Nazi Germany, 1933-39 Flashcards
The Police State
Totalitarianism!
- People’s Court sentenced political opponents to death
- 1936, Gestapo and SS brought together under Himmler, whose belief of racial and moral purity meant he dismissed 60,000 SS members between 1933-35
- Gestapo, 1942: 30,000 members, state security and encouraged informants
- concentration camps for those suspected of opposition: over 200,000
Propaganda
Messages: by Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment, 1933):
-Make and Female roles, importance of family
- citizen duty to suffer for nation
- Evil of Communism and Jews, Supremacy of Nazis and Aryan Race
Newspapers, Radios (by 1939, 70% of German population had them), Loudspeakers in factories, Public parades and rallied on holidays, Posters, Entertainment and Art, 1936 Olympic Games to show strength
Censorship
- Newspapers controlled or shut down: editors, owners, journalists part if Reich Press Chamber
- Radio Programmes under Reich Radio Company in 1934
- List of unacceptable literature by Ministry of Propaganda, Gestapo seized and burnt books
- all writes, actors, musicians had to join Reich Chamber of Commerce, some art forms and music like jazz and modern art banned
Young People
In Schools:
- Race Studies, Lebensraum, Aryan Supremacy, Nazi rule
- Focus on PE
- Military Problems for boys and Domestic Studies for Women
Youth Groups:
- founded 1926, 1933 all other groups banned, 1936 Hitler Youth Law
- by 1939, 8 million young people members
- to teach Nazi beliefs, time away from bad influences at home
Women in Nazi Germany
Before:
- 10% of Reichstag, professional careers, all women over 20 had the vote, birth rate falling
After:
- contraception and abortion were banned - medals for large families
- smoking and drinking and slimming up discouraged
- wasn’t until 1939 that no. Women working went up 50% of 1933
- 1933, law for encouragement of marriage provided loans for young couples married if woman gave up work
The Catholic Church
- Hitler wanted to be seen as the supreme head of state so was keen to weaken power and authority of Pope and Catholic Church
- 193s, concordat signed: Church would not get involved in political, Nazis allow Catholic worshipping
- crosses were taken down catholic newspapers senses, propaganda hinted at financial corruption in church
- pope spoke out in 1937, so Catholic youth group banned, state funding cut, spying on church organisations, church schools closed, Catholic priests arrested
The Protestant Church
- many supporters, nationalists, German Christians were SA of the church
- 1933, Reich church formed, 18 pastors lost their job
- confessional church in 1934, 5000 members, leader Bonhoeffer hung 1945
- 1939 only 5% of Germans described themselves as god-believers
Nazi Racial Polices
- Untermenschen: non- Aryans
- 1933 sterilisation law - 700,000
- 1935, intermarriage laws
- 1936 tramps, juvenile delinquents & homosexuals to concentration camps
- 1938 gypsies to concentration camps (even though only 30,000 gypsies in Germany), decree for the ‘struggle against the gypsy plague’
- 1939 started gassing the mentally disordered, until 1941 because of unpopularity but 70,000 killed
Jewish Persecution
- April 1933, nationwide Jewish boycott
- 1935, banned from public places and army
- September 1935, Nuremberg Laws: reich law for the protection of German blood and honour (marriage) & reich law on citizenship (voting + passport)
- 1938, possessions registered, carried identity cards, Jewish professionals only took Jewish customers
- January 1939, reich office for Jewish emigration- 2/3 left, leaving 160,000 when it was banned in 1941
The Night of Broken Glass
- November 1938, German official in Paris embassy murdered by Jew
- 9-10 November, KRISTALLNACHT
- 800 shops owned
- 191 synagogues vandalised, as well as homes and properties
- 91 Jews killed, 30,000 arrested
- When most of this property turned doit to be German owned, Jewish community was fined 1 billion reichsmark
Economic Plans
- Dr Hjalmae Schact’s ‘New Plan’: reduce imports and reduce unemployment through trade agreements and creating work
- 1936, Goering’s ‘Four Year Plan’: Germany self-sufficient in oil, rubber and steel - instead autarky + propaganda to get Germans to buy German products
- led to lost of rationing and food shortages, in 1939, Germany imported 1/3 raw materials
- 1939, government debt of 40 billion marks, more importing than exporting, more work but less food consumption between 1937-39
Unemployment Figures
- doubled spending on public works (such as Olympic stadium)
- spending on arms from 2 million reichsmark in 1933 to 17 million in 1937
- 1933 - 6 million unemployed, 1939 - 0.5 million
- 1938 = 900,000 men in army
- paid private companies to create jobs such as Volkswagen
However: - women sacked, only to be encouraged to work again, but less in 1939 than 1929
- Jews were sacked and replaced with Aryans, and women weren’t counted on figures
- 1 mill temporary workers were counted as full
- wages increased but so did hours per week by 10% , cost of living rose so pay bought less
- 1935,national labour service (RAD) forced unemployed men to do Manuel work for 6 months which counted them as employed (built autobahns)
Workers schemes
- German labour front (DAF) created to ensure efficiency of industry - they wanted more work without more pay, so instead set up…
- Strength Through Joy (KDF) run activities for workers in leisure time, with rewards for good workers, such as holidays, theatre and sport tickets
- Beauty of Labour (SDA) improved work conditions - canteen hot meals, sport and leisure facilities, but the costs of these were often taken from workers wages
