Nazi - Aspects of Life Flashcards
Timeline for Society (Women + Minorities)
1933 - Financial incentive for Women to leave work, Marriage loans introduced, Jewish Shop Boycotts, Jews excluded from the Civil Service, Laws passed for the sterilisation of the disabled.
1934-5 - Nazi Women’s League reaches 1.5 million members (1934). Women barred from proffessional jobs, 10% of uni places were for women, Nuremberg Race Laws.
1936 - Jews excluded from university + businesses, medals introduced for mothers of 4+ children.
- Krystallnacht (Nov), Himmler introduces new policy on the ‘gypsy plague’, relaxation on women workers due to labour shortages
1939 - T4 programme introduced euthanasia for diabled children.
1940 - Gypsy children gassed at Buchenwalk Camp
1941 - Jews forced to wear the star of David.
1942 - Wansee Conference
1943 - Jews transported to death camps
Timeline for Culture
1933 - Reich Chamber of Culture established, Ministry of Enlightenment + Propaganda established, Book burning organised by Goebbels.
1934 - Traditional art promoted (not expressionism), Hitler endorses the Bayreuth Festival of Wagner’s music
1936 - Berlin Olympics
1937 - Exhibitions of degenerate art and great German art.
1938 - Riefanstahl’s film Olympia released, KdF organised opera tickets.
War - Clampdown on all foreign (inc. Jewish) culture, listening to foreign radio made an offence, Nazi Culture was still promoted (eg, Eternal Jew)
Timeline for Youth / Education
1933 - Nazis centralised control over education policy, All youth organisations except catholic ones closed.
1934-5 - Youth camps / rallies were popular, 100,000 attended the Nuremberg Youth Rally (1935), Students forced to join the Nazi German Students’ League
1937 - National Socialist Teacher’s League established with 97% of teachers memebers. Specialist (Napolas) Schools founded, All non-nazi youth organisations closed.
1939 - Church Schools were abolished + Hitler Youth became compulsory.
War - Rise in youth opposition: Edelweiss Pirates + White Rose Group. 16-17 year olds were conscripted. In April 1945, Hitler praises 12 year olds for their defence of Berlin.
Nazi beliefs of Women
Important Racial Role - the next Aryan Generation
Women should fulfil their natural role of nurturing
Key economic role - 80% of domestic shopping
No Political Role
Women should be naturally beautiful - no makeup
Kinder Kirche Kuche
Nazi ideology believed that women should devote their time to the pursuit of these factors
Women + the Church
Nazis believed that Women should be involved with church, despite the Nazi rejection of christianity.
Churches ran charitable events
Church was less damaging than politics
Nazi policy towards motherhood
In 1933, interest free loans of RM600 were offered to married women who left work to raise their child.
Increasing Family Allowance
Families with 6+ children paid no income tax
Maternity benefits were increased
Anti-Abortion laws were strictly enforced
Contraception was restricted
Honour Cross of the German Mother
Nazi propaganda glorified motherhood
Creation of Motherschools
National Socialist Women’s Union (NSF)
Established in 1931
Used to communicate ideals to Women
Leader = Gertrud Scholtz-Klink
From 1936, promoted women working in muntions
Established Mother Schools - 150 schools (1936)
Law for the Encouragement of Marriage
1933
RM 1,000 loan - 1/4 written off after first child
SS + Women
Himmler believed that the SS were the protectors of racial purity in Germany
They must marry ‘racially fit’ women - that had won a Reich Sport Medal
From 1936, SS wives must have completed a course at a Reich Bride School
Lebensborn programme - Selected women for SS officers, Offered pregnancy treatment at SS clinics
Hitler Maiden
As outlined in the 1933 ABC of National Socialism;
- Women should be natural - ie. avoid makeup
- Refused to drink or smoke
- Dress in a traditional German style
- Physically Fit
Prostitiuion in the Nazi Regime
Following the Reichstag Fire Decree, Civil liberties were restricted, leading the moral police to arrest many women suspected of sex work.
Women were forced to do forced labour in order to overcome their sexual deviancy
Salon Kitty - Nazi Brothel, used to gain information from foreign diplomats
Effects of War on Women
Women working on farms increased from 55% (1939) to 67% (1944)
In the second half of the war, women were encouraged to work in factories, incentives such as breast-feeding breaks + creches used.
Women were glorified in Nazi propaganda
Air Wardens / Field Kitchens / Orphan Care
Women were sent to new territory (eg. Poland) in order to ‘germanise’ the territory for German families to live in.
Nazi Policy Towards Teachers
All teachers had to join the National Socialist Teacher’s League.
20% of all teachers were sacked in 1933 - Jewish, Female Head Teachers or wrong political sympathy.
Nazi Academies
Adolf Hitler Schools - Enrolled lower class / working class children, with racially pure ancestry (130 years), who passed physical + academic tests. 11 Boarding Schools which taught Nazi ideolgoy.
National Political Institutes for Education (NAPOLAS) - Established to educate future SS leaders. The SS establisehd 39 Schools with a physical and racial fitness criteria.
Most leading Nazis sent their children to the existing Gymnasia Schools
Teachers were discouraged from lecturing, instead using new engaging methods of teaching.
Nazi Curriculum
Teachers were encouraged to emphasise ‘useful’ subjects such as; Racial Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, German History + Physical Education
Existing textbooks were audited
The Ministry of Education wrote new textbooks - conforming to Nazi ideology.
Existing fiction was edited to support Nazi ideals, eg. Robinson Crusoe.
Youth Organisation Policy
1933 - All protestant youth groups merged with Nazi ones
1936 - All non-Nazi organisations banned
1939 - Nazi organisation membership became compulsory for those who were ‘racially fit’
Hitler Youth
Organised by age groups 6-18
Focus on competition, struggle and leadership.
Loyalty oath to Hitler
8.7 million memebers (1939) / 8.81 mil
Memebership became compulsory from 1939
Helped to defend Berlin in 1945
Gleichschultung
‘Coordination’
Used by the Nazis to describe their process of making Germany more efficient.
Key Features of Nazi Culture
Germans were ‘Kulturtrager’ - culture bearers.
Expressionist degenerate art was banned
Focus on simplicity, rural life, aryan supremacy + nationalism
Strict control + censorship
High-profile prestige projects - Olympics, Nuremberg Rally Ground, proposed ‘Germania’
Exhbition of Degenerate Art
1937
Degenerate Paintings from the Weimar Period were hung askew
They were grafittied
Artists such as George Grosz were insulted
Key Features of Nazi Art
Didactic - imagery / nationalism
Classical influences - Roman / Greek Empires
Sensible / Safe - rather than degenerate Weimar expressionism
Berlin Masterplan
1937
A new grand central square to be constructed in Berlin
Led by Albert Speer
Based off Hitler’s drawings
New Fuhrer Palace
New Military high command
No real progress ever made due to WW2.
Continuity of Weimar Culture
Radical Film making - Fritz Lang + Leni Reifenstahl
Architectural - Bauhaus ideas of efficiency continued
The Nazis continued with Weimar technological developments whilst discarding those deemed threatening to the Nazi ideology.
Effect of War
Many cultural activities were impacted by bombing
The KdF remained active and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra continued to perform. Prescious art was seized from occupied territory. Kolberg was filmed whilst Germany was in retreat.
