Nazi Germany Flashcards
Initial limits to Hitler’s power
Weimar Constitution controlled the chancellor’s powers
Hindenburg retained the powers of the president
Cabinet of 11 contained only 2 Nazis
Only 1/3 of Reichstag were Nazi party members
Tooze - Hitler extension of war
Extended the boundaries of war to include a wholesale campaign of genocide that stands unrivalled in its intensity, scope and deliberateness
Steber & Gotto - centrality of the VM
Central social concept - it was within it, and via it, that visions of community were expressed, negotiated and put into practice
Steber & Gotto - semantics of ‘volk’
Multi-layered historical semantics - clearly included all members of the race, living and dead, and the future generations
Timeless entity whose qualities were revealed in its individual members
Steer & Gotto - Nazi view of pre-1933 ‘volk’
Had become debased and deprived of its vigour - they were determined to fix this through social engineering
Any belief that private lives would not be affected and distance could be kept from politics was illusory
Steber & Gotto - demand and offer to the individual
Nazi society demanded a lot from the individual, but also had a lot to offer:
A place for individual happiness and success was promised to all those who belonged to the chosen community
Also meant that happiness and success was denied to all those declared unfit to belong
Steber & Gotto - VM pre-war
The priorities of the VM had been the affective integration of its members, and the implementation of racist segregation
Mechanisms of selection based on racial biology put in place
Steber & Gotto - VM post-war
VM utopia was now projected as a valiant ‘community of struggle’ in a transformation of its image the regime had engineered as it prepared for hostilities
While Germans on the home from profited from plundering of occupied areas and Jewish property, ‘solidarity’ was also expected
Final increasingly fragmented ‘community of fate’ at the end of the war
Kershaw - previous interest of social history
Interested in gulf between the Nazi promises and the reality of class divisions
Tim Mason captured failure to win over industrial workers
Fairly clear-cut that Nazism had not been able to transcend class society
Kershaw - post-1980s focus of the scholarship
Holocaust dominates every consideration of Nazism, so that all aspects of the regime are seen through that prism
Kershaw - impact of studies of everyday lives
Have shifted the perspective away from opposition and dissent of the regime towards conformity, even active complicity and willing consent
Regime and society thereby seem more in unison, as research from below has showed myriad supportive actions from below
Kershaw - questionable nature of emphasis on complicity
Before, through expanding the concept of resistance, it had seemed practically all Germans had been opposed to Hitler
Now, practically all seem to have bee complicit with Hitler’s crimes
Kershaw - VM as a vehicle
With its integration of people and exclusion of minorities, the VM is increasingly seen as the conceptual vehicle for the complicit society
This is also added to by the cultural turn, which takes Nazi ideology seriously rather than dismissing it
Willing cooperation and complicity seem in need of a concept to embrace the success of Nazism in winning over much of Germany to a genocidal project - VM now seen as real success story in this way
Kershaw - three key ways of defining the VM
As changed social and power relations
As a term of ‘affective integration’, emphasising it s mobilising force, the vision of a better society
As denoting inclusion and exclusion as defining characteristics of Nazi society, with obvious implications for Nazi racial policies
Kershaw - view of VM success in class integration
First view stresses the attractiveness to members of the working class of the chance for social mobility and status advancement
Kershaw - ways for VM to gain ‘concrete shape’
Strength through Joy, ‘democratisation’ of consumption through state-directed production, greater mobility for women
Kershaw - nature of 2nd approach to the VM
It is the promise rather than any supposed reality of social and political unity that is crucial
It has said it would be a mistake to take the terms of the VM to mean social reality
Kershaw - origin of the political force of the VM
Arose from its ‘promise and the potential for mobilisation, not as a gauge of society’
People thought things were getting better, and that society was egalitarian
Realities were interpreted through the lens of community rather than the lens of class
Kershaw - WW1 for VM
WW1 gave lasting currency to a sense of national solidarity and unity
As the Nazis gained hold over visions of the war, they emphasised the need to recreate the solidarity of the ‘trench community’
Kershaw - crucial nature of the VM
Utopian vision of the VM was crucial to popularity and success until the middle of the war
Image not just hammered home in propaganda, but give meaning through ‘Hot Pot Sundays’ and Winter Aid collections
Kershaw - image as subjective reality
