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Nazi Germany and its People 1933-1939

1933 – Hitler’s vision for Germany

  • Germans voted for the Nazis because they thought they would bring economic recovery and a strong, stable government
  • Most voters payed little attention to the Nazi Party’s other plans, or they decided that it would be worth the good that the Nazis would bring
  • Racial Purity
    • Aryan people would get the best jobs and be encouraged to have many children
    • All non-Aryan people would have no place in Germany, and be sent away or killed
    • Others, such as homosexuals, the mentally ill and the physically disabled would be imprisoned or killed
  • Loyalty
    • Hitler would be the key figure in Germany, the armed forces, government, and organisations
    • All German people would be loyal to him
    • Propaganda would win Germans over to Nazi way of thinking
    • Terror would deal with anybody who opposed the regime
  • Economic Strength
    • The Nazis would get the unemployed back to work and help Germany recover from the Depression
    • Hitler would build up Germany’s industries ready for war
  • Greater Germany
    • There would be a giant empire in Eastern Europe where pure Aryan Germans would live, known as Lebensraum
    • Germany would win back the land lost by the Treaty of Versailles
  • Military Strength
    • The Nazis would destroy the USSR and all who believed in communism
    • The German people would be mentally prepared for war, which would make the country strong
    • The armed forces would be built up
  • All Germans would put the needs of the state above everything else

1933-39 – The Nazi Police State

  • The Nazis wanted a totalitarian state
  • Ordinary citizens were forced to divert all energies towards supporting Hitler
  • A range of powerful organisations led by the Nazis were designed to control the public
  • The SS was formed in 1925 from fanatics loyal to Hitler
    • After virtually destroying the SA in 1934, the SS grew into a huge organisation with many responsibilities, the SS was 240 000 strong by 1939 and 1 000m000 by 1944, it was led by Heinrich Himmler
    • All members were Aryans and their primary responsibility was destroying opposition and carrying out racial policies
    • There were three particularly important sub-divisions
      • SD – internal security service
      • Death’s Head units – responsible for concentration camps, transportation and murder of Jews
      • Waffen-SS – special armoured regiments that fought alongside the army
    • As its power grew, they set up their own courts and the SD became like the Gestapo
  • The Gestapo were the secret state police, led by Reinhard Heydrich
    • They could essentially do what they wanted without question from authorities
    • They had a network of informers
    • They were the most feared organisation by the citizens, although they were not actually as powerful as the public believed
  • The police and the courts were key elements of the Nazi terror state
    • Himmler put his best men at the top of the German police force
    • The Nazis sacked judges and magistrates that they viewed disloyal and appointed ones who believed in Nazi policies in their places
  • Concentration camps were the ultimate sanction, set up almost as soon as Hitler came to power
    • Food was limited, and prisoners suffered extreme abuse and random executions
    • Jews, socialists, communists, trade unionists, churchmen and anyone else who criticised Nazis or their policies were brought here
    • They were not built with the purpose of killing people, as some later camps were, the aim of concentration camps was to ‘correct’ opponents of the regime

1933-39 – Propaganda, Culture and Mass Media

  • Hitler was a strong believer in the power of propaganda, and he appointed Dr Joseph Goebbels as the minister for ‘enlightenment and propaganda’
  • Goebbels used every available resource for 12 years of Nazi rule to make people loyal to Hitler and the Nazis
  • He organised huge rallies, marches, torch-lit processions and meetings with bands, flying displays and Hitler’s brilliant speeches
    • Most famous is the Nuremburg Rally which took place each summer
  • In contrast to the free expression of Weimar Germany, the Nazis strictly controlled all media and all aspects of culture through radio, books, newspapers, films, posters, art and music
    • Goebbels was a fan of utilising new technology and he made radios cheap and readily available for all
      • He controlled all radio stations and listening to others could be punishable by death
      • He placed speakers on streets all over the country for the benefit of those who did not own a radio
      • Speeches from high-ranking Nazis were repeated until the ideas expressed were believed by the people
    • No books could be published without Goebbels’ permission
      • He organised a high-profile book-burning in 1933 where students burnt books containing ideas unacceptable to the Nazis
    • Goebbels controlled all news, even the journalists and editors
      • Newspapers became monotonous and repetitive, so sales dropped
    • Many people went to the cinema as a leisure activity several times a week
      • Goebbels ordered that each film shown had to carry a pro-Nazi message
      •  He censored all foreign films coming into Germany
    • Goebbels plastered posters everywhere proclaiming the greatness of Hitler and the Nazis and attacking their opponents
    • Only Nazi-approved artists could produce art
      • The pieces generally depicted Aryans in the military or with family
    • Goebbels banned Jazz music claiming it was ‘Black’ music and the blacks were considered an inferior race
  • Many Nazis opposed the idea of the 1936 Olympics being held in Berlin, but Goebbels convinced Hitler that it was a great propaganda opportunity
  • They thought the Games could be a showcase for their doctrine that the Aryan race was superior to all others
    • The USA threatened to boycott the Games because of the Nazi’s anti-Semitic policies, so the Nazis included one Jew on their team
  • Goebbels built a huge stadium with all the latest modern technology
  • To the Nazi’s dismay, black athlete Jesse Owens became a star of the Games and the ten black members of the American team won 13 medals between them
  • The Germans perceived the Games as a showcase of the Nazi’s efficiency and control however foreigners recognised the blatant propaganda which backfired on the Nazi regime

