germany - chapter 9

Question 1

what was hitler called when he became dictator

Answer 1

Führer

Question 2

what were different parts of the Nazi police state

Answer 2

• concentration camps
• the SS
• the gestapo
• the regular police and law courts

Question 3

concentration camps:

Answer 3

• lots were set up as soon as hitler came to power
• were largely prisons where any ‘enemies of the state’ could be held for any length of time
• were set up to ‘correct’ people who were not doing what the nazis wanted
• anyone the nazis didn’t like were sent there - jews, gypsies, political opponents and anyone who criticised hitler
• inmates were forced to work hard and some were tortured or worked to death

Question 4

the SS:

Answer 4

• set up in 1925
• blackshirted
• were originally hitlers personal bodyguards
• gradually the group was built up over the years to become the most feared organisation in the country
• SS members were tall, strong, athletic and totally loyal to hitler
• overtime, they were divided into three sections:
  -> the SD looked after ‘security’ - they could arrest anyone for any reason, search homes and seize property. They even spied on and policed the Nazi party itself
  -> the Waffen SS were an elite unit in the army
  -> the Death’s Head Units ran the concentration camps, and later, the death camps

Question 5

the regular police and the law courts:

Answer 5

• the ordinary police carried on their regular work, but ignored crimes committed by Nazis
• all the top jobs in ordinary police went to nazis
• law courts and judges were under control of nazis
• new laws meant the death penalty could be given for, among other things, telling an anti-hitler joke, having sex with a jew and listening to a foreign radio station

Question 6

the gestapo:

Answer 6

• the secret police
• they didn’t wear uniforms, and spied on people they thought might be a threat
• they tapped telephone calls and opened mail
• they had the power to arrest, imprison without trial, and torture anyone
• they set up a huge network of ‘informers’ who would report anyone who even moaned about the nazis
• they encouraged children to report their parents or teachers
• there were not many gestapo officers, but because people didn’t know who they were, ordinary germans informed on each other because they thought the gestapo would probably find out anyway

Question 7

what methods of control did the nazis use (other than fear)

Answer 7

propaganda
censorship

Question 8

who did hitler employ as chief of propaganda for the nazis

Answer 8

Joseph Goebbels

Question 9

what was the point of nazi propaganda

Answer 9

to persuade large numbers of germans to think and believe what hitler wanted them to think and believe

Question 10

what did goebbels understand about propaganda

Answer 10

he understood it only worked best if people were repeatedly given some basic ideas with short messages and powerful images

Question 11

what were the key messages of nazi propaganda

Answer 11

blaming jews for germanys problems
criticising the treaty of versailles
making germany great again

Question 12

how did the nazis get propaganda across to people

Answer 12

posters, newspapers, speeches, films, radios

Question 13

propaganda and censorship:

Answer 13

• propaganda is the art of persuading other people that your version of the story is correct
• goebbels knew he couldn’t rely on just propaganda to do this -> he needed to control and limit other ideas and beliefs too, so he used censorship
• this meant the gov tightly controlled (or censored) what german people heard, saw or read
• so anything was banned (such as books, films, news articles, even jokes) if it was viewed as harmful to the nazis or hitler

Question 14

newspaper propaganda:

Answer 14

• only stories that showed the nazis doing good things were allowed to be printed
• were also many negative stories about jews
• newspapers that printed stories that goebbels hadn’t approved of were closed down

Question 15

mass rallies propaganda:

Answer 15

• spectacular parades (called mass rallies) were held often to celebrate hitlers greatness
• special arenas were built that could hold half a million people
• choirs, bands, speeches, fireworks and air shows were performed to showcase how impressive and well organised the nazis were

Question 16

books, theatre and music propaganda:

Answer 16

writers were forced to write books, plays and songs that praised hitler and the nazis

Question 17

film propaganda:

Answer 17

• all films were shown to goebbels before the actual film was made
• all films had to show the nazis in a good way, and their ‘enemies’ in a bad way

Question 18

radio propaganda:

Answer 18

• nazis controlled radio stations which were used to put across nazi ideas
• cheap radios were produced that could only tune in to nazi controlled stations
• more germans owner radios in the 1930s than americans
• loudspeakers were placed in the streets, in factories and cafes to air radio broadcasts

