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Topic 16- Social Policies: - Coggle Diagram
Topic 16- Social Policies:
Nazi policies towards young people:
A. Schools:
Control of teachers:
Law for the Re-establishment of a Professional Civil Services (1933) saw a number of teachers dismissed on grounds of political unreliability or because they were jewish
teachers pressured to join the National Socialist Teachers' League but most teachers were willing to comply with regimes' demands
Vetting of textbooks was undertaken by local nazi committees after 1933. From 1935 central directives were issued by the ministry of education covering what could be tought and by 1938 these rules covered every school year and most subjected
Control of curriculum:
Political indoctrinated permeated every area of school curriculum
Nazis aim to promote 'racial health' led to an increasing emphasis on PE, military style drills became a feature of PE lessons
German lessons, the aim was to install consciousness of being German through the study of nordic sagas and other traditional stories
Biologjy focused on race and hereditary, there was strong emphasis on social darwinism
Geography used to develop ideas of Lebensraum, 'blood and soil' and German racial superiority
B. Universities:
Nazis downgraded the importance of academic education and number of students attending university declined 1933-1939- Access to HE was strictly rationed and selection made based on political reliability, 10% of available places for women, 1.5% for jews in relation to their population in the country
Law for re-establishment of the professional civil service saw 1200 university staff dismissed on racial and political grounds which was around 15% of the total
Nov 1933, all uni teachers made to sign 'declaration of support of Hitler and the National Socialist state'
students had to join German students league, although some 25% avoided this
Students forced to do 4 months labour service and two months in SA camp- labour service would give students experience of real life, considered to be more important than academics by universities
Nazis encountered little resistance in coordination of Unis, as many departments self coordinated, as even under weimar universities were dominated by nationalist and anti-democratic attitudes
nazis tapped into the pre existing culture of extreme nationalism and infuse it with nazi ideology, and this was aided by students knowledge that their prospects of employment after graduating depended on showing outward support for the regime
C. Hitler Youth:
created in 1926 but was relatively unsuccessful in early years- when Nazis came to power 1933 all youth orgs except catholic ones were banned which was when nazi youth groups started to flourish
1936- Law for the Incorporation of German Youth gave Hitler Youth the status of an official education movement, equal status to schools and the home
catholic youth groups also dissolved, and the Hiler youth became the only officially permitted youth group
in 1936 Hitler Youth was granted a monopoly over all sports facilities and competitions for children under 14
Membership became compulsory in 1939
In Hitler youth the emphasis was on political indoctrination and physical activity: competition, struggle, leadership were all promoted as boys were prepared for their future roles as leaders
HJ members swore a personal oath of allegiance to the Fuhrer
opportunity to participate in sports and camping trips away from home made the opportunities attractive to millions of boys
for these boys their growing up was shaped by HJ
however as the org became more beautrocratic there were signs enthusiasm was declining and there was poorer attendance- boys also resented the harsh punishments imposed for minor infringements
D. The League of German Women:
Nazi policies towards women:
Nazi aims towards women:
end feminist movement that had grown during weimar
get women out of public life and the workforce
Increase birth rate ready to fight WW2
Encourage marriage to grow birth rate
Policies concerning women;
marriage loans for women who left work after they were married- each child born reduced repayment by a quarter
Gave medals for birth: 4-5= bronze, 6-7=silver, 8+=gold which was called 'donating a baby to the Fuhrer"
Abortion severely restricted and contraception frowned upon
Girls/women encouraged to be healthy and quit smoking/drinking
Secret policy of Lebensborn: SS officers encouraged to breed with young, unmarried German women, and the same policy was used in occupied countries of Poland and the Baltics to Aryanise the population
Nazi women organisations:
German women's league- 6 million members by 1939 (emphasis on healthy cooking- most not nazi party members)
National Socialist women's org- propaganda org ran by nazi women to promote anti-feminist ideology
Reich Mothers service- motherhood classes for 1.7 million pregnant women
Evaluation:
Despite ideological objections, many women returned to the workplace after 1936 as the economy rapidly improved and because of labour shortages
Birth rate did rise, but this is common when the economy improves as people feel secure to start a family
During WW2 more women entered labour market- over 60% were working by 1944: reality had triumphed over nazi ideology
from 1939 young women were recruited into the Reich labour service, mainly to work on farms
