Nazi Germany 1933-39

Question 1

How did the Nazis enforce Gleichschaltung:

Answer 1

Churches - signed concordat with Pope

Trade Unions - banned TU and workers were forced to join the DAF

Political parties - banned or forced into dissolution in July 1933

Reichstag and cabinet - enabling act, March 1933

Army - swear an oath to Hitler after the night of the long knives as it eliminated the SA, happened in 1934

Question 2

Aims of Nazi economic policy:

Answer 2

Reduce unemployment

Rearm

Autarky (self-sufficient)

Help for Mittelstand and farmers

Aryanisation of businesses

Question 3

What were the policies of recovery 1933-36 by Schacht and the New Plan:

Answer 3

Deficit financing

Investment in public works - motorways, reforestation, building, RAD

Unemployment down to 1.6 million by 1936 - nearly 6 million in 1932

Industrial production increased 60% 1933-39

Balance of trade deficit

Question 4

What was Nazi policy of rearmament in 1936-39: Goering and the Office of the four year plan

Answer 4

Schacht concerned over rearmament distorting the economy and making balance of payments deficit - replaced by Goering

‘Guns over butter’ - priorities military spending over consumer goods

Germany had to be ready for war within 4 years

Expand rearmament and autarky e.g. Artificial rubber, synthetic oil

Question 5

Successes of Nazi economic policy:

Answer 5

Reduced unemployment - unemployment eradicated by 1938 from 6 million in 1932

Rearm - 28% of economy on war

Measures to protect German agriculture - tariffs on imports

Living standards improved for many aryans since the depression

Question 6

Failures of Nazi economic policy:

Answer 6

Borrowing increased - national debt trebled between 1933-39

Don’t achieve autarky - imports exceed exports

Goering has no expertise

Question 7

What does Gleichschaltung mean:

Answer 7

Co-ordination or bringing into line

Question 8

Successes of the Nazis policy of Gleichschaltung after 1933:

Answer 8

Decree of the Reich President for the protection of the people and state plus the control of the police enabled Nazis to terrorise and arrest their opponents without legal process

Enabling Act, March 1933, enabled Hitler to pass laws without the Reichstag’s consent; a free election in Novemeber 1933 created a 100% Nazi Reichstag

Trade Unions were banned in 1933 and all workers forced to join the DAF

Night of the Long Knives and death of Hindenburg led to the army swearing on oath to Hitler in August 1934

Hitler youth gained increasing control over young people

Question 9

Failures of the Nazis policy of Gleichschaltung after 1933:

Answer 9

Hitler had to tolerate a predominately conservative cabinet and share power with the DNVP after only getting 44% of the vote in the March 1933 election

Hindenburg had the power to remove Hitler

Takeover of Jewish businesses had to be delayed to preserve the jobs of the Aryan employees

Hitlers attempt to control Protestant churches failed

Army had power to overthrow Hitler

Question 10

Why were the Nazis able to stay in control?

Answer 10

Terror: Gestapo, SS, Courts

Censorship and propaganda: radio and newspapers

Economic recovery: fall in unemployment

Policy successes: restoration of prestige abroad, restoration of political stability and social policy

Question 11

Why were the Nazis able to stay in control?

Terror - Gestapo

Answer 11

Political police; freedom to operate outside the law

Small, only 20,000 in 1939, but feared

Dependent on informers

Controlled by Himmler after 1936

Question 12

Why were the Nazis able to stay in control?

Terror - SS

Answer 12

Created as Hitler’s personal bodyguard

Led by Himmler

Chief police arm of Nazi party

Ran concentration and death camps

240,000 members in 1939

Night of the Long Knives (1934) removed their opposition (SA) and silenced conservative opposition

Question 13

Why were the Nazis able to stay in control?

Terror - Courts

Answer 13

People’s courts to try communists and enemies of regime so the Nazis could bypass traditional courts

Judges swore an oath of loyalty and were instructed to be tougher in sentencing criminals

Senior officials in the Ministry of Justice indicated to judges what their sentences should be

Question 14

Why were the Nazis able to stay in control?

Censorship and propaganda - Radio and Newspapers

Answer 14

Nazi controlled

Use of volksempfanger - cheap radios

Films - Olympia and Jud Suss

Self-censoring editors

‘Hitler myth’

Indoctrination of the youth

Question 15

Why were the Nazis able to stay in control?

Economic recovery

Answer 15

Fall in unemployment

Improvement in standard of living

Farmers incomes rose by 41%

Question 16

Why were the Nazis able to stay in control?

Policy successes

Answer 16

Restoration of prestige abroad such as remilitarisation of the Rhineland, conquest of Austria and Czechoslovakia without war and rearmament

Restoration of political stability after chaos of Weimar years

Social policy created a sense of ‘Volksgemeinschaft’

Question 17

Nazis aims of their social policies:

Answer 17

Traditional role for women

Improve birth rate - strengthen Aryan race

Indoctrination youth in Nazi values

Gain support from the workers

Eliminate Jews and ‘undesirables’ from the Volksgemeinschaft

Extend control over the church

Question 18

Hitlers consolidation of power:

Use of the law - “legal revolution”

Answer 18

New Reichstag elections were called for March 1933 - Nazis increased their share of the vote from 33% to 44%, but this still left them short of a majority in the Reichstag

Hitler proposed Enabling Act, Match 1933, which would effectively get rid of parliamentary procedure and legislation and instead transfer full powers to the Chancellor and his government for 4 years - enabled Hitler to make laws without consulting the Reichstag, enabling dictatorship to be grounded in legitimately

Enabling Act passed on March 23 1933 by 444 to 94 votes

Fresh election in November 1933 created a 100% Nazi Reichstag

Question 19

Why did Germany lose the war?

Answer 19

Hitlers strategic bungling

Germany was not fully prepared for war

Failure to defeat the USSR by the winter of 1941 and the entry of the USA into the war tipped the balance

Four Year Plan of 1936

Us economy was simply to powerful

Soviet economy had undergone a ruthless industrialised programme