Why did the Nazi regime survive between 1933-45? Flashcards
What are the 4 factors which helped ensure the survival of the Nazi state until 1945
- The establishment of a terror state
- The Nazi propganda machine
- General support for the Nazi regime
- Favourable social, economc & foreign policies
What are the 4 predominant groups support came from
- Wealthy Industrialists
- The Mittelstand
- Agricultural workers
- Nazi Sympathisers
Describe the Nazi Support from Wealthy Industrialists
- Benefitted from the banning the KPD and trade unions
- & expanding the war economy (arms production & chemical industries)
- German stock exchange value increased by 250% between 1932 and 1940
Describe the Nazi Support from the Mittelstand
-Anti-semitism
- The government used the money available from the confiscation of Jewish businesses to offer low interest rate loans, making them more susceptible to anti-Semitic messages
- Law for the Protection of Retail Trade 1933: Banned the opening of new department stores and taxed existing ones, which increased the market for smaller businesses
Describe the Nazi Support from the Mittelstand
-small businesses
- Law for the Protection of Retail Trade 1933:
- Banned the opening of new department stores and taxed existing ones,
- which increased the market for smaller businesses.
Who were the Mittelstand
- The lower-middle class of small businessmen, tradesmen and craftsmen, who were long threatened by industrialisation, a decline in trade and competition from big businesses
Describe the Nazi Support from agricultural workers
-financial gains
- Increased tariffs on food imports –> increased the demand for German food products (autarky)
- Farmers’ income increased by 41%.
- By 1937, wages for famers recovered to their 1929 level.
Describe the Nazi Support from agricultural workers
-benefitting their quality of life
- The Nazi regime idealised peasants and farmers as the embodiment of traditional German values and racial purity.
- The Reich Food Estate (est. in 1933) regulated food production and distribution, as well as food prices and wages.
Describe the Nazi Support from Nazi Sympathisers
- The Nazis were popular with people whose prejudices they shared, welcoming these groups victimised
- German people, resultantly, became informants, ran Hitler Youth groups or acted as officials of the DAF.
What are the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
- Repression 1933-34
- Revival of the Economy
- Unemployment
- Concentration Camps
- Diplomatic success
- Social opportunities & rewards
Successful social, economic and foreign policies contributed to…
the German people’s acceptance/support, or at least tolerance, of the regime
Describe the factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-Repression 1933-34
- Intimidation used extensively 1933-34
- e.g 200,000 supporters of left wing parties were detained
- The Knight of the Long Knives - use of terror and led to the purge of the SA
- First concentration camp for political prisoners, Dachau in 1933 although most prisoners were released in May 1933
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-revival of the economy - standards of living
- Unemployment did fell considerably by 7.4% by 1936
- Standards of living improved for many people across Germany
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-revival of the economy - wages
- Wages rose (by around 1% a year) for industrial workers.
- BUT real wages actually fell
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-revival of the economy - schemes
- e.g Strength through Joy encouraged people to buy volkswaggens
- but not many bought into this scheme
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-Concentration camps - how many were established
- 1933-1945: Established approximately 20,000 camps
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-Concentration camps - how many non-Jewsih people were sent to them
- 1933-1945: over 500,000 non-Jewish people were sent to camps for political crimes.
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-Concentration camps - how many people were sent to them in 1939 to 1945
- Sep 1939: 25,000
- to Jan 1945: 714,211
Simple definition of a concentration camps
- Prisons where opponents of the regime were questioned and subjected to torture, hard labour and re-education in Nazi ideals
- Here, prisoners could be held indefinitely without trial
In terms of diplomatic success, where did support come from
- Germans who saw the Nazis as reversing the losses of the Treaty of Versailles and asserting the power of Germany in Europe
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-diplomatic success - 1935
- Militarisation:
- A peacetime army of 550,000 was introduced
- Germany signed a naval agreement with Britain which allowed Germany to have a navy 35% of the strength of the British fleet.
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-diplomatic success - March 1936
- Hitler ordered his troops to reoccupy the demilitarised Rhineland (ToV and Locarno Pact were overturned) which was German territory.
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-diplomatic success - 1938
- Anschluss: Austria was incorporated into German territory,
- this had been outlawed by the ToV
Describe the main factors contibuting to favourable social, economic & foreign policies
-social opportunities & rewards - mothers
- Mother’s Cross
- 1,000 mark loan on marriage reduced by 250 marks for each child
- greater welfare systems