Topic Two - Nazi Germany [15] Flashcards
How and why were the Nazis able to strengthen their control over Germany between January 1933 and August 1934?
Jan 30th 1933 - Hitler is appointed as chancellor.
Jan 31st 1933 - Hitler Radio Address.
Feb 27th 1933 - Fire at Reichstag.
Feb 28th 1933 - Decree for the protection of people and the State
Feb 28th 1933 - KPD and SPD offices attacked, KPD outlawed.
March 5th 1933 - Reichstag Elections, SA stationed outside polls.
March 1933 - The Nazis with help from the DNVP gain 288 seats.
March 1933 - They then outlaw KPD Officially.
March 23rd 1933 - Enabling law introduced, needs a 2/3 majority.
They won a majority 444 to 94 votes. This law allows Hitler to make Laws without Reichstag and he now doesn’t need Article 48.
April 7th 1933 - Law for restoration of the professional civil service.
This means to reorganise the service some people may be dismissed.
May 2nd 1933 - Trade Union offices were occupied and merged into the Nazi DAF (German Labour Front).
June 22nd 1933 - SPD banned.
The DDP, DVP and DNVP all disbanded themselves voluntarily.
July 5th 1933 - Centre Party disbanded itself.
July 14th 1933 - Law against the formation of parties was enacted.
Between April 1933 and January 1934 - State governments outlawed.
January 1934 - Law for the reconstruction of the State.
January 1934 - Reichstrat Abolished
Jun 30th 1934 - ‘The night of the long knives’
August 2nd 1934 - Hindenburg Dies
Hitler seizes this opportunity and amalgamates/joins Chancellor and President to make the Fuhrer.
August 1934 - The army swear an oath to Adolf Hitler.
Why and how were the Nazis able to bring the people of Germany under their control between 1933 and 1939?
Propaganda is the use of biased or one sided information to persuade a population of a particular viewpoint.
They appointed Joseph Goebbels as their party chief of Propaganda in the 1920s. As soon as they got to power they created a new office for Goebbels as the Minister for Propaganda and Public Enlightenment.
The Nazis had their own newspaper from the early days called Volkischer Beobachter. They added to this Der Angriff (The Attack) and then later they added numerous other titles owned by their supporter Alfred Hugenburg.
By 1939 the Nazi party owned 67% of all Germany’s newspaper titles and this gave them huge influence through the print media.
They also passed various laws which determined who could become a newspaper journalist and the Editor’s Law was passed in 1933.
The Nazis also established the DNB, their own news agency through which all information had to pass for before publication.
Radio - The Nazis produced the ‘People’s Receiver’ which was a radio made available cheaply or for free to Germans which would only receive German stations. By 1939, 70% of German homes had a radio (The highest in Europe) and the Nazi message.
In cinema the Nazis produced many propaganda films which also got the Nazi message to the people. These included ‘Our Flags Lead Us Forward’ (1933) and ‘Triumph of the Will’ (1935).
Censorship was also used to control the information getting to people. One way in which this was illustrated was through public book burnings. The work of prominent Jewish and Socialist authors was burned in Berlin May 10th 1933.
Added to this control of information the Nazis had put in place through the 1930’s their own police state.
The SD were the political police who hunted down opponents of the Nazis whether they were real or imagined. There was also the elite bodyguards to Hitler (The SS) and the DHU (Deaths Head Unit) who had control over the system and network of concentration camps in Germany. They later took control of forced labour camps and finally extermination camps. The final part of the SS was the Waffen SS who became part of the military fighting alongside the regular army.
The SS grew in importance throughout the 1930’s and their leader Heinrich Himmler became a very influential part of the Nazi Regime.
The Gestapo were the Secret Police who like the SD hunted down ‘Enemies of the State’. Once arrested those deemed dangerous enough would be tried in the ‘People’s Court’ (A new judicial system set aside for ‘Enemies of the State’).
The People’s Court and Judicial system was also used to control the people, it was manned by Nazi judges and Nazi lawyers and so more control was handed to the regime.
Those who were found guilty were transported to the concentration camp system where they would be incarcerated.
All of this created a climate of fear and mutual suspicion.
They aimed to control every aspect of life of the German people (Totalitarian).
How and Why did the lives of women and Jews change in Germany between 1933 and 1939?
Anti-Semitism was nothing new in Germany but the Nazis brought it to new extremes and depths.
The Nazis began their Anti-Semitic campaign with a one day boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1st 1933 in retaliation to an American boycott of German goods. It was called off after one day.
