Hitler's Economic Policy

Question 1

Economic Situation

Answer 1

1. Unemployment over 6 million in 1932
2. Germany relied heavily on overseas trade for vital raw materials and food supplies.
3. German economy relied heavily on American investment which stopped after the Wall Street Crash
4. Prior to the Wall Street Crash, Hitler predicted economic disaster
5. Some people thought he might be able to solve the financial crisis.
6. Hitler wanted to make Germany self-sufficient (autarky)
7. In the 1933 Election Hitler promised to eliminate unemployment
8. German economy beginning to recover as Hitler gained power.

Question 2

Nazi economic policies

Answer 2

1. On 2nd May, 1933, Adolf Hitler ordered the Sturm Abteilung (SA) to arrest Germany’s trade union leaders. Trade unions replaced by the Nazi Labour Front (DAF).
2. A pay freeze was introduced in 1933 and this was enforced by the Labour Front.
3. Wages were now decided by the Labour Front and compulsory deductions made for income tax, and for its Strength through Joy programme.
4. The Labour Front issued work-books that recorded the worker’s employment record and no one could be employed without one.
5. The government banned the introduction of some labour-saving machinery.
6. Employers had to get government permission before reducing their labour force.

Question 3

Economic Expansion

Answer 3

1. The Nazi government gave work contracts to those companies that relied on manual labour rather than machines – the autobahn (motorway) programme.
2. Investment in military re-armament. Thousands of Germans worked in factories producing weapons.
3. Conscription into the German armed forces reduced the numbers of unemployed.
4. Hitler also encouraged the mass production of radios. Used to reduce unemployment and for Nazi propaganda.
5. Youth unemployment was dealt with by the forming of the Voluntary Labour Service (VLS) and the Voluntary Youth Service (VYS), these planted forests, repaired river banks and helped reclaim wasteland.
6. Women in certain professions such as doctors and civil servants were dismissed, while other married women were given 1000 marks to stay at home.
7. In the summer of 1935 Adolf Hitler announced the introduction of Labour Service (RAD). All men aged between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five had work for the government for six months. Later women were also included in the scheme and worked as teachers and domestic servants etc.

Question 4

Strength through Joy

Answer 4

1. Encourage workers to work as hard as they could for Germany and the Nazis.
2. Offered cheap holidays and a car to win the support.
3. Nazis built sports facilities, paid for theatre visits and financially supported travelling cabaret groups.
4. Although the German worker paid for these benefits through compulsory deductions, the image of people being given holidays and subsidized entertainment was of great propaganda value to the Nazi government.
5. Leisure activities highly organised with a wide range of events and activities made available.

Question 5

Results of Economic policies

Answer 5

1. Unemployment had fallen from 6 million in 1933 to 300,000 by 1939
2. Industrial production in 1939 was above the figure for Weimar Germany before the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
3. By 1939, Germany still imported 33% of its required raw materials
4. Government income had been 10 billion Reichsmarks in 1928. In 1939, it was 15 billion. However, government spending had increased from 12 billion Reichsmarks in 1928 to over 30 billion in 1939.
5. From 1933 to 1939, the Nazi government always spent more than it earned so that by 1939, government debt stood at over 40 billion Resichsmarks.
6. Annual food consumption in 1937 had fallen for a wide range of products compared to 1927 figures.
7. Real earnings in 1938 were all but the same as the 1928 figure. (Real earnings are wages adjusted to allow for inflation).