Nazi policies towards Workers:
German Labour Front- DAF:
replaced the trade unions that were banned in May 1933, and was led by the notorious alcoholic Dr Robert Ley
5 million members in 1933, 20 million in 1939 which was virtually the entire workforce
2 aims: embed workers in the volksgemeinschaft and increase production ready for war
Strength through Joy- KdF
leisure time would be regulated by the state- regime would control workers in and outside of working time
1938: 1.6 million German holidays, 135000 cruises, 2m hikes
cruises very popular without class distinctions with Gestapo spies going on each trip
however only 10% went to manual workers and the best cabins were given to party officials and the cruises themselves became notorious for booze and sex with Ley being the worst offender
Beauty of Labour- SdA:
improve working conditions, with wash facilities canteens and toilets to improve racial health
sports and recreation facilities so that all break times are controlled- no more fag breaks
firms competed for certificates signed by AH
workers expect4d to clean up their own factories- with contributions taken out of wages and those who refused to volunteer being sacked
EVALUATION:
many workers remained silently communist or socialist
most prepared to grab any benefits they could: opportunistic
KdF offered some escape from boredom and stress of working life
control on time at work massive: with no real increase in wages and no chance to negotiate or strike for better conditions
increase in paid holidays from 3 a year to 6-12 was the only real material benefit
Nazi policies towards religion:
aims:
Nazify the church
Do deals where nazification is not possible
weaken its influence and make the state the focus of loyalty within the volksgemeinschaft'
Aim to indoctrinate the young against Christian concepts of love, forgiveness, and tolerance through education and HJ
Protestant Church:
German Christians:
group of nazi supporters within protestant church led by Ludwig Muller
established in May 1932 and by mid 1930s they had around 600,000 supporters
Pastors that belonged to it worse SS or SA uniforms, and they made their own version of the church that was aggressive and militant- e.g. images of christ portrayed him as a heroic leader
AH portrayed as a national messiah: second coming of christ
abolished any ideas of judaism in christianity
Church Struggle:
in church elections of 1933 German christian Christians won huge victory with help of goebbels and were in a strong position to nazify church
all elected bodies within church were abolished and church recognised the fuhrerprinzip, in Nov 1933 German christians celebrated victory with a Berlin rally
German chrstirians stated all unloyalw pastors and non-aryans should be dismissed from govt, as an institution the reich church was forced to adopt the "Aryan Paragraph"
Confessional Church:
not all protestants prepared to go along with nazification
Sept 1933: Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer set up Pastors Emergency League which became known as Confessional Church
was created for Christians who wished to continue traditional worship not under the nazi ideology, and was supported by 5000 pastors showing coordination was not settled
tactics to counter confessional church:
concentrated on winning young over through HJ
protestant church schools abolished in 1938
campaign to get party members to give up church membership: 5% of people stopped attending church
by WW2 Nazis had cut all ties to confessional church and had given up trying to nazify it
Roman Catholic Church:
impossible to nazify as loyalty is to the Pope as head of the church, so nazis were forced to do deals rather than attempt to destroy
nazi and catholic shared a hatred of atheist communism and jews
The Concordat- July 1933:
deal between Nazis and RCC: Nazis would stay out of church affairs if the church stayed out of politics
Zentrums dissolved itself but kept control over catholic schools and youth movements until 1936
nazis began seizing RCC assets from June 1933, and the RCC did nothing as it believed cooperation was the best protection
A small number of bishops began to speak out in 1935 especially against Alfred Rosenberg the leading Nazi athiest
the leading critic was Bishop Von Galen who was sent to concentration camp in 1944, and in response Goebbels launched a fierce campaign against RC financial and sexual corruption, banning the catholic groups in 1936 and suggesting mass paedophilia
Papal Encyclical 1937:
Letter sent by Pope Pius XI with title 'With Burning Grief' condemning Nazi repression of RCC
Letter was read out in every catholic church
Nazis retaliated with more restrictions, by 1939 all catholic schools and youth groups had been closed down
no further organised resistance: some individual catholics opposed the regime but the RCC as a whole kept quiet, preferring AH to communism
The German Faith Movement:
minority of nazi leaders believed the church should be replaced with an alternative religion based on ancient paganism- worshiped norse gods such as Thor and Odin
Darre thought this was much more Aryan than christianity, with its jewish roots
GFM replaced church services with pagan rituals, e.g. Christmas replaced by winter solstice
Darres movement was never more than a cult with 40,000 members- but did influence himmler and SS who introduced some pagan ceremonies