Then on April 7th 1933 the Nazis introduced the Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service which banned Jews from certain professions.
Under the influence of Hjalmar Schacht the Nazi campaign of Anti-Semitism was scaled back to prevent harm to the economy in 1934 but it was intensified again in 1935 with the Nuremberg Race Laws.
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour outlawed marriage between Jews and Aryans and tried to identify exactly who was Jewish on racial grounds. The Reich Citizenship Law denied Jews full German Citizenship and outlawed their flying of the National flag also. They were now merely ‘subjects’ and as a result lost the protection of the law.
Again in 1936 there was a lull in the campaign due to the hosting of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
This lull did not last long and by 1938 Anti-Semitism was back in full swing. All Jewish property was registered in April 1938 which would make it easier to confiscate later on.
In November 1938 a young Polish-Jew assassinated a German diplomat, Ernest Von Rath, in Paris.
The retribution against the Jews in Germany was immediate and ruthless. This became known as ‘Kristallnacht’ or ‘The Night of the Broken Glass’.
Thousands of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were attacked and 100 Jews were killed. Over 20,000 Jews were carted off to concentration camps and the Jewish population were forced to clean up and pay for the destruction. Jewish property was later confiscated and sold off for the state. Jews were then excluded form economic life and were also removed from universities and schools.
With the commencement of war in 1939 the Nazis further punished the Jews by initiating a policy of curfew and later Ghettoisation where Jews were forced to live in certain areas of cities.
Women were bombarded with propaganda such as ‘Kinder, Kuche und Kirche’ which summed up the Nazi ideal for women which was ‘Children, Church and Cooking’. There were also other memorable phrases which outlined the Nazi vision for women suggesting they were, ‘Different not inferior’ and described them as ‘The Germ Cell of the Nation’.
The design of this bombardment was to brainwash the female population into seeing their role as the nurturers of the next generation of the Aryan master race. In order to achieve this the Nazis introduced a number of policies including marriage loans between 600 and 1000 Marks.
These loans were available to German couples who had their loan reduced by 250 marks for every child that resulted. This was partially financed by a bachelor tax. This along with other measures such as the ban on contraception and a ban on abortion had the desired effect of increasing the birth rate from 0.97 million per year to 1.41 million per year by 1939.
Some were also encouraged to leave the workforce to enable their maternal work and the Nazis legislated for this with the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service in 1933. Female professionals were removed from their jobs as teachers, lawyers, doctors and judges.
The Nazis also instituted the Mother’s Cross or Honour Cross which was awarded to Germany’s mothers depending on how many children they had borne with a gold award going to mothers of 8 or more children. The awards were made on August 12th annually which was the birthday of Hitler’s mother.
Women were also encouraged not to diet and smoke cigarettes which they believed would be detrimental to child birth. The Nazis also instituted Frauenfront headed by Gertrude Von Klink which organised and co-ordinated the role of Germany’s female population.
Explain how the lives of women and young people changed in Germany between 1933 and 1939.
Women were bombarded with propaganda such as ‘Kinder, Kuche and Kirche’ which summed up the Nazi ideal for women which was Children, Church and Cooking.
There were also other memorable phrases which outlined the Nazi vision for women suggesting they were , ‘Different not Inferior’ and described them as the ‘Germ cell of the nation’.
This was designed to brainwash the female population into seeing their role as the nurturers of the next generation of the Aryan master race.
In order to achieve this the Nazis introduced policies such as Marriage loans between 600 to 1000 marks. These loans were available to German couples who had their loan reduced by 250 marks for every child they bore. This was partially funded by the Bachelor tax.
This along with the ban on contraception and abortion increased the birth rate from 0.97 million to 1.41 million in 1939.
Women were also encouraged to leave the workforce to enable their maternal work and the Nazis legislated for this with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service in 1933 (Which removed women from teaching professions, etc, in the workforce).
The Nazis also instituted the Mother’s Cross or Honour Cross which was awarded to Germany’s mothers depending on how many children they had borne. 4 - Bronze, 6 - Silver, 8 - Gold. The awards were held annually on August 12th (Hitler’s mother’s birthday.
Women were also encouraged not to diet and smoke cigarettes which they believed was detrimental to child birth.
The Nazis also instituted Frauenfront headed by Gertrude Von Klink which organised and co-ordinated the role of Germany’s female population.
Likewise the lives of young people in Nazi Germany were impacted by the Nazi Regime.
This was achieved through the education system and through Nazi youth organisations.
In schools the Nazis made significant and fundamental changes to the school curriculum.
