Education and Culture - Nazi Flashcards
What did the Nazis do in regards to music in Germany?
- Banned jazz and swing music
* Supported militaristic/traditional German music such as Beethoven and Wagner
What did the Nazis do in regards to literature?
- The banned ‘All quiet on the Western Front”
* The burning of the books May 1933 saw the burning of 400,000 books outside the Reichstag
Why did sport become important in Nazi culture?
- Promoted the healthy nation ideal
* Hosted the 1936 Olympics and the Germans won 89 medals (also the whole Jesse Owen not given gold medal by Hitler)
What happened to the cinema industry under the Nazis?
- Was run by Nazi sympathisers so they didn’t actually mind it
- Was used as a means of propaganda with the production of films such as ‘The Eternal Jew”
• Jewish actors and directors (e.g. Fritz Lang snd Elizabeth Bergner) were removed
What happened to art and design under the Nazis?
- Great German Exhibition of acceptable art - promoted sculpure over art + out of 15,00 art pieces sent in only 900 pieces of art portrayed
- Bauhaus was rejected
- Degenerate art was rejected - anything that didn’t portray people as perfect
- Artists such as Albert Speer (designed Olympic stadium) and Arno Breher were celebrated
The Reich Chamber of Culture (RKK)
In September 1933, Goebells set up the RKK
All artists/publishers had to be registered with the RKK and the chamber could refuse to register ‘degenerate’ art and lay down strict guidelines on what could be produced.
Architecture under the Nazis?
Formal elements like flat roofs, horizontal extension, uniformity, and the lack of décor created “an impression of simplicity, uniformity and eternity,” which is how the Nazi Party wanted to appear.
Building projects in cities created the impression of the Third Reich being powerful - most important architect was Albert Speer, who redesigned Berlin, as well as designing the stadium in Nuremberg where annual rallies were held drew in Germans but many foreign journalists
The infamous Swastika symbol appearing on every government uniform and public building.
How did the structure of the education system change under the Nazis?
- Education became centralised with the Lander losing control
- Confessional schools were abolished
- March 20 1933 - Education of boys and girls done separately
- The state school structure remained in place but private primary school education was abolished
- Fee-paying secondary schools and universities remained (only for ‘pure Germans’)
April 1933: the Nazis opened National Political Educations (Napolas) - free boarding schools to train an elite group of boys as government administrators
How did the role of teachers change under the Nazis?
- April 1929: The nazis set up a National Socialist Teachers league (NSLB) ran courses about ideas that reachers were expected to teach
- Ministry of education controlled the selection and training of teachers and professors by 1935
- By 1937 it was impossible to get a job if not in the union and 97% of teachers had joined
- ‘Undesirable’ teachers were purged by the law of of April 1933, the same law that purged the civil service = 60% of teachers and 15% of university professors
- Reduced respect for teaching profession with only 2500 qualified teachers and 8000 vacancies by 1938
How did the curriculum change under the Nazis?
- Children were taught to be ‘good Nazis’ through indoctrination to be loyal to Hitler
- Curriculum became focused around physical fitness (15% of timetable), racial purity, history and health biology. Religious studies was dropped
- Textbooks became censored and education roles forced children into stereotypes (boys train for military service, girls trained to become mothers)
Nazi lesson focus
History lessons focused on creating a Volksgemeinschaft, a sense of nationhood - textbooks were censored, some burned and other mutilated
Biology focused on race, eugenics and motherhood for girls + New areas of curriculum include race studies which taught Aryans were a superior race, Slav races were and Jews were the source of all of Germany’s problems
Maths had built in propaganda e.g how much more money could be saved for marriage loans if money for keeping the mentally ill in care was ‘saved’
How did outside activities for children change under the Nazis?
- The Hitler Youth became the only youth group you could join and was compulsory by 1936 with 4 million members
- Children in the Hitler youth were trained to report anything anti Nazis that their parents or teachers said
