GCSE History: Germany Part IV

Work and Workers

Reducing unemployment

Rearmament

Reicsarbeitsdienst (RAD)

Hitler set up a National Labour Service. This gave men jobs in public work schemes such as building schools, hospitals and the 1936 Olympic Stadium. The biggest was the construction of the autobanhs (motorways).


Men in the RAD had to wear uniform, live in camps and were given pocket money as wages. They got free meals and they felt proud as they were rebuilding Germany. They were forced to work at 18 for 6 months before being conscripted. The manual work toughened them up for the army.

German Labour Front

Hitler abolished the Trade Unions and replaced them with the German Labour Front. It was run by Dr. Robert Ley. There were some improvements for workers such as bosses were not allowed to sack workers on the spot. However, workers were also banned from leaving a job without the government's permission. Dr. Ley abolished the right for workers to bargain for higher wages and he made strikes illegal. He also removed the restriction on the numbers of hours a person could be made to work. Many Germans found themselves working 60-72 hours a week. Not many complained because by 1936 workers were being payed 35 marks a week - ten times more than how much they were being payed in 1932.

The main reason for the fall in unemployment was due to rearmament. He brought back conscription and set up an air force. The army grew quickly from 100k in 1933 to 1.4 mil in 1939. 46 million marks were spent on weapons and equipment so even more jobs were created to produce these weapons.

Invisible unemployment

The drop of unemployment wasn't only due to the creation of new jobs. Jews and women were forced out of their jobs and these were not recorded. Women were given loans to persuade them to marry and give up their jobs. In Weimar Germany, there had been 100k female teachers, 3k female doctors and 13k musicians but many were sacked. Employers were told to favour men.

Autarky

Hitler wanted Germany to be self-sufficient so that Germany no longer needed to trade internationally. This ideology was called auarky. This could've been to prepare Germany for WWII.

Businesses

Small business:
Rules on opening and running small businesses were tightened, which resulted in 20% of them closing.
Big businesses:
Middle-class business men were grateful to the Nazis. They also liked the way in which they were bringing order to Germany. Big companies no longer had to worry about troublesome trade unions and strikes. Rearmament boosted profits for businesses that produced chemicals.Companies such as Mercedes and Volkswagen prospered from Nazi policies.


Farmers

The farmers had been an important factor in the Nazis' rise to power. Hitler did not forget this and introduced a series of measures to help them. In September 1933, he introduced the Reich Food Estate. This set up central boards to buy agricultural produce from the farmers and distribute it to markets across Germany. It gave peasant farmers a guaranteed market for their goods and guaranteed prices.
The Reich Entailed Farm Law gave peasant farmers protection from banks. Bank could not seize their land if they could not pay loans or mortgages. It also had a racial claim. Part of the Nazi philosophy was Blood & Soil, the belief that the peasant farmers were the basis of Germany's master race so their way of life had to be protected.
However, some farmers were not so thrilled. The Reich Food Estate meant efficient farmers had were held back by having to go through the same processes of less efficient farmers. Banks were unwilling to lend money because of the Reich Entailed Farm Law. As a result, many children of farmers left to work in Germany's industries. Rural depopulation ran at about 3% per year in - the opposite of the Nazis' aims.

KDF & Beauty of Labour

Strength throught joy (KDF) gave workers rewards for their work - holidays, entertainment, etc for people that worked hard
Beauty of Labour- The job of this organisation was to help Germans see that work was good, and that everyone should work. It encouraged factory owners to improve conditions for workers. They made conditions more clean and equipped more safety equipment.

Hermann Goering and Hjalmar Schacht

Schacht was the Minister of Economics between 1933-36. He realised Hitler's plans for more weapons meant more materials and Germany did not have these materials so he waned to buy them from abroad. He signed deals with South America and South-East Europe. For a short period of time the economy was doing well but Germany was still dependent on foreign countries and change was happening too slowly for Hitler so he sacked him and replaced Schacht with Goering.


In 1936 Goering introduced the scheme called the 4 year plan. The main priority was to get Germany ready for war. The Nazis ordered large amounts of weapons and uniforms which created jobs in factories and shipbuilding. Germany stopped trading with other countries and relied on products they produced and if they were unable to find a resource they would find alternatives. Scientists found artificial subsitutes like wool and cotton from wood, flour and coffee from acorns
Successes: Four year plan was able to meet very high production targets in industries such as steel and and explosives. Substitutes were successfuly found
Failures: Four year plan did not meet targets in other industries such as oil production. They still needed materials from abroad. There was shortages in workers and growing risk of inflation.

Women

Women were expected to stay home, look after family and produce children in order to secure the future of the aryan race. The role of women revolved around the 'Three Ks':
Kinder, Kirche, Kuche (children, church, kitchen)
Women were to wear no heels, jewellery or make-up. They had to have long dresses and look natural.

Law of Encouragement of Marriage

In 1933, Hitler introduced the Law of Encouragement of Marriage. This law stated that all newly married couples were entitled to a government loan off 1000 marks. The birth of a child meant 25% did not have to be payed back and two meant 50% didn't have to be payed back. Four children meant the loan was cleared. Couples could not apply for a loan if the woman was working.


Mother's Cross and Lebensborns

12 August had been Hitler's mother's birtday. On this day each year the Motherhood Cross was awarded to women who had children: gold for 8 children, silver for 6 children and bronze for 4. Membes of the Hitler Youth had to salute to women who had received these awards
Women were discouraged from being slim as this was considered bad for child birth.
In Nazi Germany, it was not considered a social problem if an unmarried women had a child. In fact, it was encouraged, The Nazis created Lebensborns where women could go along to get pregnant by a SS man.

Young people

Young people were very important to Hitler because they presented the future. Hitler spoke of his Third Reich lasting for thousands of years and to achieve this he would have to ensure German children were thoroughly indoctrinated into Nazi ideology. They symobolised energy and hope, important qualities the Nazis wanted to be aligned with.

Success and Failures of policies

Success:

  • Birth rates increases
  • In the early 1930s women employment fell
    Failures:
  • The number of women increased between 1933-1939 because the economy was not doing very well and during the war women were needed
  • Employers employed more women than men because their wages were lower
  • Most married Germans still had an average of 2 children per family.

Hitler Youth

Girls joined the League of German Maidenss and were taught domestic chores to prepare them for motherhood. They also did physical activities.
Boys joined the Hitler Youth. Activities in the Hitler Youth were centred around physical activities to prepare them for the armed forces.
Parents were worried because their children were forced to swear loyalty to Hitler before them.

Education

Children were taught that the German race was superior and how other ones were inferior. History was rewritten to support Nazi ideas, depicting Jews as evil.

Church

Hitler called Christianity one of the great 'scourges' of history. He blamed jews for the creation of it. 2/3 of the population were Protestant and 1/3 Catholic. The Nazis tried to control Christian churches to make them an instrument of Nazi policy. The cross was supposed to be replaced by the sun-cross and the Bible my Mein Kampf.
Hitler attempted to unify all the protestant Churches into one official Reich Church. This was headed by the the Bishop Ludwig Muller. However, many Germans believed their true loyalties lay with their original Churches. They were ignorant of the Nazi policies towards Jews and many Church goers either supported the Nazis or did little to oppose Nazis
Attendance at Catholic churches increased substantially under the Nazis, especially during World War Two, showing that Hitler’s attempts to reduce the influence of religion in Germany was ultimately unsuccessful. Catholic priests were sent to concentration camps