Social Policies

Question 1

How did Nazis control teachers and curriculum?

Answer 1

Law for Re-establishment of a Professional Civil Service (1933) dismissed Jewish or politically unreliable teachers
Vetting of textbooks undertaken in 1933
Political indoctrination and promoting ‘racial health’
Aim to instill a ‘consciousness of being German’
Stress on race and survival of the fittest

Question 2

How did Nazis control universities?

Answer 2

Downgraded importance of academic education and restricted access to higher education
Women restricted to 10% of uni places, Jews 1.5%
Uni staff dismissed on racial/political grounds
Nov 1933 - Uni staff forces to sign declaration to support Hitler

Question 3

What was the Hitler Youth?

Answer 3

Created in 1926 but unsuccessful
1933 - all other youth groups banned
1939 - membership made compulsory
Political indoctrination and physical activity
Emphasis on competition, heroism, leadership
Swore oath to Fuhrer
Late 1930s - more rigid, enthusiasm waned and reports of poor attendance at parades

Question 4

What was the League of German Girls?

Answer 4

Motto: ‘Be faithful, be pure, be German’
Prepared girls for roles as housewives and mothers
Membership compulsory in 1939
Duty to be healthy as bodies belonged to nation, needed to be fit for child-bearing
Taught cooking, sewing, baby care
Many women developed sense of comradeship and found it liberating to escape constraints of home

Question 5

How successful were Nazis in Youth policies?

Answer 5

Successful in bringing schools/unis under control
Membership of HJ and LoGG had grown
Worried about re-emergence of independent youth cliques

Question 6

What was Nazi policy towards Women?

Answer 6

Main priority to increase birth rate and restrict employment of married women, did by:
Introducing marriage loans for women who left work and married Aryan man
Awarded medals for ‘donating a baby to the Fuhrer’
Birth control discourages, abortion limited

Question 7

What organisations did Nazis promote women’s values through?

Answer 7

German Workers League (1933) - coordinated all women’s groups under Nazi control and had 39 million members by 1939
National Socialist Women’s organisation - propaganda and indoctrination to promote women as housewives
Reich Mother’s Service (1939) - 17 million women attended

Question 8

How successful was Nazi policy to women?

Answer 8

Raised the birth rate with some success
Extent of this debatable as improved economy as encouraged couples
Number of women in workforce due to the pace of rearmament

Question 9

What was the German Labour Front?

Answer 9

Established in May 1933 to coordinate workers into National Socialist regime
Became largest organisation in Third Reich
Membership not compulsory but still grew rapidly and only official organisation representing workers
Aims: win workers over to Volksgemeinschaft and to encourage workers to increase production

Question 10

What was Strength through Joy?

Answer 10

Set up to organise workers’ leisure time, if they were refreshed, they would be more efficient
Aimed to:
Encourage workers to see themselves as part of Volk…
Encourage a spirit of social equity
Encouraged participation in sport as well as competition and ambition
35 million people belong to it by 1936

Question 11

How successful were Nazi policies to Workers?

Answer 11

Reports show workers reactions to Nazi schemes were mixed
Many had previously been influenced by Socialist ideas so were resistant to Nazi ideology

Question 12

What were Nazi policies towards the Church?

Answer 12

Hitler needed to gain control over them and then weaken their influence

Question 13

How did the Nazis handle the Protestant church?

Answer 13

Many were anti-semitic and anti-communist
Main Prot church was German evangelical (conservative and nationalist)
Muller was appointed as Reich bishop and abolished elected bodies within the church
By 1933 Reich church had successfully been ‘coordinated’ into Volksgemeinschaft

Question 14

What was the Confessional church?

Answer 14

Not all Prots were willing to support developments
Pastors’ Emergency League established - evolved into a breakaway church (confessional church)

Question 15

How was the church secession campaign successful?

Answer 15

1939 - 5% of population listed as ‘god believers’ but had renounced formal membership of Christian churches
Party members not allowed to hold office in Prot or Cath churches
Priests forbidden for playing part in Nazi party

Question 16

How did the Nazis handle the Roman Catholic church?

Answer 16

Was a greater obstacle and Caths were least likely to vote for Nazis
Had some similar beliefs: CC regarded communism as greater evil than Nazism and many had anti-semitic views

Question 17

What agreement did the regime and the Vatican achieve?

Answer 17

Vatican promised that CC wouldn’t interfere in politics
Regime promised not to interfere in CC and CC would keep control of its schools/youth organisations

However, 1933, Nazis forced Cath organisations to close
Caths obeyed - belied support of regime was best way to protect itself

Question 18

What did the Nazis do when some Catholics spoke out against the dangers of Naxi religious ideas?

Answer 18

Permission to hold public meetings was restricted
Propaganda campaign against financial corruption in Cath lay organisations
Cath newspapers/magazines were censored

Question 19

What did the Nazis do to increase pressure after the Pope issues an encyclical in 1937?

Answer 19

Gestapo and SS agents were placed inside Cath organisations
Pilgrimages and processions were restricted
Monasteres closed and crucifixes removed
Campaign to close church schools

Question 20

How successful were Nazi policies to the church?

Answer 20

Failed to establish a single, unified Prot church
1939 - power and influence of CC severely weakened
Nazis failed to co-ordinate church into Volk… and organised religion was still a powerful force