Nazi Germany- Domestic Policies 1933-39 Flashcards
What were the Nazi views on women and the family?
What were their slogan
- Traditional views on a woman- homemakers and child bearers and not go out for work.
- Kinder, Kirche, Kuche
- they wanted to increase the birth rate and strengthen the Third Reich.
- Women had a central role in producing the genetically pure Aryan race, ensuring the future of a strong Nazi state.
What were Nazi policies towards women? 3
1) Employment- women were encouraged to give up their jobs, get married and have large families and professions such as women doctors, civil servants and teachers were forced to leave their proffesions. Girls were discouraged from higher education and gaining the qualifications needed for professional careers.
2) Marriage and Family- 1933, the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage provided loans to help young couples marry, as long as the wife left her job.
- Medals were awarded to women with large families.
3) Appearance: the ideal Nazi woman was blonde, blue-eyed and had broad hips for childbearing- she wore traditional clothes and did not smoke or drinking
What were the successes(4) and failures (3) of Nazi policies towards women?
Successes:
- the number of married women in employment fell.
- the number of marriages and birth rate increased.
- 1936, there were over 30% more births than there had been in 1933 as there was a recorded 1 million births in 1933.
- young women, esp newly married, could attend mothercraft and homecraft classes as organised by the German Worker’s Enterprise- it had 6 million members.
Failures
- the number of women in employment increased from 4.85 million in 1933 to 7.14 mill in 1939 due to the labour shortage and more workers need ed in the industry for rearmament- it became compulsory from 1937 for women to do ‘duty year’
- women employees were more cheaper as women’s wages were 2/3 of a man
- some women resented the loss of more professional jobs such as doctors, lawyers and schoolteachers.
Nazi aims and policies towards the young?
Boys were brought up to be future soldiers. Girls were brought up to be future mothers.
How did the Nazi control the youth through education?(6)
- Textbooks were rewritten to fit the Nazi view of history and racial purity and had to be approved by the Ministry of Education-> Mein Kampf became a standard text.
- History: rewritte, glorified Germany’s past and Nazi party.
- PE: took 15% of the curriculum time to ensure girls were fit to be mothers and boys were prepared for military service.
- Eugenics: selective breeding, more esp, the creation of a master race and should not marry inferior races, such as Jews.
- Race studies: superiority of the Aryan race.
- Geogra: pupils were taught about lands which were once part of Germany and the need for more living space(Lebensraum) for Germans.
How did the Nazis control the leisure time for the Young?
What did membership become?
- Hitler Youth for boys aged 14-18
- League of German Maidens- 14-18.
1936, membership became compulsory.
-For boys, the focus was on military training, sport, hiking and camping and the girls were kept separate from the boys and the main emphasis was on physical fitness and preparing them for motherhood through domestic skills- taught how to make beds and cook.
Successes and failures of Nazi policies for the young?
- Membership of Hitler Youth expanded from 5.4 mil in 1936 to 7 mill in 1939.
- Many young people enjoyed the exciting and interesting activities such as camping.
- Others felt a great sense of comradeship and belonging to something that seemed powerful.
Failures:
- at least 3 million youngsters did not join Hitler Youth at the end of 1938
- some people found the activities boring, especially military drilling,
What were some Nazi policies to reduce unemployment? (4)
1) Job creation schemes:
- by 1933, 18.4 billion marks were spent on job creation schemes and 37.1 mil in 1939
- one scheme created autobahmns which improved the efficiency of Germany industry by allowing goods to cross the country more quickly and enabled the swift transportation of German troops.
2) Reich Labour Service
- provided young men with manual labour jobs
- 1935, it became compulsory for men aged 18-25 sto serve for six months- lived in camps, low pay and carried out military drill.
3) Invisible unemployment: unemployed people who were not counted in official unemployment figures.
- Jews were dismissed from their jobs, women doctors, civil servants and teachers dismissed.
- women had given up work to get married.
- unmarried men under 25 were pushed into RAD scheme
- opponents of regime were held in cc.
4) Rearmament:
-provided lots of jobs
-more money was spent on manufacturing weapons- 1939, 26 mil marks were spent.
-Building tanks, ships and aircraft.
By 1939 were 1.4m soldiers the army (under the T of V only 100,000).
What were some changes in standard of living? Adv 3 and disadv? 3
1)Average weekly wages increased by 30%, but Workers lost rights and worked longer hours (43h -> 47h)
2) Strength Through Joy (KdF): Arranged leisure time activities, eg concerts, theatre visits, museum tours, holidays, cruises. Low cost. Only Nazi-approved activities.
In 1938 over 10m people took KdF holidays.
3)Beauty of Labour- Improved workplace conditions, eg factory canteens and sports facilities. But people had to contribute by working in their spare time.
Disadv:
1) lack of freedom- The Labour Front (DAF)- Trade Unions were banned and strikes illegal.
DAF claimed to improve workers’ rights but it was a Nazi tool of control and it did not permit for workers to negotiate for better pay or reduced hours of work.
2) Volkswagen swindle- idea to encourage people to put money aside every week to buy a Volkswagen was a con trip as by 1939, not a single customer had taken a delivery of car and none of the money was refunded.
3) Invisible unemployment.
What were the Nazi racial beliefs and policies? (2)
- Nazis wanted to create a pure German race: They believed that the Aryan race and they (thought they could do this through selective breeding ) was superior and that the Jews were inferior.
- Hitler wanted to conquer Lebensraum (living space) in the East for the German population.
What were the:
- Treatment Slavs and ‘gypsies’, (3)
- treatment of homosexuals(2)
- Treatment of those with disabilities.(2)
1) Gypsies &; Slaves:
-Nazi wanted to remove 30,000 Gypsies because they were non-Aryan and threatened racial purity.
-Slavs were to be slave labour for the German people.
Gypsies were separated from the wider population in concentration camps.
2) Homosexuals:
- Homosexuality was illegal and would threaten the importance of family life.
- Gay men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
3) Dsabilities
- 1933, Sterelisation Law- People with disabilities were sterilised or had physical defects such as having a metal illness.
- They were sent to “asylums” where they were gassed and cremated.
What was the persecution of the Jews? Describe some of the early policies? (5)
- gradually increased in the years 1933-39.
- Increasing numbers of laws were passed against the Jews to separate them from wider society and to make life difficult for them.
- In 1933 the SA organised a boycott of Jewish businesses. Big letter “J”s were painted on Jewish businesses. The boycott was not very popular.
- Jews were excluded from gov jobs.
- Local councils banned JEws fro public spaces such as Park.
What were the Nuremberg Laws?
- 1935.
- Jews could no longer be German citizens.
- Jews were defined as anyone who had 1 or more Jewish grandparent.
- Law for the Protection of German Blood and Hnour forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Germany Citizens/
When was Kristallnacht? (4)
- 1938- Goebbels organised anti-Jewish demonstrations which involved attacks on Jewish property, shops, homes and snagogues.
- so many windows were sased that it became knock s the Night of the Broken Glass or Kristallancht.
- A Polish Jew shot a German diplomat. This was used as an excuse to attack Jewish businesses
- Approx 100 Jews were killed. 20,000 sent to concentration camps.
- jews had to pay 1 billion marks for the repair for damage done to their belongings.
- 276 syn dest
