Chapter 16 - Social Policies Flashcards
How did the Nazis establish control over the schools
Control over teachers
-Under the law for the Re establishment of a professional civil service 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 but most teachers were willing to comply with the regimes demands.
-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
Control over the curriculum
-The Nazis’ aim to promote racial health led to an increasing emphasis on p.e. Military style drills became a feature of p.e lessons.
-In German lessons the aim was to install a consciousness of being German through the study of 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.
How did the Nazis establish control over universities
- Access to higher education was strictly rationed and selection was made on the basis of political reliability. Women were restricted to 10% of the available uni places and Jews were restricted to 1.5%
- Under the law for the reestablishment of a professional civil service about 1200 uni staff were dismissed on racial or political grounds. This amounted to 15% of the total
- In Nov 1933 all uni teachers were made to sign a declaration In support of Hitler and the national socialist state
- Students had to join the German students league although 25% managed to avoid this
- students were forced to do 4 months labour service and 2 months in an SA camp. Giving them experience of real life considered by the Nazis to be more important than academic learning
How did the Nazis control the Hitler youth
When the Nazis came into power in 1933 all other youth organisations except those linked to the Catholic Church were either banned or taken over by the Hitler youth. In 1936 a law for the incorporation of German youth gave Hitler youth the status of an official education movement equal in status to schools and the home. Also by 1936 the Hitler youth had been granted a monopoly over all sports facilities and competitions for children under 14. Membership of the Hitler youth was compulsory in 1939. There was a constant diet of political indoctrination and physical activity. Boys from the age of 10 were taught the motto live faithfully, fight bravely and die laughing. The emphasis in youth activities was on competition, struggle, heroism and leadership as boys were prepared for their future roles as warriors. Hitler youth members has to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler. The opportunity to participate in sports and camping trips enticed millions of boys who grew up in the 1930s and their growing up was shaped by the Hitler youth.
How did the Nazis control the league of German girls (BDM)
This was part of a process of preparing girls for their future role as housewives and mothers in the volksgemeinschaft. Membership became compulsory in 1939. In the BDM girls were taught that they had a duty to be healthy since their 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. Group gymnastics served the purpose of raising fitness and developing comradeship. At weekly home evenings girls were taught handicrafts, sewing and cooking. There were also sessions for political and racial awareness. Many girls found their experience in the BDM liberating. They were doing things that their mothers hadn’t been allowed to do and they could escape from the constraints of the home. They also developed a sense of comradeship bringing girls together from a wide range of backgrounds was part of the strategy to capture the minds of German youth. After 1934 girls were expected to do a years work on the land or in domestic service. This was unpopular with girls from the cities and many tried to avoid it. In 1939 this was made compulsory
What were the Nazi policies towards women
They aimed to raise the birth rate and restrict employment of married women by:
- Marriage loans were introduced for women who left work and married an Aryan man. For each child born the amount of loan that has to be repaid was reduced
- The Nazis awarded medals to women for donating a baby to the Fuhrer those with 4 or 5 children received a bronze medal 8 for gold
- Birth control was discouraged and abortion was severely restricted
- women were encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle with plenty of exercise and no smoking or drinking
- The Germans women league was setup to coordinate all women’s groups under Nazi control
- The Reich mother’s service was a branch of the DFW for training physically and mentally able mothers to make them convinced of the important duties of motherhood
How much success were Nazi policies towards women
The improved economic situation would have encouraged couples to have more children and the number of women in the workforce had increased between 1933-39 as ideology had to give way to economic realities.
