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CCEA GCSE History: Life in Nazi Germany > Life for Workers in Nazi Germany > Flashcards

Life for Workers in Nazi Germany Flashcards

1
Q

Dr Hjalmar Schacht

A
  • loyal supporter of Hitler before the Nazis came to power
  • financial expert
  • trusted by business people, foreign leaders and banks
  • president of the Reichsbank, 1933
  • minister of economy, 1934
  • devised the New Plan
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2
Q

What were the aims of the New Plan?

A

introduced the New Plan to deal with:
1) Germany’s trade deficit ⬆️➡️

2) Revive Germany’s economy ⬆️💰

3) Introduce cuts to welfare spending 👵

4) Impose limits on imports of goods into Germany 🎁

5) Create trade agreements with other countries - Hungary 🤝

6) Increased spending on industries ⬆️💰🏭

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3
Q

How did the New Plan reduce unemployment

A
  • work creation schemes
  • compulsory labour service
  • conscription to the army, 1935
  • removing Jews and political opponents from certain jobs and replacing them with unemployed people
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4
Q

How was the New Plan successful?

A
  • solved economic crisis in Germany, 1934-36
  • enabled Hitler to rearm his forces
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5
Q

How was the New Plan unsuccessful?

A
  • Hitler wanted to prepare Germany for war and rearm much faster, 1935
  • Schacht told Hitler Germany could not afford to rearm so quickly
  • Schacht lost his power and resigned in 1937
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6
Q

Hermann Goering

A
  • 2nd most important person in the Nazi Party
  • head of the German airforce (the Luftwaffe)
  • President of the Reichstag
  • he had been a fighter pilot
  • loyal supporter of Hitler
  • not an expert in economics or business
  • devised the Four Year Plan
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7
Q

What were the aims of the Four Year plan?

A
  • prepare for war in four years

Autarky
- make Germany self-sufficient in materials essential for war
- set targets for the production of these materials

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8
Q

How did the Four Year plan work?

A
  • increase production of raw materials needed for rearmament
  • persuade big businesses to produce key synthetic substitutes for raw materials
  • reduce exports even further
  • tighten control on prices and wages
  • use forced labour if necessary
  • targets for foodstuffs by Reich Food Estate
  • build new industrial plants, huge mining and metal works
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9
Q

Why did Hitler believe the German economy had to be the focus of his attention?

A
  • the depression had created great hardship and political instability
  • he would have to sort it out if he wanted to stay in power
  • he wanted to go to war and make Germany great again, this meant constructing a strong war economy
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10
Q

What was the New Plan introduced in 1934 to deal with?

A

A trade deficit
- there was more money leaving Germany than coming in

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11
Q

Autarky

A

A country is able to survive by itself economically

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12
Q

Conscription

A

Forced recruitment into the army

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13
Q

How did the Nazis resolve the problem of not achieving autarky?

A

Conquering other countries

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14
Q

Reich nature protection act, 1935

A

aimed to plant trees, and prevent cruelty to animals

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15
Q

How did women and Jews reduce unemployment?

A
  • Many people, especially professional women and Jews were forced from the workplace
  • their jobs were then given to those who were unemployed
  • 1933 Jewish people were banned from all government jobs
  • neither one of these groups were then counted as unemployed
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16
Q

How did conscription and rearmament reduce unemployment?

A
  • Had a significant impact on unemployment levels through creation of new jobs
  • 1933, 100,000 jobs in German army
  • 1939, 1.4 million
  • this took 1.3 million off the unemployment register
  • thousands more jobs are created in armament military weapons and equipment and associated industries e.g steel and coal under the Four Year plan
  • 46 billion marks spent on rearmament
  • artificial substitutes were made for food and materials imported from other countries
17
Q

How did the RAD (National Labour Service) and public works reduce unemployment?

A

the Reinhard Programme, June 1933
- massive 1 billion marks programme of public works to build autobahns, motorways, waterworks and railways
- 15,000 workers

Second Programme, September 1933
- tax incentives for construction projects in rural areas
- house building in towns

18
Q

How did autarky and self-sufficiency reduce unemployment?

A
  • Germany had to become self-sufficient in food and raw materials to prepare for war
  • to do this, Hitler ordered scientists to create synthetic substitutes e.g. wool and cotton from pulped wood

offered many jobs
- reduced unemployment in new industries

19
Q

How did the lives of workers change under the Nazis?

A
  • government discouraged heavy drinking and alcoholics were sent to concentration camps
  • screening programmes for cancer
  • improvements in welfare
  • universal healthcare
  • job protection
  • low taxation
  • paid holiday went from 3 to 6 days a year
  • trade unions were abolished, May 1933 and striking was declared illegal
20
Q

What were trade unions replaced by?

