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German History: 3 Living Standards - The Third Reich - Coggle Diagram
German History: 3 Living Standards - The Third Reich
Living standards 1933-45
Unemployment was high so Nazis introduced
Public works project (highway and public building construction)
Investment was heavy industry and armaments production
Labour programmes established (Reich Labour Service)
Unemployment stabilised at 2.5 million in 1934 but by introduction of conscription and rearmament, 1938 full employment)
Nazis provided social welfare to 'national community'
1933 Winter aid programme (1.5 million delivered food and clothes)
The National Socialist peoples' welfare (provided help for mothers)
Marriage loans for couples introduced
Strength Through Joy
Provided sports facilities, theatre and travelling opportunities
Came to members of the labour front which was complusory for workers to join
1935 over 3.5 million members
Volkswagen
'peoples car' project
1938 savings scheme opened and a car was provided after the last payment
1940 300,000 purchasers signed up
War stopped production and no one received a car
Beauty of Labour
Improve workplace by improving facilities and arranging events
Was a substitute for real
Farmers living standards 1930s
Nazis saw farmers as embodying traditional German values and promotes a rural lifestyles
They increased the amount of cultivation land
Made incentives for farmers to modernise their practices, invest in research and develop new agricultural policies
Wanted to reduce burden of debt on farmers so banks were banned from repossessing indebted farms and import duties were implemented
Decline in living standards in the late 1930s
late 1930s there was focus on rearmament for war and focus away from civilian need
Four year plan 1936
Directed by Goering
Increased industrial measures and production (especially in armaments and synthetic materials)
Reduce dependence on imports
Led to shortages in basic necessities (cotton imports) and real earning failed to recover
Food and luxuries
Consumers faced minimum level of these
Limited rationing but consumers paid above world market price for products due to controlled trade to deliberately boost income
Diets for Germans became stodgy (carbs) showing a decline in living standards
Quality of goods
Declined due to the autarky
Insisted on the use of substitute/ recycled materials
1936 decree on kitchen waste
Couldn't own multiples so concealment became act of economic sabotage
Cuts in public investment
Investment into house building cut and instead there were subsidies made to repair existing house
Faced housing shortages which worsened during the war years
Four Year Plan suppressed the German labour movement
Reduction in workers rights to control the workforce over war
Hourly wages fixed so there was no sustained earnings growth under Nazis
Surplus income was taken by high tax rates
Savings banks had to invest in government bonds to fund rearmament
Meant regime could suppress consumer demand for goods
Impact of WW2
Led to even higher war related production and more money was spent
Food and clothing rations in October 1939
Use of ration cards
As war progressed the quantity of the rations reduced
Covered a wider ange of articles than Britain
People wore synthetic clothes and wooden clogs (no leather)
Quality of food deteriorate
State allowed adulteration (coffee made of toast barley)
Luxury goods also rationed (cigarettes)
Canning industries thrived
Hot water rationed 2 days a week
Shortages of coal as it was prioritised in industrial production so (people couldn't heat their homes)
Personal consumption in the war was limited as the benefits from occupied territories went to the armed forces
Impact of the Allied bombing in July 1943
16,000 apartment blocks destroyed
56% of dwellings in the cities destroyed
900,000 made homeless
8 million homeless and refugees by 1945