The Impact of the Nazi Regime on Life in Germany, Including Cultural Expression, Religion, Workers, Youth, Women, Minorities Including Jews Flashcards
Cultural Expression
Control the artistic output of Germany.
At the beginning of Consolidation, the Nazis began to dismantle the cultural landscape in Germany which was quite progressive. Aspects of this culture were identified as ‘unGerman’ and were removed. To maintain the new norm, the Nazis created the Reich Chamber for Culture (1933) to restrict and control the artistic output of Germany.
Cultural Expression
Reconstructed the face of Art, Music & Theatre.
Movements such as abstract art were abandoned in favour of Nazi Realism with an emphasis on the beauty of the Aryan body and German nature.
Thousands of artworks which went against this aesthetic were destroyed. All Jewish composers and ‘black’ music were banned and listening to German composers such as Wagner were encouraged.
Goebbels identified the potential of using art forms for propaganda and so cultural expression was geared in that direction with films such as ‘Triumph of the Will’ used to promote German nationalism and others such as ‘The Eternal Jew’ used to promote Nazi ideals such as anti-Semitism.
There were also many German writers such as Goethe and Schiller who wrote plays for theatre to create a greater sense of the volk. There was the construction of large outdoor amphitheaters to help make these accessible to the public.
Religion
Concordat
Christianity was offensive to Nazi Socialism
In 1933, the Nazi Party signed a Concordat with the Holy See to guarantee the rights of the Roman Catholic Church.
This was in return for the Church declining to partake in political activity. This meant that the Catholic Centre Party was dissolved.
Hitler was willing to sign such an agreement due to his understanding of the importance of religion to the people of Germany despite his antipathy towards it.
Christianity was offensive to Nazi Socialism which was a religion in and of itself. Therefore, Nazis sought to limit the influence of organized religion by persecuting those who spoke out.
This allowed churches as an institution in Germany to survive, however, it came at the cost of their integrity as they remained silent about Nazi crimes against humanity.
Religion
Increasing Religous restrictions
Despite the signing of the Concordat, the Nazis slowly began to restrict the rights of religious individuals.
Restrictions were placed on schools and Catholic youth groups were overtaken by the Hitler Youth.
Nuns and Priests were being persecuted and religious education was phased out.
The Nazis were more lenient with Protestants who had a history of loyalty to the state than with the Roman Catholics who were an international organization.
Religon
Evangelical Reich Church
Initially, the Nazis supported the Evangelical Reich Church led by Ludwig Mueller who was the Protestant Bishop of the Reich.
However, Nazi infiltration of the Church resulted in Protestant disillusionment.
This caused 6,000 members of the Protestant clergy to form the Confessional Church. The leaders of this church spoke negatively of the Nazis and condemned the false teachings which elevated the importance of the state.
Pastor Niemoller was a notable figure which was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp due to his criticism of the Nazis.
By 1937, the Pope issues a letter accusing the Nazis of violating the terms of the Concordat where he condemned the persecution of Catholic individuals. He called their treatment ‘as illegal as it is inhumane’
Workers/Economy
Autarky, Policy of Wehrwirtschaft & Building an Autobahn.
Hitler needed to improve the economy post WW1 to prepare the country for war and to achieve his ambitious foreign policy goals.
This was in addition to his promise to reduce unemployment. The Nazi economic policy was based on the idea of an autarky, that is, a self-sufficient economy.
The economic policy was called Wehrwirtschaft which means having the economy prepared in peacetime for a war.
This allowed for Germany to recover faster than other countries from the Great Depression through Hitler’s policy of making work.
He did this by using public money to create public work projects such as the Autobahns. These were key infrastructure plans to build a motorway from Hamburg to Basel.
Workers/Economy
National Labour Service, DAF programs & Workplace programs
The regime also expanded the National Labour Service and made labour service compulsory for all young Germans.
- Other work opportunities came from Goering’s 4 year plans.
German workers were forced to join the new trade unions (DAF) which created a sense of a workers community.
DAF programs such as ‘Strength through Joy’ distracted workers and gave them subsidized holidays and entertainment.
‘Beauty of Labour’ programs aimed to improve workplace conditions and the Volkswagen saving scheme allowed workers the opportunity to purchase a Volkswagen (the people’s car).
Ultimately, unemployment was reduced, but wages stayed low and working hours increased.
Youth
Hitler Youth, under the SA, 1922.
Hitler Youth, formed part of the Nazi Party in 1922 under control of SA.
Teach children the racial/social principles with underpinned the Nazi ideology.