A

The RAD

21
Q

the German Labour Front (DAF)

A
  • Replaced trade unions
  • A Nazi workers organisation
  • Led by Dr Robert Ley
  • Promised workers it would look after them as well as the unions had
  • Within two years, it had more than 20 million workers
22
Q

the Beauty of Labour (sdA)

A
  • Branch of the DAF
  • Set up to encourage workers to be proud of their work
  • Propaganda department
  • ran campaigns to improve working conditions, through better, lighting, washing facilities, noise, reduction, and toilets
23
Q

Strength through Joy (KdF)

A
  • November 1933
  • made to ensure workers were happy outside the workplace
  • Brought fun into workers lives and made them feel valued through activities such as, picnics, cheap theatre and cinema tickets, evening classes, sporting activities and cheap holidays
  • introduced savings scheme to own a Volkswagen Beetle
24
Q

What were the negative impacts and ineffectiveness of the Nazis attempts to improve the economy?

A

Cons

  • by 1939, Germany was still importing over one third of natural resources essential to the economy
  • only way to make itself self-sufficient was to conquer other countries

the Nazis wrecked the economy because;
- The switch of production to munitions and rearmament weakened the economy
- To pay for the rearmament and public-works programmes, Nazis printed 12 billion marks of Mefo bills, creating inflation and by 1939 there was an economic crisis
- Food prices rose with a nutritional crisis in northern Germany and the death rate rose
- Propaganda promises failed to materialise

25
Q

What was the impact and effectiveness of the Nazis attempts to improve unemployment?

A

pros

  • when Hitler came to power, 1933, 6 million unemployed, by 1939, 300,000 unemployed
  • employment in construction rose from 666,000 to more than 2 million 1933-36

cons

  • unemployed men in RAD programme spent six months in camps, conditions were poor, wore uniforms + received small amount of money
26
Q

How did the RAD reduce unemployment?

A

RAD, 1934
- extension of public works programme
- compulsory for all men aged 18-25 national civic service scheme

  • wore military uniforms
  • lived in camps
  • only given pocket money as wages
  • to create as many jobs as possible manual labour was favoured over use of machines
  • Prepared men for life in the military
  • gave men jobs in public work schemes, digging drainage ditches on farms, planting new forests, building schools and hospitals, building network of motorways
27
Q

What was the impact and effectiveness of Nazi attempts to improve the lives of workers?

A
  • 1928, 20 million days work lost to strikes 1939 none
  • DAF was supposed to represent workers in discussions with employers however workers had to work longer hours, were not allowed to leave jobs without permission
  • workshy were sent to concentration camps
  • 1939, six years of Nazi rule employers benefited as incomes increased by 130%
  • Ordinary workers did not see wages recover to pre-depression levels until 1938
  • No German citizen ever received a Volkswagen Beetle
  • When war broke out Prora holiday camp had not had a single visitor
  • money was poured into rearmament number of public facilities declined
  • Incomes improved steadily whilst prices grew slowly
  • wages rose by 20% under the Nazis
  • Agricultural wages rose quicker than those in industry
28
Q

the Reinhard Programme, June 1933

A

the Reinhard Programme, June 1933
- massive 1 billion marks programme of public works to build autobahns, motorways, waterworks and railways
- 15,000 workers

29
Q

Second Programme, September 1933

A
  • tax incentives for construction projects in rural areas
  • house building in towns
30
Q

What were the positive impacts and effectiveness of the Nazi attempts to improve the economy

A

Pros

  • Germany had a modern motorway network and new public buildings, and it had renamed its military
31
Q

How was the RAD beneficial to the Nazis?

A
  • beneficial to the Nazis because it
  • provided them with cheap labour,
  • reduced the numbers on the unemployed register,
  • led to a network of motorways, which could be used for the mobilisation of the army during the war, and
  • kept young people occupied
32
Q

How did the Nazis wreck the economy

A
33
Q

How did the new plan plan to reduce unemployment

A

unemployment was reduced by
- work creation schemes
- compulsory labour service
- conscription to the army, 1935
- removing Jews and political opponents from certain jobs and replacing them with unemployed people

34
Q

Economic successes

A
  • Unemployment levels ⬇️
  • Reinhard Programme 🏠
  • Autobahns 🛣️
  • Nazi rearmament 🔫
  • Farmers 🐄
35
Q

Unemployment levels

A

1933 - 6 million unemployed (26%) 1939 - 300,000 unemployed (less than 1%)

36
Q

Reinhard programme

A
  • Built 1.8 million new homes.
  • There were 2 million people employed in construction
37
Q

Autobahns

A

At the cost of 6.6 billion marks, 4,000 kilometres of autobahns and 9,000 bridges were created

38
Q

Nazi rearmament

A
  • Big businesses benefitted from rearmament as they controlled 70% of industries.
  • Income raised by 50%
39
Q

Farmers

A

They benefitted from 20% increase in prices and wages increased

CCEA GCSE History: Life in Nazi Germany (9 decks)

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