintroduced?

Answer 30

1935

Question 31

What effect did conscription have on the labour market?

Answer 31

It took many people out meaning the Nazis could falsely claim unemployment had fallen.

Question 32

When were there labour shortages in Germany?

Answer 32

1939

Question 33

What strains did the drive for autarky place on the German people?

Answer 33

• Longer working hours.
• Higher prices.
• Food shortages.
• Squeeze on wages.

Question 34

What happened to consumption of meat, fruit, and eggs?

Answer 34

It reduced as wages stagnated, prices increased, and shortages arose.

Question 35

When did Hjalmar Schacht become Economics Minister?

Answer 35

August 1934