Did most people in Germany benefit from Nazi rule?

Question 1

Certain groups became better/worse off under Nazi rule. What were these groups?

Answer 1

• Workers
• Farmers
• Businesses

Question 2

What suggests some workers were better off?

Answer 2

• Unemployment fell to 2 million by 1936
• Strength Through Joy org gave workers leisure opportunities (cheap holidays, cinema tickets, sporting trips)
• Volkswagen (people’s car) scheme introduced
• Beauty of Labour scheme (part of the German Labour Front) provided better working conditions (to foster loyalty)

Question 3

What suggests some farmers were better off?

Answer 3

• Reich Food Estate guaranteed German farmers better prices
• Reich Entailed Farm Law stopped banks seizing land if they didn’t pay their debts
• “Blood and Soil” campaign portrayed German peasant as backbone of Aryan race

Question 4

What suggests some businesses were better off?

Answer 4

• Nazis removed communist threat
• Small shopkeepers got told large department stores would be restricted
• Industry benefitted from rearmament (trade unions + strikes banned)
• Huge government contracts for industries producing war goods like explosives and chemicals

Question 5

What suggests some businesses were worse off?

Answer 5

• Despite promises, small shops still had to compete against department stores
• Big business increasingly under state control
• Lack of consumer goods to sell

Question 6

What suggests some farmers were worse off?

Answer 6

• Forced to grow what Nazis wanted
• Leads to increased rural depopulation (because only eldest child could inherit the farm, so younger children without income)

Question 7

What suggests some workers were worse off?

Answer 7

• Wages remained low and discipline was harsh
• Trade unions banned and replaced by DAF (German Workers’ Front)
• Striking was illegal
• No worker ever received their Volkswagen

Question 8

In what ways did Hitler manage to address the unemployment crisis caused by the Depression?

Answer 8

• Government spending increased and was channelled into work-creation programs
• Dr Schacht introduced the New Plan in September 1934 to help solve economic crisis (industrial output rose, more autocratic, balance of payment prevent foreign currency outflows)
• National Labour Service (RAD) set up to employ men (18-25) for six months before their conscription to build new “autobahns” (motorways) and other facilities
• Government took control of foreign trade to focus on raw materials for war industry
• By 1936, unemployment had dropped to under 2 million
• By 1938, unemployment was less than half a million (known as “Nazi economic miracle”)

Question 9

In what ways did Hitler not manage to address the unemployment crisis caused by the Depression?

Answer 9

• Faced initial hardship, still over 5 million unemployed by late 1933
• Huge government debt in the midst of the Nazi “economic miracle” (unsustainable in long-term due to military build up not sustainable consumer demand)
• Jewish people and political opponents removed from jobs and replaced with Aryan Germans
• Schacht was replaced by Goering in 1937 who introduced a Four-Year Plan to prepare Germany for war
  (wages and prices were closely controlled, industries forced to produce war materials rather than consumer goods so led to shortages, public debt rose rapidly, rationing introduced, black markets grew)

Question 10

What did Hitler promise when he took power?

Answer 10

• To end Depression
• To provide work