Volksgemeinschaft

Question 1

Four major themes that recur in nazi progagnda?

Answer 1

the community before the individual - Volkgemeinschaft

the need for racial purity

a hatred of enemies

charismatic leadership

Question 2

What did this desire for unity draw its strength from?

Answer 2

an idealised past rather than a present

Question 3

Volksgemeinschaft?

Answer 3

a people’s community

Question 4

Burgfrieden?

Answer 4

spirit of august 1914
it seemed the war had created a sense of solidarity in which social class antagonisms were transcended by some entirely fictitious volksgemeinschaft

Question 5

Why was Burgfrieden only superficial?

Answer 5

could not survive a long war

Question 6

Was there a revivial of the spirit of 1914?

Answer 6

no, the superficial harmony of 1914 was a far cry from the volksgemeinschaft invoked by the nazis

Question 7

What schemes did the propaganda focus on?

Answer 7

Nazi welfare services
Strength through Joy
Winter Aid

Question 8

Strength through Joy?

Answer 8

the labour front’s Agency for programmed leisure

Question 9

Give an example of how propaganda eulogised the Volksgemeinschaft?

Answer 9

newsreels showed happy workers enjoying cruise holidays and visiting the people’s theatre for the first time

Question 10

What was the role of the radio in eulogising Volksgemeinschaft?

Answer 10

the radio bombarded the public’s social conscience with charitable appeals

Question 11

What was the role of the press?

Answer 11

stressed the value of belonging to a Volksgemeinschaftand the need for self-sacrifice in the interests of the state

Question 12

Three things that symbolised the achievements of the Volksgemeinschaft?

Answer 12

cheap cinema tickets
cheap radio
cheap volkswagen

Question 13

What was a powerful tool in encouraging people to associate with national community?

Answer 13

the exclusion of non-germans (slavs, jews( hoosexuals, handicapped was a powerful tool because people would feel more inclined to associate with the National Coomunity to avoid prsecution

Question 14

What was membership for the NSDAP in 1933, 39 and 44?

Answer 14

1933 850,000
1939 5300,000
1944 8000,000

Question 15

What was membership of the DAF in 1933, 39 and 44?

Answer 15

5,300,000
22000,000
25000,000

Question 16

What was the membership for the Hitler Youth in 1933, 39 and 44?

Answer 16

2300,000

7700,000

Question 17

Why can the increase in membership for national nazi organisations not be considered as pure evidence for the success of Volskgemeinschaft?

Answer 17

it doesn’t show what the motivations were -

the hitler youth was made compulsory in 1936

Question 18

How many people were compulsorily sterilised in 193345?

Answer 18

350,000

Question 19

Evidence of successful extermination of social deviants?

Answer 19

Jews 200.000/500,000
Gypsies 25,000/30,000
german people killed by the nazi regime

Question 20

Evidence of failure to exterminate social deviants?

Answer 20

Communist 30,000/300,000

killed by Nazi regime

Question 21

What was primary criterion for membership to the national community?

Answer 21

Aryan

Question 22

What is Aryan?

Answer 22

German whose ancestors did not include Jews, Slavs Latinos

allegedly deriving from nordic ancestors

Question 23

How were aryans portrayed?

Answer 23

culturally more developed people

Question 24

What was perceived to be a threat to the Aryan race?

Answer 24

declining birth rate in 1920s made aryans especially vulnerable to its enemies, non-aryans
quality of race threatened by mental/physical disability

Question 25

What were the Nazi norms?

Answer 25

obedience
strong work ethic
sexual restraint
sobriety
readiness to sacrifice selfish desire for common good

Question 26

What was the purpose of the NSDAP from 1933?

Answer 26

Menschenfuhrung

Question 27

Menschenfuhrung?

Answer 27

the winning of individuals’ hearts and minds for Nazism as a guide to living

Question 28

How effective were the NSDAP functionaries in exhorting the population fulfil the responsibilities of the national community?

Answer 28

it was less an opposition to hitler’s regime, more a lack of interest in nazi ideology and engagement with party activities

mass of valuable german were willing to accept the regime and the benefits it inevitably brought them

Question 29

How did the mass of valuable Germans view the NSDAP?

Answer 29

simply as a political party not a movement with clam to total allegiance and engagement

Question 30

to what did the NSDAP functionaries’ capacity for attracting active allegiance and providing spiritual leadership depend?

Answer 30

whether the NSDAP functionaries at a local level acquired offices of state became state officials

Question 31

At what point was the Fuhrer Myth tarnished?

Answer 31

only when the war began to go badly 1942

Question 32

What did the success of the Hitler myth camouflage?

Answer 32

the extent to which many german identified with Hitler and his success

Question 33

the most effective technique method of creating volkgemeinschaft and why?

Answer 33

the only way to make up for the lack of substance in the idea was to produce passive loyalty and this was most reliably secured by mass media that offered entertainment and distraction

Question 34

What is the essence of fascist control of the masses?

Answer 34

compulsory organisation and atomisation

Question 35

What is the aim of organisational monopoly?- applies to converting of the soul section very good overall summing up point

Answer 35

to rob the ordinary man of all independence
to suffocate whatever initiatives he might take to create even the most primitive form of voluntary association
to keep him at a distance from anyone who is like-minded or merely sympathetic
to isolate him and simultaneously bind him to the state