1933-39 – Social Policies on Women

  • Women were believed by Hitler, to have to be there for the husband, run the household and have children
  • Many women agreed and felt that employed women were forcing men out of jobs
  • Hitler was alarmed by the falling birth-rate and he put pressure on women and used his immense powers of persuasion to be true German women
    • He offered financial incentives for married couples to have at least four children
      • They were awarded a ‘Golden Cross’ for having eight children and were given a privileged seat at Nazi meetings
    • Propaganda celebrated ideals of motherhood and homebuilding
    • The German Maidens’ League and schools reinforced these ideals
  • All the arrangements increased the birth rate from 15/1000 in 1923 to 20/1000 in 1939
    • Birth-rates outside wedlock also increased
  • Very few women had a high-profile job and their opportunities were limited, many women resented the restriction on their freedom
    • However, there were prominent women in Nazi Germany such Leni Riefenstahl – a high-profile film producer and Gertrude Scholz-Klink – Head of the Nazi Women’s Bureau
    • Some working-class girls and women gained the chance to travel and meet new people through the Nazi women’s organisation
  • In the late 1930s, the Nazis changed their minds about women, as they needed more female workers as the men were conscripted, leaving vacancies

1933-39 – Social Policies on Youth

  • One of the Nazi’s key aims was to create a Volksgemeinschaft – national community for Aryan Germans loyal to the Fuhrer and the state, putting the needs of Nazis before any personal needs
  • The Nazis adapted every aspect of the school curriculum to indoctrinate children
    • History was a way of demonstrating to pupils that Germans had been unfairly treated and tormented by inferior races and countries
    • Biology was to teach the Aryan pupils that they were special and highly superior in all ways to the Untermenschen (sub-humans)
    • Maths questions were full of the Nazi’s racial policies, asking how much each inferior race cost to the state
    • Additionally, teaching is said to have revolved around the warfare, its production and cost
    • Children were taught to be true Germans and were forced to study the language and the ideology daily as well as all the other subjects geared towards Nazi’s policies
  • Hitler instigated the Hitler Youth for boys and the League of German Maidens for girls, they were very physically fit children who marched in the parades
    • Boys were essentially trained as young soldiers and girls were trained to be house-wives as well as loyal Nazis
  • Children struggled during this period with mixed messages from school, youth programmes and the family; ideas conflicted, and parents’ views were thought by children to be terrible
  • Not all children were loyal to Hitler’s youth programmes, however in 1939, the Hitler Youth became compulsory
  • Some youth resented the Nazi regime and their control so, they formed movements
    • The Swing Movement – members of this group showed their discontent by listening to forbidden music and hanging around bars and nightclubs; the Nazis shut down their bars and even arrested a few members
    • The Edelweiss Pirates – this was the name given to many small groups of young people all over the country, they showed their resentment by wearing the edelweiss flower as a symbol, and some even were violent towards Hitler Youth