1931, Baldur Von Schirach appointed by Hitler as leader of Hitler Youth. Under his leadership, the membership of the Hitler Youth would increase drastically with membership becoming compulsory for boys aged 14-18 in 1936. Parents who did not enrol their children once this change had been made could be fined or imprisoned. Many kids were happy to join as it gave them opportunities for outdoor activities.
The organization placed great emphasis on physical activity and teaching toughness, self-discipline, loyalty and obedience to superiors.
The boys were being politically programmed to obey and mindlessly follow as their training was based in a military style. Many of the youth found a great sense of community in the program as they developed a tremendous sense of positivity and group work.
Healthy bodies and lifestyles were encouraged as well as a sense of order and discipline to achieve a well-functioning society.
The youth were always present at major political rallies such as the 1935 Nuremberg Rally where 54,000 youth were transported from all over the country to parade.
By 1939, membership reached a staggering 7.2 million.
Some young people resisted and formed gangs to try and undermine the Hitler Youth, one notable example being the Edelweiss Pirates.
Youth
League of German Maidens & reforming education.
For young girls aged 14-18, there was the League of German Maidens.
The girls were expected to devote themselves to physical fitness to prepare for their future roles as mothers and wives. By 1935, there were 1.5 million girls active in the League.
When they turned 18, girls could join the Faith and Beauty Organization where they received lessons on motherhood and domestic skills. They were conditioned to accept their positions in society in preparation for marriage.
Another aspect of controlling the youth was reforming the education system.
This gave the Nazis the ability to manipulate the formative years of the German youth. Bernhard Rust the Reich Minister of Science, Education and Culture centralized control of all schools and universities.
Physical education and history were considered the most important. In 1933, guidelines had been made to ensure that the history taught in schools emphasized on the heroism of the German people.
Meanwhile, secondary subjects were being taught with a Nazi spin, for example, biology became focused on issues of race. These goals for education were reached by purging teachers who were in opposition.
After high school, there were two new types of schools to attend. The first was the Napolas School for top performing athletes.
This was usually a fast track into the SS and was run by former SS members.
The second type was an Adolf Hitler Schule where the curriculum was based on racial studies and politics.
Women
‘Traditional women’
Hitler had very specific ideas about how women fit into the Volksgemeinschaft.
The ideal women would recognize that ‘the world is her husband, her family, her children and her home’.
That is, the Nazis touted the very traditional view that women should be seen and not heard and that their main role was as the bearer of children and the homemaker.
Ideal women such as Magda Goebbels highlighted this to society. These ideas were accepted by women in society as they were viewed as a return to traditional German values of matrimony and motherhood.
Women
Stay home and have children
The Nazi Party tried to encourage women to stay home and have children as the birth rate was falling.
Laws were introduced to ensure this such as banning women from the civil service and other workplace environments.
Women were only allowed back into the workforce in 1938 due to the shortage of wartime. Other methods used to encourage women to fill these roles included the offering of financial and social incentives through mothering day and the Mutterkreuz program.
Women were offered tax cuts if they had larger families or if they had to stay home and look after their children.
Propaganda was also used with slogans such as ‘Children, Church, Kitchen’ These incentives were successful in raising the birth rate from 15% in 1933 to over 20% in 1936.
Minorities - Jews.
Nuremberg Laws of 1935 & AntiSemitism.
In the early 1930s, there were approximately 500,000 Jews in Germany which equated to less than 1% of the population.
Yet, between 1933 and 1939, the Nazis introduced more than 400 pieces of anti-Jewish legislation, for example, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.
AntiSemitism was encouraged in society as the Nazi Party was unashamedly racist. There was a strong commitment to removing the Jews from Germany by first making their lives unbearable and later by transporting them to death camps where they were murdered.
Jews were forced to identify themselves with the wearing of yellow armbands.
Germans were encouraged not to support Jewish businesses or employ Jewish workers and Jewish children were sent to workers and Jewis enlaren were ZI-propaganda separate schools.
Minorities - Jews
Exclusions and propaganda.
They were also excluded from the arts with books, plays, art and more created by Jewish people being destroyed and banned.
This was backed up by Nazi propaganda of films, posters, newspapers and more which depicted Jews as subhuman.
They were ugly creatures obsessed with sex and money who were the natural enemy of the pure German race.
Jews were first encouraged to leave Germany and later they were openly encouraged to depart and leave behind all of their belongings
Gypsies / Romani
The Romani people had been persecuted in Europe for centuries prior, however, the Nazis became very brutal in their methods.
Nazi propaganda depicted Romani as criminals who undermined the purity of the German race and were not worthy of integrating with the Volk.
Hitler feared intermarriage and so they were virtually eradicated.
In December 1940, Himmler’s Auschwitz Decree ordered that members of the Romani from 11 different countries be sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
An estimated 219,000 Romani were murdered in total including the 15-20