In subjects like history emphasis was placed on the glorious past of the German nation and little attention was paid to defeats and setbacks.
In biology the master race theory was taught which placed he aryan race at the top of the hierarchy of races.
Physical education was given a huge amount of time for boys on the school curriculum and likewise an emphasis was placed on Domestic science for girls where they were indoctrinated into a certain role for the future as wives and mothers. Religious education was downgraded and eventually dropped from the school curriculum altogether in 1937. The Nazis established their own schools also. These were the Adolf Hitler Schools, Napolis and Ordensburgen. In all schools teachers were supposed to be members of the Nazi Teachers Alliance. By 1937 it is estimated that 97% of teachers were members. Outside of the classroom the Nazis wanted to hold the attention of the youth of Germany also and established a variety of youth organisations to cater for this.
The German Young Folk was aimed at boys between 10 and 14 while there was the league of German Girls for females of the same age. For those older young people between 14 and 18 there was the league of German maidens and the Hitler youth.
These organisations provided for the leisure time of the youth and delivered a heavily politicised message to the youth. At first these organisations were encouraged then after 1936 rival youth organisations were banned and finally with the Hitler Youth Law of March 25th 1939 it was made compulsory for all German youth between 10 and 18 to be members of the Nazi youth organisations.
Some of Germany’s youth rebelled against this compulsion and established counter culture organisations like the Eidelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth to illustrate their opposition.
Like every other section of the population the youth were subjected to relentless Nazi propaganda throughout the period.
Why and how did the lives of workers change under the Nazis in Germany between 1933 and 1939?
The Nazis came to power in January 1933 and immediately set about fulfilling the promises they had made to the German people. They had promised, ‘Bread and Work’ which meant they intended to solve the unemployment problem. Unemployment stood at over 6 million in 1933 representing 25.9% of the workforce. The Nazis could not afford to fail in this respect. To achieve this, the Nazis extended the Public Work Schemes which had been started by Brüning.
These were labour intensive schemes which needed huge numbers of men to complete such as the building of the Autobahn, schools and hospital construction and land reclamation schemes.
In order to provide manpower for this the Nazis set up the Reich Labour Service (RAD). Here unemployed men between 18 and 25 were forced to complete 6 months labour on these projects. They received pocket money and board during this time, not a real wage.
The Nazis also introduced the Law to Reduce Unemployment in 1933 which sought to drastically reduce the unemployment figures. In May 2nd 1933 the Trade Unions were shut down and replaced by a Nazi organisation, the German labour front (DAF).
This stripped away the rights of the workers in Nazi Germany.
The Nazis also introduced conscription in 1935 which is compulsory military service and this took a million off the unemployment register between 1935 and 1938.
In the agricultural sector the Nazis introduced the Reich Farm Law and the Reich Food Estate which were designed to keep farmers on the land and also control their production levels. This also impacted on the agricultural sector where strict guidelines on the amounts to be produced were forced upon the agricultural workforce.
During this period government spending rose from 5 billion RM to 30 billion RM per year. The overall effect was that unemployment was reduced from 6 million to 2 hundred thousand and from 25.9% to 7.4%.
After 1936 rearmament along with autarky (self-sufficiency) became the priorities for the German government. Huge amounts were invested by the state into rearmament programmes. Factories were more and more under the control of the Nazi regime and production levels and targets were set by the government.
While this investment led to greater levels of employment there were other effects. The workers lost their right to strike after the DAF was formed. Workers ability to move from job to job was also curtailed by the Nazi regime. They could be moved without request or forced to stay in a certain position - worker’s rights were ignored.
With the increased production also came an inevitable increase in working hours which rose from average of 44 hours per week to 60 hours without any significant increase in wages.
Although wages did not rise the Nazis also were able to control prices and rents which at least helped the average worker. In order to try to keep the workers on side the Nazis bombarded them with propaganda in work and outside.
At work there were Nazi associations in all workplaces and the Nazi propaganda such as the film ‘The Beauty of Work’ was produced in 1934. There was also the Strength through Joy Programme which promoted the idea of a happy workforce by offering benefits for productivity such as theatre trips, holiday cruises or even the prospect of a car which could be bought for as little as 5 marks per week. This was all designed to maintain worker morale while simultaneously boosting productivity. This control of the lives of workers was also partly due to to the fact that the Nazis had struck deals with big businesses on their way to power.
For those who refused to work the Nazis simply in some cases rounded them up and sent them to concentration camps labelling them as ‘work-shy’ and therefore enemies of the state.
So, the lives of workers changed dramatically under the Nazi regime.
