4. life in nazi germany 1933 - 1939

• nazi policies towards women

  In Weimar Germany, there had been new opportunities for women.

  They experimented with their appearances, some took jobs and women were treated as equal citizens within the constitution, having the right to vote.

  However, Nazis had clear ideas of what they wanted from women.

  the traditional role of the woman that had existed before the 1920s
• nazi policies towards women

  the three Ks: kinder (children), kuche (kitchen) and kirche (church)
• nazi policies towards women

  Marriage and family

  Hitler wanted a high birth rate so that the Aryan population would grow. He tried to achieve this by:

  • introducing the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage which gave newlywed couples a loan of 1,000 marks, and allowed them to keep 250 marks for each child they had
  • giving an award called the Mother’s Cross to women who had large numbers of children
  • allowing women to volunteer to have a baby for an Aryan member of the SS
• nazi policies towards women

  employment

  Measures were introduced which strongly discouraged women from working, including:

  • the introduction of the Law for the Reduction of Unemployment, which gave women financial incentives to stay at home
  • not conscripting women to help in the war effort until 1943
• nazi policies towards women

  employment

  However, female labour was cheap

  between 1933 and 1939 the number of women in employment actually rose by 2.4 million.

  As the German economy grew, women were needed in the workplace
• nazi policies towards women

  appearance

  Women were expected to emulate traditional German peasant fashions - plain peasant costumes, hair in plaits or buns and flat shoes.

  They were not expected to wear make-up or trousers, dye their hair or smoke in public.

  They were discouraged from staying slim, because it was thought that thin women had trouble giving birth
• nazis aims and policies towards the youth

  hitler wanted a generation of soldiers and mothers

  To this end, from the age of 10 boys and girls were encouraged to join the Nazis’ youth organisation, the Hitler Youth (the girls’ wing of which was called the League of German Maidens).

  1936: from the age of 10 it was mandatory to join youth organisations

  1939: 90% of German boys aged 14 and over were members.
• nazi aims and policies towards the youth

  hitler youth vs german league of maidens

  • Its aim was to prepare German boys to be future soldiers
  • Its aim was to prepare German girls for future motherhood
  • Boys wore military-style uniforms
  • Girls wore a uniform of blue skirt, white blouse and and heavy marching shoes
  • Activities centred on physical exercise and rifle practice, as well as political indoctrination
  • Girls undertook physical exercise, but activities mainly centred on developing domestic skills such as sewing and cooking
• nazi aims and policies towards the youth

  All teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers’ Association, which vetted them for political and racial suitability.

  new curriculum:

  • History - lessons included a course on the rise of the Nazi Party.
  • Biology - lessons were used to teach Nazi racial theories of evolution in eugenics.
  • Race study and ideology - this became a new subject, dealing with the Aryan ideas and anti-Semitism.
  • Physical Education - German schoolchildren had five one-hour sports lessons every week.
  • Chemistry and Mathematics - were downgraded in importance
• employement and living standards

  The Nazis promised to stop the suffering many Germans had felt since the end of World War One and make the economy strong again.

  Unemployment would disappear and Germany would become an autarky – though neither of these things truly happened.
• autarky: a country which is self reliant and doesn't need to import

  rearement: manifacturing arms and increasing the army
• employement and living standards

  • public work: included building hospitals, schools, and public buildings ---> The construction created work for 80,000 men.
  • Rearmament: was responsible for the bulk of economic growth between 1933 and 1938. Rearmament started almost as soon as Hitler came to power but was announced publicly in 1935. ---> created millions of jobs for German workers.
  • national service: National Labour Service (NLS) meant all young men spent 6 months in the NLS and were then conscripted into the army. They were no longer counted in the unemployment figures.
• employement and living standards

  Invisible employment

  Although Germany claimed to have full employment by 1939, many groups of people were not included in the statistics, including:

