Chapter 16 Flashcards
What was Hitler’s overall goal with social policies?
It was Hitler’s intention that there should be no independent organisations standing between the State and the individual. Individuals would have no private space in which they could either think or act independently of the regime. All Germans must be made to conform to the norms of the regime in order that the Nazis could achieve their ultimate aim of creating a Volksgemeinschaft, or People’s community.
What did Hitler want the Volksgemeinschaft to be like?
The Volksgemeinschaft would be unified by blood, race and ideology, with a common bond of loyalty to the Führer. By coordinating German society using propaganda, indoctrination, terror and repression, the Nazis aimed to eliminate all opposition and create a community in which all Volksgenossen (national comrades) would be loyal, show self-discipline and a readiness to make personal sacrifices. Men would be imbued with a fighting spirit and women would be willing to place their bodies at the service of the State by producing large numbers of children. In short, the Nazis aimed at nothing less than the creation of a new German man and a new German woman. The starting point for this experiment in social engineering was Germany’s youth.
Two main areas of Nazis aimed to control to bring schools into the Volks
Control over teachers
Control over the curriculum
How did the Nazis establish control over teachers? (2)
• Under the Law for the Re-establishment of a Professional Civil Service
(1933), a number of teachers were dismissed on the grounds of political unreliability or because they were Jewish.
• Teachers were pressurised into joining the National Socialist Teachers
League (NSLB), but most teachers were willing to comply with the regime’s demands. The historian Joachim Fest has claimed that the teaching profession was one of the most politically reliable sections of the population.
How did the Nazis control the curriculum?
• Vetting of textbooks was undertaken by local Nazi committees after 1933.
From 1935, central directives were issued by the Ministry of Education covering what could be taught and, by 1938, these rules covered every school year and most subjects.
Political indoctrination permeated every area of the school curriculum:
• The Nazis’ aim to promote racial health’ led to an increasing emphasis on physical education. Military-style drills became a feature of P.E. lessons.
. In German lessons, the aim was to instill a consciousness of being German’ through the study of Nordic sagas and other traditional stories.
. In Biology, there was a stress on race and heredity. There was also a strong emphasis on evolution and the survival of the fittest.
Geography was used to develop awareness of the concepts of Lebensraum (living space), blood and soil and German racial superiority. Atlases implicitly supported the concept of ‘one people, one Reich.
Info about new Nazi schools created
New Nazi boarding schools for boys were created to train the future elite. The emphasis of their teaching was on physical fitness, political indoctrination and military drill.
These included Napola schools for boys aged 10-18, Adolf Hitler Schools for boys aged 12-18 and Ordensburgen (Castles of Order), which were for young men in the25-30 age group
Why did universities lose significance?
With their stress on physical education and political indoctrination, the Nazis downgraded the importance of academic education and the number of students attending university decreased between 1933 and 1939. Access to higher education was strictly rationed and selection was made on the basis of political reliability. Women were restricted to 10 per cent of the available university places, while Jews were restricted to 1.5 per cent, their proportion within the population as a whole.
Measures to control universities (4)
. Under the Law for the Re-establishment of a Professional Civil Service, about 1200 university staff were dismissed on racial or political grounds.
This amounted to around 15 per cent of the total.
. In November 1933, all university teachers were made to sign a Declaration in support of Hitler and the National Socialist State.
• Students had to join the German Students’ League (DS), although some
25 per cent managed to avoid doing this.
. Students were also forced to do four months’ labour service and two months in an SA camp. Labour service would give students experience of real life, considered by the Nazis to be more important than academic learning.
Why wasn’t there much resistance in universities?
The Nazis encountered very little resistance to their policies of bringing the universities under their control. Indeed, coordination was made easier by the voluntary self-coordination of many faculties. Even in the Weimar period, the universities had been dominated by nationalist and anti-democratic attitudes and traditional student ‘fraternities’ were a breeding ground for reactionary politics. The Nazis were, therefore, able to tap into a pre-existing culture of extreme nationalism and infuse it with Nazi ideology. This was helped by the students’ knowledge that their prospects of employment after graduating depended on showing outward support for the regime.
When did the HJ begin to flourish and why?
The Hitler Jugend (HJ), or Hitler Youth, was created in 1926 and in its early years was relatively unsuccessful. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, all other youth organisations, except those linked to the Catholic Church, were either banned or taken over by the Hitler Youth. Only then did the Nazis own youth movement begin to flourish.
How did the Nazis further increase HJ membership after 1933?
In 1936, a Law for the Incorporation of German Youth gave the Hitler Youth the status of an official education movement, equal in status to schools and the home. At the same time, Catholic youth organisations were banned and the Hitler Youth became the only officially permitted youth organisation.
Also by 1936, the Hitler Youth had been granted a monopoly over all sports facilities and competitions for children under the age of 14. Membership of the Hitler Youth was made compulsory in 1939.
