Volksgemeinschaft and Imposing Views Flashcards
What is the German expression meaning ‘People’s Community’?
Volksgemeinschaft
What is the idea of ‘blood and soil’?
Idealistic German image of a peasant working the land.
Why did some working class people feel disenfranchised by the Nazi party?
Many used to be part of a Union, or voted SPD. Now, they lost their bargaining power, the government controlled their pay, and their freedom of movement was limited.
Plus, although it wasn’t compulsory to join the DAF, 22m did. For this, that had to pay towards it.
What were the roles of the DAF>
- Set hours and wages
- Deal with disobedience
- Manage working conditions through Beauty of Labour
- Organise recreational activities through Strength Through Joy
- > sent 10m on holiday, 1938
What happened to wages?
Although there was full employment by 1938, real wages didn’t rise above the 1929 level until 1938
Which workers benefitted.
Workers in armaments - agricultural workers did before the attention turned from Butter to Guns
What happened to working hours?
10 hour working week!
What was the primary reason for the fall in unemployment?
Some groups weren’t included in the data:
-Jews
-Women
More in conscription
RAD did help as well with its workers schemes.
Volksgemeinschaft: peasants methods
- attracted to ‘blood and soil’ ideology
- debts and mortgages written off
- small farmers given low interest rates, tax allowance
- tariffs reduced imports
- Reich Entailed Farm Law 1933: security of tenure, forbade division of farms
- Reich Food Estate: set food production and quotas
Impact of Volksgemeinschaft implementation on peasants.
- farmers wages only increased to 1928 level in 1938
- agricultural production increased by 20%
- more drifted to the town due to the higher wages on offer
- Reich Food Estate’s regulations were resented
Volksgemeinschaft: landowners
- initially suspicious of Nazis due to their radical changes but their rule allowed them to live comfortably
- German victories gave them chances to buy more land
Volksgemeinschaft: Mittelstand (small business owners)
- struggled to compete with big business and decline in commerce from WW1
- voted disproportionately for the Nazis
- money from Jewish businesses were given to them in low interest loans
- 1938 banned new department stores, and placed heavy taxes on existing ones. This was favourable towards Mittelstand.
- Declined, and still couldn’t compete with the lower costs in department stores
- The Nazis ultimately needed to prioritise Big Business - only they could make armaments
Volksgemeinschaft: business
Helped by:
- worked trade
- economic stimuli by Schacht
- abolition of Unions
- > annexation provided opportunities in foreign property
- > annual dividends to 6.6%
Volksgemeinschaft: education
- 1934 education brought under state control: politically unreliable teachers removed; Jewish teachers fired; women encouraged not to work
- 97% of teachers joined the National Socialist Teachers Union
- 15% of the school day was spent on sports
- Religious Education dropped, Biology and History focused on
Volksgemeinschaft: youth groups
- Compulsory membership by 1939
- stress on indoctrination (patriotism!)
- boys engaged in military activity, girls domestically
- many enjoyed the teamwork and activities like sports, camping and music
- gave a sense of belonging
- became overcrowded and overly disciplined: some started to resent it
- Swing Youth took up popular culture
- Edelweiss Pirates formed gangs and skipped. Some even participated in active resistance.
Volksgemeinschaft: German Faith Movement
-Replace Christianity with paganism
-Reject Christian ethics
-Cult focus around Hitler’s personality over religion
July 1933 Concordat with Rome
-Nazis guarantee religious freedom and the Church won’t interfere in politics
Late 1933 Hitler starts to interfere in religious freedom of the Church
What was Hitler’s policy towards Protestants?
-Hoped the Protestant Church would be coordinated through the German Christians
July 1933 Church constitution founded, Nazi Ludwig Muller was Reich Bishop. This alienated Pastors
1934 Niemöller founded the Confessional Church, rejecting Nazism. It had support of 7000 out of 17000 Bishops.
What did the Ministry of Church affairs do?
- Closed Church schools
- Undermined Catholic Youth groups
- Campaigned to discredit the clergy
- > monasteries accused of mispractice
- Confiscated funds
- Removed crucifix from school
- Church property attacked
- Church activity confiscated
What was the opposition from the Church?
- Niemoller said “we should obey God rather than that man” - he was then sent to an internment camp
- Pope Pius XI wrote “With Burning Concern”, in which he criticised the regime
What changed in views of women before the Nazis.
- Population growth decelerated from 2m to 1m births per year
- Employment of women rose by a third
Incentives to stop women working
The 3Ks: Kinder, Küche, Kïrste
-No female deputies in Reichstag
1933-36: married women no longer allowed in medicine, law or the civil service.
universities had a limit of 10% of female students
June 1933 600RM loans given to women who left work
The main employment opportunities for women were in women’s organisations (e.g. National Socialist Womanhood)
Limitations of volksgemeinschaft for women
Conscription and rearmament meant that men alone weren’t enough, so the Nazis had to allow some women to return to work
By 1939, a third of the workforce were female, and the marriage loan scheme was stopped.
After the war, divorce rates grew showing it didn’t last.
Incentives for women to have children?
Marriage loans (1933-37): half a years earnings were given to couples, one quarter converted as a gift to each child.
Family allowances, and with 6 children, you were no longer charged income tax.
Maternity benefits
Anti-abortion and contraception restricted
Later a Lebensborn scheme to impregnate Aryan girls by SS
-> 11,000 children born from this
How were the biologically inferior dealt with, and what were they known as?
Known as Untermenschen, including disabled people.
Supported Eugenics and an Aryan race.
LAW FOR THE PREVENTION OF HEREDITARY DISEASED CHILDREN July 1933 sterilised children with hereditary conditions (e.g. blindness) and those with conditions making them unfit (e.g. epilepsy)
-> 350,000 sterilised
1938 T4: euthanasia to children with hereditary illnesses like Downs Syndrome.
-> 70,000 killed.
It was stopped after criticism from the Church.