How did Nazis organise the workers
They were coordinated into a Nazi run organisation the German labour front (DAF). The German labour front was established on May 6th 1933 under the leadership of Robert key. The DAF atoll over the assets of the banned trade unions and became the largest organisation in the third Reich. Although membership of the DAF wasn’t compulsory its membership grew rapidly since it was the only officially recognised organisation representing workers. The 2 aims of the DAF were to win the workers over to volksgemeinschaft and to encourage workers to increase production. It had its own propaganda department to spread Nazi ideology among working class Germans. They also had a subsidiary organisation Strength through Joy to organise workers’ leisure time. The strength through joy encouraged workers to encourage a spirit of social equality, bring Germans from different regions together and to encoruage participation in sport to improve physical and mental health
How much success did Nazi policies towards workers have
Sopade and Gestapo reports shows that workers reaction to Nazi schemes were mixed. Strength through joy was popular because it offered workers a means of escaping the boredom and pressure of their working lives. On the other hand trade unions had been abolished and workers had no independent means by which they could voice their grievances
What were the Nazi policies towards the churches
Coordinating the churches posed serious challenges. Hitler realised that he would have to proceed cautiously at first with his initial objective being to gain control over the churches before later trying to weaken their influence. Hitler was hostile towards the Christian faith but was careful in the early stages not to alienate the churches and so tried to reassure church leaders that Nazism posed no threat.
How did the Nazis coordinate the Protestant church (evangelical)
The main Protestant church in Germany was the German evangelical church which many Nazis saw as a potential nucleus for a single national church. Many Protestants were anti Semitic and vigorously anti communist there were therefore many points of convergence between Nazi ideology and the views of German Protestants. In Spring and summer of 1933 the Nazi regime began to coordinate the evangelical church into a single centralised Reich church under Nazi control. In the church elections of July 1933 the German Christians won a sweeping victory and were now in a position to nazify the church. Ludwig Muller a Nazi nominee was announced as Reich bishop and took over administrative headquarters of the evangelical church. Pastors who hadn’t declared their allegiance were forced to be dismissed along with all non aryans.
How did the Nazis coordinate the Protestant church (confessional church)
In Sept 1933 a group of dissident pastors led by Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer established a pastors emergency league. This evolved into a breakaway church called the confessional church. The new church was established to resist state interference in the church and to re-establish a theology that was based purely on the bible. The confessional church was thus in opposition to the official Reich church. The regime switched to a policy of trying to weaken the confessional church btu the very fact there was a confessional church shows that the Nazis attempt to coordinate the Protestant church were a failure. They attempted to weaken the church through repression and exploiting divisions that were beginning to appear. The regime also launched a church session campaign to persuade party members to renounce there church membership. This has some success by 1939 5% of the population were listed as God believers and party members weren’t allowed to hold any office in the Protestant or Catholic Churches
How did the Nazis try and coordinate the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church was less susceptible to Nazi ideology than the German evangelical church was. On the other hand catholics as a group were keen to be seen and accepted as part of the German nation and were willing to compromise. There were some points of convergence with the two they both regarded communism as a far greater evil than Nazism. In July 1933 the regime and Vatican reached an agreement called a concordat under which the Vatican recognised the Nazi regime and promised that the Catholic Church would not interfere in politics and the regime promised that it would not interfere in the Catholic Church and that the church would keep control of its school, youth organisations and lay groups. It wasn’t long however until the Nazi regime was breaking these rules. In the summer of 1933 the Nazis began to seize Catholic property and forced them to close. In the face of this mounting repression the Catholic hierarchy made no protest believing that continued declarations of support for the regime would be the best way to protect the Catholic Church
How did the conflict between the Catholic Church and Nazis worsen
Some catholic priests began to speak out against the Nazis in 1935-36 in response the regime increased the pressure on the Catholic Church by:
-restricting permission to hold public meetings
-catholic newspapers were heavily censored and many had Nazi editors imposed upon them
-Goebbels launched a propaganda campaign against financial corruption in catholic lay organisations
In 1937 the Pope issued with burning grief and the regime again increased the pressure:
-Gestapo and SS were placed in catholic church’s
-there was a tightening of restrictions on the catholic press
-many monasteries were closed down
By 1939 the power and influence of the Catholic Church had been severely weakened
How much success did the Nazis policy towards the churches have
The regimes religious policy was confused and inconsistent as leading Nazis differed in their attitudes towards Christianity. The Nazis had failed to establish a unifying Protestant church. By 1939 the concordat was officially dead yet Hitler didn’t announce this. He could still see some value from a tactical point of view in keeping the facade of cooperation