1933-39 – Social Policies on Workers, Farmers and Businesses

  • Hitler promised and delivered lower unemployment, which ensured popularity among industrial workers
    • They were important to the Nazis to create industries that would help make Germany great and establish a new German empire in Eastern Europe
  • He won the loyalty of industrial workers through a variety of initiatives
    • Propaganda praised the workers and tried to associate them with Hitler
    • Schemes such as Strength Through Joy (KDF) gave them cheap theatre and cinema tickets, organised courses, trips and sports events, and even cut-price cruises on luxury liners
      • By 1929, over 2 million Germans had been on one of KDF’s holidays
    • Many thousands of workers saved five marks a week in the state scheme to buy the Volkswagen Beetle, the ‘people’s car’
      • It was designed by Ferdinand Porsche and became a symbol of the prosperous new Germany, even though no workers ever received a car because all car production was halted by the war in 1939
    • The Beauty of Labour movement improved working conditions in factories
      • It introduced washing facilities and canteens in workplaces
  • The price of these advances was that workers lost their main political party, the SDP; they lost their trade unions and for many workers this remained a source of bitter resentment
  • All workers had to join the DAF (General Labour Front) run by Dr Robert Ley
    • This organisation kept strict control of workers, they could not strike for better pay and conditions
    • In some areas, they prevented moving to better-paid jobs
    • Wages remained comparatively low, although prices were also strictly controlled
  • By the late 1930s, workers felt that their standards of living were still lower than they were before the depression
  • The farmers had been an important part in the Nazis’ rise to power
  • In September 1933, Hitler introduced the Reich Food Estate under Richard Darre
    • This set up central boards to buy produce from the farmers and distribute it
    • It gave the peasant farmers a guaranteed market for their goods at guaranteed prices
  • Hitler introduced the Reich Entailed Farm Law, giving peasants state protection for their farms
    • Banks could not seize their land if people couldn’t pay back their loans or mortgages
    • Part of the Nazi philosophy was ‘Blood and Soil’ – the belief that peasant farmers were the basis of Germany’s master race, this was greatly appreciated by farmers as their way of life was protected
  • However, similar to industrial workers, some peasants did not enjoy the Nazis’ programmes
    • The Reich Food Estate meant that efficient farmers were held back by having to work through the same processes as less-efficient farmers
    • Because of the Reich Entailed Farm Law, banks were unwilling to lend money out to farmers
    • It also meant that only the eldest child inherited the farm
      • Many children of farmers left the land to work for better pay in industries
    • Rural depopulation was about 3% per year in the 1930s – the exact opposite of the Nazis’ aims
  • The record of the Nazis with the middle classes was also mixed; many were grateful to the Nazis for eliminating the communist threat to businesses and properties but for the owners of small businesses it was mixed
    • An engineering firm would’ve done well from government orders as rearmament spending grew
    • A producer of luxury goods or non-essentials would struggle
    • Despite Hitler’s promises, the large department stores that were taking business away from the shops were not closed
  • Big businesses benefited greatly from the Nazi rule as they no longer had to worry about trade unions and strikes
    • IG Farben, a chemical giant, signed huge government contracts to make explosives, fertilisers and artificial oil
    • Mercedes and Volkswagen prospered from Nazi policies
    • As the business flourished, so did the managers; they got richer and were very happy with the regime

1933-39 – Economic Recovery and Rearmament

  • Hitler and the Nazis came to power because they promised to use radical methods to solve the country’s two main problems – unemployment and a farming crisis
    • This was why the unemployed, farmers and businesses had voted for them
  • At first many Germans felt that it was worth giving up their political freedom for work and benefits
  • An economist organised Germany’s finances to fund a huge programme of work creation
    • The National Labour Service sent men on public works projects and conservation programmes, in particular to build a network of motorways
    • Railways were extended and built from scratch
    • There were major house-building programmes and grand new public building projects such as the Reich Chancellery in Berlin
  • Other measures were brought about, increasing prosperity
    • One of Hitler’s most cherished plans was rearmament, in 1935, he reintroduced conscription for the German army
    • In 1936, he announced a Four-Year Plan, under Goering’s control, to get the German economy ready for war
  • Conscription reduced unemployment and the need for weapons, equipment and uniforms created jobs in the coal mines, steel and textile mills
    • Engineers and designers gained new opportunities, particularly when Hitler decreed Germany would have a world-class air force (the Luftwaffe)
    • As well as bringing economic recovery, these measures boosted Hitler’s popularity because they boosted national pride
    • Germans began feeling that their country was finally emerging from the humiliation of WWI and the Treaty, putting itself on an equal footing with other powers