Question 19

what was the chamber of culture

Answer 19

• an organisation set up by the nazis
• led by Joseph Goebbels
• all musicians, writers, artists and actors had to be members
  -> anyone who refused would not be allowed to work
• some people, such as jews, were banned from joining
• it ruled that all cultural activities, such as art, theatre, music, film and literature all had to give the same ‘message’: that Nazi beliefs and ideas were correct, and everything that hitler did was in the best interests of the country

Question 20

how did the nazis control cinema

Answer 20

• goebbels realised how popular cinema was and how powerful it could be
• nazi supporters, such as Alfred Hugenberg, owned film studios, so the nazis had a direct influence on exactly which films were made
• goebbels made sure he read and approved all film scripts, and all films - thrillers, comedies, factual films and dramas - had to carry a pro-nazi message
  -> eg. german soldiers were always shown as heroes while jews were portrayed as mean and nasty
• he made sure news reports of hitlers achievements was always shown before the main film

Question 21

how did the nazis control music

Answer 21

• goebbels ruled that music should be austrian or german
• marching music, old folk songs and classical music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner were popular
• some music that was popular in Weimar Germany was banned -> Jewish composers like Mahler and Mendelssohn were banned, and so was jazz music because it had its origins among the black people in america

Question 22

how did the nazis control theatre

Answer 22

• before the nazis took over, they set up a group (Militant League for German Culture) that protested against some of the more ‘modern’ plays and films they didn’t approve of
  -> eg. Jewish writer Kurt Weill’s hit musical, The Threepenny Opera, came under attack -> set among a group of beggars in Victorian London, the play contained lots of jazz music - it was banned by the nazis as soon as they took power
• the nazis ruled that plays should mainly focus on german history and politics, and allowed the work of some ‘older’ playwrights like Goethe and Schiller to be performed
• the nazis also shut Germanys cabaret clubs
  -> these noisy, smoky theatre bars were places where songs about sex and politics were common

Question 23

how did the nazis control literature

Answer 23

• goebbels created a list of banned books which were removed from libraries and bookshops
• they were classified as ‘un-german’ or were by jewish authors
• Mein Kampf was the best selling book in germany
• goebbels encouraged books about race, the glory of war and the brilliance of the nazis
  -> he even wrote a book himself that showcased this
• popular books written in Weimar Germany were banned, including Erich Remarque’s anti-war novel ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’
• around 2500 writers left germany between 1933 and 1945
  -> eg. Thomas Mann, a strong critic of the nazis who had written Magic Mountain, one of the best-known German novels of the time

Question 24

how did the nazis control art

Answer 24

• in weimar germany during the 1920s, art tended to show everyday life and could be classified as ‘modern’ or ‘abstract’
• artists like otto dix and george grosz were popular
• hitler hated modern art and referred to it as ‘degenerate’ (perverted)
• in 1936, the nazis publically burned 5000 paintings they disapproved of
• in 1937, they put on another exhibition of unacceptable art and opened another showing their officially approved paintings
• the nazis wanted art to be simple and clearly understandable to ordinary people
  -> it should show healthy, heroic german figures, family scenes of happy, strong, ‘pure’ germans and lots of images of hitler in heroic poses

Question 25

how did the nazis control design

Answer 25

• the bauhaus movement was an important architectural and design development in weimar germany
  -> bauhaus architects used new technology to design simple, practical, modern buildings and objects
• hitler did not approve of such modern design and closed down this movement in 1933
• he instead had clear ideas about the design of big, public buildings like libraries, gov buildings and parade grounds
• he favoured huge, stone structures, often copies of buildings from ancient greece or rome

Question 26

how did the nazis control sports and leisure

Answer 26

• health and fitness was important to nazi culture, so success in sport was used to promote the nazi regime
• the olympic games were held in berlin in 1936 and the nazis used the opportunity to show the world how splendid nazi germany was
• for a while, anti-semitic posters and newspapers were stopped
• the games were wildly popular and, to hitlers great joy, the german olympic squad came top of the medals table
  -> this, hitler claimed, showed how talented and strong the german race was and how it was superior to the other ‘inferior’ races
• world respected german film-maker Leni Riefenstahl filmed the entire games and pioneered the use of ‘tracking shots’ to follow an athlete’s movements in slow motion
  -> the germans used this as a change to show the brilliance of german technology