It is possible that image became subjective reality for people, especially with repeated forms of mobilisation and inclusivity symbols like Heil Hitler
Kershaw - VM in understanding dynamism
Concept can go some way towards capturing the intangible, immeasurable but nevertheless real and vital psychological mobilisation that gave Nazism its extraordinary dynamism
Kershaw - VM as a ‘machine of inclusion’
Embraced tens of millions in the ‘machine of inclusion’
For the Jews, they were slowly pushed out of the community and turned into pariahs, regarded as harmful elements by members of the VM, thus dehumanising them
DAF origin
Replaced all TUs, which were disbanded starting with the Free Trade Unions in 1933
As the only union, there was huge pressure on membership
Reich Plant Communities
Concept of Betriebsgemeinschaft under the DAF subordinated further the workers to the plant leader (employer)
Councils of Trust replaced with work councils
Effect of Nazi rule on workers
They were further atomised, allowing private industry to adjust their pay without protection from an effective union body
Piecework increasingly replaced hourly work structures by the mid-1930s
Rearmament creating wage differences
Continued economic aim - meant heavy industry wages went up 10-24% 1933-36 while consumer goods went up by max. 6%, even falling
Meanwhile, cost of living went up 9%
Discrepancies symptomatic of an economy sacrificing minimum standards for political aims
Nazi unemployment reduction
From 1/3 of working age men in 1933 to 74,000 by the summer of 1939
Disadvantage of increased employment
Average standard of living for workers did not go up
Poverty wages were still given out - many people who were employed still relied on the stat e for solvency
Strength Through Joy
Created in 1933 to organise leisure time and activities to make workers more productive overall
Annual ‘efficiency medal’, also chance to take place in luxury pursuits
Strength Through Joy membership
35 million by 1936, 1.7 million of whom took advantage of holidays in 1937
Strength Through Joy holiday aims vs reality
Excursions aimed to bridge the class divide, however they really accentuated them
Clear from 1935 Norway cruise, in which the 10% of working class passengers were put in the lower decks with no money for entertainment or bar
Meanwhile Nazi officials were given the best suites and drank the ship dry
Beauty of Labour
Propaganda-based organisation, main action was a series of campaigns to encourage good working conditions
Slogans like ‘fight against noise’ attempted to persuade employers to raise standards, also inspections
Beauty of Labour example of success
‘Warm Meals at Work’ gained for 18,000 - piecemeal
Jobless claiming welfare
68% of welfare claimants in 1932 were jobless, so job creation was key, also using public work jobs and conscription
Cost of subsidising disadvantaged communities
150 mil in 1931
672 mil in 1932
Projected to cost even more in 1933
Creation of NSV
National Socialist Welfare Organisation endorsed in 1933
Move away from state-funded relief, as the NSV was funded entirely by voluntary donations and dues
Government put burden on the public and concentrated on other things
Growth of NSV through WInterhilfe
12 mil members by 1939, largest relief vehicle was the Winter Relief
Winterhilife was financed by an ‘onslaught of collections’ October-March which differentiated the generous from the miserly with badges
Later there were automatic wage deductions according to ‘voluntary guidelines’
Included one-dish meal programs - expectation of donating food savings
Economic success of winterhilfe
350 mil 1933-34
Over 550 mil 1938-9
Meant extra 40-100 marks given per family per winer (month’s wages)
Sopade reports indicate it was viewed with deep resentment by the working class
Cut of direct welfare funding
Only 16.5 mil by 1936
Incorporation of winterhilfe
Institutionalised as the base for economic planning with Winter Relief Law in 1936
Rather than tackle poverty, the Nazis wished to simply create a perception of improvement, transferring responsibility to the public
NSV effect on other organisations
Banned all other collections in 1934 rather than working with them to provide best services
Women’s group
German Women’s Enterprise founded 1933, of limited influence
Importance of marriage and children
‘most glorious duty’ for women was having children
1933 Marriage Loan Scheme gave 1000 marks - 42% of marriages assisted by 1939
1938 divorce law ensured divorce in case of infertility
Lebensborn programme
For ante and post natal care of unmarried mothers
However, there was always an exploitative undertone, shown in their alternate function as places for procreation with SS troops
Failure of motherhood programme
Loan-assisted marriages on average only yielded one child
Toxic dichotomy of VM
Higher wage deductions than under Weimar (18% rather than 15%) along with a welfare system based on voluntarism
VM effect on minorities
Jews were victimised with legislation including the 1935 Nuremberg Laws
Eventually over 160,000 German Jews were killed in Nazi death camps