What happened in the HJ?
In the Hitler Youth, there was a constant diet of political indoctrination and Physical activity. Boys from the age of 10 were taught the motto ‘Live faithfully, light bravely and die laughing. The emphasis in youth activities was on competition, struggle, heroism and leadership, as boys were prepared for their future role as warriors. Hitler Youth members had to swear a personal oath of allegiance to the Führer. There was a set syllabus of political indoctrination which all members had to follow and a heavy emphasis on military drill.
Boys were taught to sing Nazi songs and encouraged to read Nazi political pamphlets. They were taken on hikes and on camping trips. Ritual, ceremonies and the singing of songs reinforced their induction into Nazi ideology.
How much enthusiasm was there for the HJ and why did this change?
The opportunity to participate in sports and camping trips away from home made the organisation attractive to millions of German boys, many of whom grew up in the 1930s with no experience of any other system. For these boys, their growing up was shaped by the Hitler Youth and the Nazi emphasis on struggle, sacrifice, loyalty and discipline became accepted as the norm. Many children joined against the wishes of parents who were not Nazi sympathisers and had grown up in a different era. For these boys, the Hitler Youth offered an outlet for their teenage rebelliousness. By the late 1930s, however, as the organisation became more bureaucratic and rigid, there were signs that enthusiasm was beginning to wane. There were reports of poor attendance at weekly parades. Boys resented the harsh punishments imposed for minor infringements of the rules.
What was the BDM about?
Tie Bund Deutscher Madel (BDM), or League of German Girls, was the smale equivalent of the Hitler Youth. Its motto - Be faithful, be pure, be German - was part of a proces of preparing girls for their future role as house wives and mothers in the Volksgemeinschaf. Membership became compulsory in 1939.
in the BDM, girls were taught that they had a duty to be healthy since heir bodies belonged to the nation. They needed to be fit for their future role as child bearers. They were also instructed in matters of hygiene, cleanliness and healthy eating. Formation dancing and group gymnastics served the dual purpose of raising fitness and developing comradeship. At weekly home evenings, girls were taught handicrafts, sewing and cooking. There were also sessions for political education and racial awareness. Annual summer camps were highly structured, every minute being taken up with sports, physical exercise and route marches, as well as indoctrination, flag-waving and saluting. In the Faith and Beauty groups, young women were instructed in baby care and social skills such as ballroom dancing.
Racial awareness was an important element in this indoctrination. Jutta Rüdiger, the leader of the BDM, instructed girls on their future partners in marriage: Only the best German soldier is suitable for you, for itis your responsibility to keep the blood of the nation pure. German girl, your honour lies in being faithful to the blood of your race.
Why did the BDM appeal to many girls?
Many girls found their experiences in the BDM liberating. They were doing things that their mothers had not been allowed to do and they could escape from the constraints of the home. They also developed a sense of comradeship.
Although strictly run on the leadership principle, the BDM groups were relatively classless, bringing together girls from a wide range of backgrounds. This was part of the strategy for capturing the minds of German youth and moulding them to the purposes of the Nazi regime.
Work schemes for girls and how popular
After 1934, girls were expected to do a year’s work on the land or in domestic service. The aim was to put girls in touch with their peasant roots and give them practical experience in child care. It also developed their sense of serving the community. This was very unpopular with girls from the cities and many tried to avoid it. In 1939, this scheme was made compulsory. All young women up to the age of 25 had to do a year’s unpaid work with the Reich Labour Service before they could get paid employment. This was the female equivalent to compulsory military service for the boys and was part of the growing coordination of all levels of German society under Nazi rule.
Overall how successful were Nazi youth policies?
The Nazis were successful in bringing schools and universities under their control. The HJ had, by 1939, become the only youth movement allowed in Germany, and membership of both H and BDM had grown. The HJ undoubtedly reinforced certain values that had long been well established in German culture, particularly the importance of duty, obedience, honour, courage and physical strength. This picture of success, however, must be balanced by the fact that attendance at HJ parades was beginning to slip by 1939 and that the Nazis themselves were concerned about the re-emergence of independent youth cliques.
Nazi aims regarding women
The Nazis opposed the trend towards greater emancipation for women that The beans vident in the Weimar period. They viewed the declining birth rate ha the 1920s with alarm as it threatened to undermine their aim to expand Germany’s territory and settle Germans in the newly acquired lands to the Ger The main priority for Nazi policy towards women after 1933, therefore, was to raise the birth rate. This was closely linked to attempts to restrict the employment of married women outside the family home.
Measures introduced to achieve aims regarding women
• Marriage loans were introduced for women who left work and married an Aryan man. For each child born, the amount of the loan that had to be repaid was reduced by a quarter.
. The Nazis awarded medals to women for donating a baby to the Führer.
