Life in Nazi Germany (1933 - 1939)

• Employment and living standards: Hitler began a huge programme of public works, which included building hospitals, schools, and public buildings such as the 1936 Olympic Stadium. The construction of the autobahns created work for 80,000 men.
• Employment and living standards: 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. This created millions of jobs for German workers.
• Employment and living standards: The introduction of the National Labour Service (NLS) meant all young men spent six months in the NLS and were then conscripted into the army.
• Employment 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, the Jews who where sacked and their jobs given to non-Jews, women who were encouraged to give up their jobs to men.
• Employment and living standards: Autarky - The policy of autarky attempted to make Germany self-sufficient, so it would no longer be necessary for Germans to trade internationally. In 1937 Hermann Göring was made Economics Minister with the job of making Germany self-sufficient in four years.
• Employment and living standards: Autarky - The measures the Economics Minister made such as tighter controls on imports and subsidies for farmers to produce more food, were not successful. By the outbreak of World War Two Germany was still importing 20 per cent of its food and 33 per cent of its raw materials.
• Employment and living standards: Despite the loss of freedom, life improved in Germany for many ordinary people who were prepared to conform in order to have a job and a wage.
• Employment and living standards: Big business - The Nazis had promised to curb the power of monopolies, but by 1937 they controlled over 70 per cent of production. Rearmament from 1935 onwards boosted profits of big weapons companies, and managers of the major industrial companies saw their incomes rise by 50 per cent between 1933 and 1939.
• Employment and living standards: Small businesses - Rules on opening and running small businesses were tightened, which resulted in 20 per cent of them closing.
• Employment and living standards: Farmers - Having been one of the main sources of their electoral support during their rise to power, farmers benefitted under the Nazis. By 1937, agricultural prices had increased by 20 per cent and agricultural wages rose more quickly than those in industry. The Hereditary Farm Law of 1933 prevented farms from being repossessed from their owners, which gave farming families greater security.
• Employment and living standards: Industrial workers - Before 1933 the Nazis had lacked support amongst the workers, who tended to vote for the communists or the Social Democratic Party. The needs of German rearmament made it important that workers were productive and controlled. so the Nazis set up three organisations that would manage German workers.
• Employment and living standards: Industrial workers (The Labour front) -  This was a Nazi organisation that replaced Trades Unions, which were banned. It set wages and nearly always followed the wishes of employers, rather than employees.
• Employment and living standards: Industrial workers (Strength through Joy) - This scheme gave workers rewards for their work - evening classes, theatre trips, picnics, and even very cheap or free holidays.
• Employment and living standards: Industrial workers (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.
• Employment and living standards: Industrial workers - The living standards of German workers in the non-armaments industries did not really improve under the Nazis. From 1933 to 1939: Wages fell, the number of hours worked rose by 15 per cent, serious accidents in factories increased and workers could be blacklisted by employers for questioning their working conditions.
• Marriage and family: Hitler wanted a high birth rate so that the Aryan population would grow.
• Hitler increased the birth rate 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
• Hitler increased the birth rate by: giving an award called the Mother’s Cross to women who had large numbers of children
• Hitler increased the birth rate by: Allowing women to volunteer to have a baby for an Aryan member of the SS
• (Un)employment for women: The introduction of the Law for the Reduction of Unemployment, which gave women financial incentives to stay at home
• (Un)employment for women: Not conscripting women to help in the war effort until 1943
• (Un)employment for women: Female labour was cheap and 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.
• Appearance for women: 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.
• Nazi aims and policies towards the young: 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). Membership from age 10 was made compulsory in 1936 and by 1939 90 per cent of German boys aged 14 and over were members.
• Nazi aims and policies towards the young: The hitler youth - Its aim was to prepare German boys to be future soldiers.
• Nazi aims and policies towards the young: The hitler youth - Boys wore military-style uniforms
• Nazi aims and policies towards the young: The hitler youth - Activities centred on physical exercise and rifle practice, as well as political indoctrination
• Nazi aims and policies towards the young: The league of german maidens - Its aim was to prepare German girls for future motherhood.
• Nazi aims and policies towards the young: The league of german maidens - Girls wore a uniform of blue skirt, white blouse and heavy marching shoes
• Nazi aims and policies towards the young: The league of german maidens - Girls undertook physical exercise, but activities mainly centred on developing domestic skills such as sewing and cooking
• Nazi control of education: All teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers’ Association, which vetted them for political and racial suitability.
• Nazi control of education: Curriculum - History lessons included a course on the rise of the Nazi Party.
• Nazi control of education: Curriculum - Biology lessons were used to teach Nazi racial theories of evolution in eugenics.
• Nazi control of education: Curriculum - Race study and ideology became a new subject, dealing with the Aryan ideas and anti-Semitism.
• Nazi control of education: Curriculum - Physical education, German school children had five one-hour sports lessons every week.
• Nazi control of education: Curriculum - Chemistry and maths were downgraded in importance.
• Nazis and the church: There were approximately 45 million Protestants and 22 million Catholic Christians in Germany in 1933. Hitler saw Christianity as a threat and a potential source of opposition to Nazism because it emphasised peace. The Nazis tried to control the Churches with policies and bargaining.
• Nazis and the church: Control - A state Reich Church under the leadership of the Nazi Bishop Ludwig Müller was established to unify the different branches of Protestantism. This enabled the Nazis to use a group called the ‘German Christians’ within the Reich Church to promote Nazi ideas.
• Nazis and the church: Control - In 1933 Hitler agreed a Concordat with the Pope, which said that he would not interfere in the running of the Catholic Church if it stayed out of political matters. Hitler didn’t keep his side of the bargain, however, as the Nazis attempted to infiltrate the Church and spread their propaganda.
• Nazis and the church: Suppression - The Reich Church attempted to ban the use of the Old Testament in religious services as it was considered a ‘Jewish book’. Eight hundred Pastors of the Confessional Church, a non-conforming Protestant group, were arrested and sent to concentration camps.