1933-39 – The Lack of Opposition

  • It is astonishing how little opposition there was to the Nazi regime; people disliked it but very few actively spoke out, why is this so?
  • Those who would’ve spoken were immediately imprisoned or killed when the Nazis took power
    • The result was that the Nazi takeover ‘decapitated’ the opposition movements, while communists and socialists still existed, they were disbanded groups without leaders
  • The Nazis pursued a policy of Gleichschaltung – they quickly and effectively took over existing organisations, even at the local level
    • This policy spread to the workplace, people who didn’t join and support the Nazi party were unlikely to get a promotion or win any governmental contracts
    • Even the churches took part and many Protestants denominations agreed to integrate with the Reich Church
      • Many individual churchmen criticised the Nazis publicly, but they did so acting on behalf of only themselves; not on behalf of their churches
    • The result was that people realised they had to be or pretend to be Nazis to get anywhere and the only other option was to leave
      • 300 000 potential opponents left the country between 1933-39
  • There were two levels of fear – personal and general
    • Personal fear was of the SS, Gestapo and informers; however, people believed that there were many more informers than there really were, and they were fed propaganda to further frighten them
    • General fear was of economic and political instability; many people who disliked the Nazis conformed as they didn’t want to revert to the dire political and economic situation that existed before the Nazis came to power
    • The result was that people conformed and fitted in even if they personally disliked the Nazis
  • ‘The Hitler myth’
    • Historian Ian Kershaw found evidence that while many Germans disliked the Nazis, they respected Hitler personally and did not blame him for anything bad that the Nazis did; this belief remained strong and was only shaken towards the end of WWII
    • The result was that people were prepared to keep quiet and overlook bad aspects of the Nazi regime, because they admired Hitler and believed that he knew best

1933-39 – Those who ‘Did Not Belong’

  • The Nazis believed in the superiority of the Aryan race
  • They persecuted members of other races because they believed that they challenged Nazi ideals
    • Disabled people were seen to threaten the idea of a ‘perfect’ master race and homosexuals threatened the idea of a ‘perfect’ family life
    • Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies and Jews were also persecuted
  • Sterilisation was enforced on men and women with hereditary illnesses, a ‘Euthanasia’ programme begun in 1939
    • At least 5000 severely disabled infants were killed between 1939-45 by starvation or injection
    • Between 1939-41, 72 000 mentally ill patients were gassed before a public outcry ended the extermination
  • The extermination of Gypsies and ‘asocials’ did not cause an outcry
    • Five out of six Gypsies living in Germany in 1939 were killed by the Nazis
    • ‘Asocials’ were homosexuals, alcoholics, the homeless, prostitutes, criminals and beggars – they were rounded up off the streets and sent to concentration camps
  • Of all races in Nazi Germany, Jews were treated the worst and were the most hated
    • For hundreds of years, throughout Europe, Jews had been banished from their countries, treated unjustly by the courts and were forced to live in Ghettos
    • Reasons for the hatred of the Jews was that some believed that they killed Christ and jealousy – they tended to be well-educated people who held high-paid jobs
  • Hitler hated the Jews
    • In his years of poverty in Vienna, he had become obsessed by the fact that Jews owned the most successful businesses
      • This offended the idea of the superiority of Aryans
    • Hitler also blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in WWI – he thought that they had forced the surrender of the German army
  • As soon as Hitler took power in 1933, he mobilised the full power of the state against the Jewish people
    • They were immediately banned from civil service and a variety of public services, such as broadcasting and teaching
    • Jewish premises were marked by a Star of David and they were boycotted by the SA, and later by the SS
  • In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were passed, and they took away citizenship from Jews
    • Jews were forbidden to marry or have intercourse with pure-blooded Germans
    • Goebbels’ propaganda experts bombarded the Germans with ant-Jewish messages
    • Jews were often refused jobs, and shopkeepers refused to serve them
    • In schools, Jewish children were humiliated before being segregated
  • In November 1938, a young Jew killed a German diplomat in Paris; the Nazis used this as an excuse to launch violent revenge on all Jews
    • Plain-clothes SS soldiers were given the addresses of Jewish shops and businesses and they ran riot
    • 91 Jews were murdered, 100s of synagogues were burnt, 20 000 Jews were taken to concentration camps and 1000s more fled Germany
    • This event became known as ‘Kristallnacht’ or ‘the Night of Broken Glass’
    • In newspapers, it was presented as a spontaneous reaction and those who stood up against that claim were murdered

Describe one example of how the Nazis terrorised the German people. [2]

Describe one benefit that German workers gained from the Nazis. [2]

Explain how the Nazis used propaganda to control the population of Germany. [10]

Explain why the Nazis devoted so much attention to youth policies. [10]

Explain how young people reacted to the Nazi regime.  (10]

How successful the Nazi policies for women? [10]

Why was there so little opposition to the Nazi regime? [10]

Explain the purpose of Source 17 on page 156? [5]

Study Source 25 on page 160.  Why might the Nazis have allowed this source to be published? [5]

Is Source 9 or Source 10 on page 154 more useful about Nazi propaganda?  Explain your answer. [10]

 ‘Propaganda was more important than terror at controlling the German people.’  How far do you agree with this view? [18]

‘The Nazis won the hearts and minds of the German people’. How far do you agree with this view? [18]