Those with four or five children received a bronze medal, six or seven qualified for silver, and eight for gold.
• Birth control was discouraged. Abortion was severely restricted.
• Women were encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle, with plenty of exercise and no smoking or drinking.
Examples of women’s organisations and membership
• The German Women’s League (DFW) was set up in 1933 to coordinate all women’s groups under Nazi control. It had a domestic science department, which gave advice to women on cooking and healthy eating. By 1939, the DFW had over 6 million members, seventy per cent of whom were not members of the Nazi Party.
• The National Socialist Women’s Organisation (NS-F) was an elite organisation to promote the nation’s lovelife, marriage, the family, blood and race. It was primarily an organisation for propaganda and indoctrination among women to promote the Nazi ideology that women should be child-rearers and homemakers.
• The Reich Mother’s Service (RMD) was a branch of the DFW for training physically and mentally able mothers, to make them convinced of the important duties of motherhood, experienced in the care and education of their children and competent to carry out their domestic tasks. By March 1939, 1.7 million women had attended its motherhood training services.
Overall how successful were Nazi policies towards women?
The Nazis campaign to raise the birth rate had some success. To what extent this was due to policy, however, is debatable, since the improved economic situation would also have encouraged couples to have more children.
Moreover, despite the Nazis ideological objection to the paid employment of married women, the number of women in the workforce increased between 1933 and 1939 as ideology had to give way to economic realities. After 1936, there was a growing labour shortage in Germany as the pace of rearmament increased, so the regime began to encourage women to take up employment.
Nazi goals regarding workers
The Nazi Volksgemeinschaft would be a society in which class differences, religious loyalties, as well as regional, age and gender differences would be put aside and replaced by national unity. Given their traditional ties to trade unions and non-Nazi political parties, industrial workers presented the greatest challenge to the process of Gleichschaltung. The Nazis could not ignore the working class nor could they rely solely on repression to achieve their objective of ‘coordinating this very important part of German society.
Their first step was to ban the existing free trade unions, which was done on 2
May 1933. Following that, the next step was to coordinate workers into a Nazi-run organisation, the German Labour Front (DAF).
Measures taken to incorporate workers
The Deutsches Arbeitsfront (DAF), or German Labour Front, was established on 6 May 1933, under the leadership of Robert Ley, to coordinate workers into the National Socialist regime. The DAF took over the assets of the banned trade unions and became the largest organisation in the Third Reich. Although membership of the DAF was not compulsory, its membership grew rapidly since it was the only officially recognised organisation representing workers.
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Aims of DAF
The DAF had two main aims: to win the workers over to the Volksgemeinschaft and to encourage workers to increase production
What was the DAF and how did it grow in power?
Because it was a symbol of the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft, the DAF included employers as well as workers. The DAF replaced the trade unions but was not a trade union itself. It had no role in bargaining over wages and little influence over the regime’s social and economic policies. It did, however, have its own propaganda department to spread Nazi ideology among working-class Germans. It also established a subsidiary organisation, ‘Strength Through Joy; to organise workers’ leisure time. In 1936, the DAF started to provide vocational training courses to improve workers skills. The DAF also built up a large business empire of its own. This included banks, housing associations and construction companies, the Volkswagen car plant and its own travel company. By 1939, the DAF had 11,500 paid employees.
The Nazi system of labour relations was heavily weighted in favour of the employer and the State. Workers in the Third Reich had to work harder and accept a squeeze on wages and living standards. Nazi propaganda tried to promote the message that the reward for working was not material gain but the knowledge that they were serving the community. Nevertheless, the Nazis were well aware that they could not take workers for granted. Improved leisure facilities and opportunities, provided by Strength Through Joy, were a key part of this strategy.
What was the KdF?
The Kraft durch Freude (KdF) organisation, or Strength Through Joy, was set up by Robert Ley and the DAF to organise workers’ leisure time. The basic idea behind the scheme was that workers would gain strength for their work by experiencing joy in their leisure. Workers who were refreshed by holidays, sports and cultural activities would be more efficient when they returned to work.
Aims of the KdF
• to submerge the individual in the mass and encourage workers to see themselves as part of a Volksgemeinschaft. With leisure time as well as work time regulated by the regime, there would be no time or space for workers to develop private lives. To this end, the KdF was a propagandist organisation, which used its activities to indoctrinate workers and their families into Nazi ideology
. to encourage a spirit of social equality. All KdF activities were organised on a one-class basis with no distinction between rich and poor
• to bring Germans from the different regions of the country together and to break down regional and religious differences
• to encourage participation in sport to improve the physical and mental health of the nation. Every youth in employment was obliged to undertake two hours each week of physical education at their workplace . to encourage competition and ambition. A KdF National Trades Competition was organised for apprentices to improve skills and standards of work.
•leisure and opportunities to reduce opposition to increased hours and squeeze on wages