  • The 1.4 million men in the army at this time. There were also a number of men working on public works schemes.
  • Jews who were sacked and their jobs given to non-Jews.
  • Women had to give up their jobs to men
• employment and living standards

  • Hitler wanted Germany to become an autarky – materials like (eg: rubber) were needed more as Germany geared up for war, it was hoped that inventions would mean that this product could be produced synthetically instead of needing to get it by trading.
  • 1937: Hermann Göring was made Economics Minister with the job of making Germany self-sufficient in 4 years.
  • measures he introduced, such as tighter controls on imports and for farmers to produce more food, were not successful.
  • By WW2 Germany was still importing 20% of its food and 33% of its raw materials
• employment and living standards

  • big business wages rose by 50%
  • agricultural prices rose by 20%
  • 20% of small businesses closed
• employement and living standards

  When trying to get into power, the Nazis had promised to tackle monopolies – the tendency of one company to hold all the interests in one area of business and dominate the market.

  1937 monopolies controlled over 70 % of production and the Nazis had links to major companies such as Krupp steel and IG Farben (which produced chemicals).

  Both of these areas would be important for rearmament, and from 1935 onwards major industrial companies definitely benefited. Profits rose by 50 per cent between 1933 and 1939
• Small business - Rules on opening and running small businesses were tightened ---> 20% of them closed.

  Farmers - 

  farmers benefitted under the Nazis.

  The Hereditary Farm Law of 1933: prevented farms from being repossessed from their owners, which gave farming families greater security.

  By 1937: agricultural prices had increased by 20% and agricultural wages rose more quickly than those in industry.
• Industrial workers

  Pre-1933 the Nazis had lacked support amongst the workers

  > nazis set up these 3 organisations:

  • The Labour Front. replaced Trades Unions, which were banned. It set wages and nearly always followed the wishes of employers, rather than employees.
  • Strength Through Joy. This scheme gave workers rewards for their work - theatre trips, picnics, and even very cheap/free holidays.
  • Beauty of Labour. The job of this organisation was to help Germans see that work was good, and that everyone who could work should. It also encouraged factory owners to improve conditions for workers
• minority persecution

  The Nazis’ racial philosophy taught that Aryans were the master race and that some races were ‘untermensch’ (sub-human).

  Many Nazi scientists at this time believed in eugenics, the idea that people with disabilities or social problems were degenerates whose genes needed to be eliminated from the human bloodline.

  The Nazis pursued eugenics policies vigorously.
• minority persecution

  Policy of persecution

  • Sterilisation - In order to keep the Aryan race pure, many groups were prevented from reproducing: mentally and physically disabled, the deaf, people with hereditary diseases were sterilised,.
  • Euthanasia - Between 1939 and 1941 over 100,000 physically and mentally disabled Germans were killed in secret, without the consent of families. Victims were often gassed
  • Concentration camps - Homosexuals, prostitutes, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, alcoholics and criminals were often rounded up and sent away to camps.
• minority persecution

  jewish people

  1933

  • Nazis organised a boycott of Jewish businesses.
  • Books by Jewish authors were publicly burnt.
  • Jewish civil servants, lawyers and teachers were sacked.
  • Race science lessons were introduced, teaching that Jews were sub-human.
• minority persecution

  jewish people

  1935

  The Nuremberg Laws formalised anti-Semitism into the Nazi state by:

  • Stripping Jews of German citizenship.
  • Outlawing marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans.
  • Taking away from Jews all civil and political rights.
• minority persecution

  jewish people

  1938

  • Jews could not be doctors.
  • Jews had to add the name Israel (men) or Sarah (women) to their name.
  • Jewish children were forbidden to go to school.
  • Kristallnacht - 9 November. The SS organised attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in retaliation for the assassination of the German ambassador to France by a Jew
• minority persecution

  jewish people

  1939

  • Jews were forbidden to own a business, or even a radio

  By the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939, the Jews were stateless, their employment options in Germany were severely restricted and they feared for their safety