NAZI SOCIAL POLICIES Flashcards
(19 cards)
1
Q
EDUCATION
A
- tight grip over teachers and curriculum
- Law for re-establishment of professional civil service 1933- number of teachers dismissed
- 1935- Ministry of education tightened control over curriculum, by 1938 rules covered every year and almost all subjects
- emphasis on PE- became militaristic
- History and Geography lessons focused on concepts of Lebensraum, “blood and social”, racial superiority
- Teachers pressured into joining National Socialist Teachers’ League- most did willingly
2
Q
BOARDING SCHOOLS
A
- Created to train future elite
- Emphasis on physical fitness, political indoctrination, military drill
- Napola schools 10-18
- Adolf Hitler Schools for boys 12-18
- Castles of Order 25-30
3
Q
UNIVERSITIES
A
- Attacked and undermined
- Women restricted to 10%, Jews to 1.5%
- LRPCS forced 15% of Staff out; rest forced to sign oath of allegiance to Hitler in November 1933
- Students forced to do 4 months of labour service, two months in SA camp
- German Students’ League- students had to join, but some 25% avoided
- Little resistance- self-coordination common; Universities dominated by nationalist anti-democratic sentiment; fraternities breeding ground for reactionary politics
- Students willingly joined as prospects of employment depended on outward support for regime
4
Q
WORKERS
A
- One of the most important aspects- key for bringing out splendour of Nazi Germany
- March 1933- trade unions replaced with German Labour front
- 1933 GERMAN LABOUR FRONT DAF under Robert Ley
> 1936- introduced vocational training courses to improve skills
> built large business empire- banks, housing associations, etc
> aimed to: win workers to Volksgemeinschaft, increase production
> 1939- 44,500 paid workers
5
Q
GERMAN LABOUR FRONT
A
1933 under Robert Ley
- took over assets of banned trade unions
- largest organisation in Third Reich
- membership not compulsory but grew rapidly
- Own propaganda department to spread ideology
- No ability to bargain wage or working hours- worked longer hours and for less
- 1936- provided vocational training courses
- 1939: 44,500 paid employees
- Propaganda promoted message that reward for working was not material but serving the community
6
Q
STRENGTH THROUGH JOY (KDF)
A
- Workers would gain strength by experiencing joy in leisure time
- Holidays, sports, cultural activities
- AIMS:
> submerge individual into mass- no time to develop private life
> spirit of social equality
> break down regional and religious differences
> encourage participation in sport; all youth in employment had to do 2 hours of physical education
> encourage competition and ambition - Workers given subsidised holidays, sporting activities, and theatre and cinema visits for cheaper
- By 1939 3.5 million belonged to it
> highly popular
7
Q
MASS TOURISM- KDF
A
- one of most successful activities
- Cruises, Rail trips, ships- classless holidays
> life on cruises regimented- modest attire, controlled drinking, no affairs, obey tour leaders
> Gestapo and SS travelled to spy
> Tickets too expensive for ordinary workers, mainly middle-classes
> Gestapo reported mass drunkenness and riotous behaviour- especially from party officials- Robert Ley worst offender
8
Q
BEAUTY OF LABOUR
A
- Part of KDF department
- Campaigned for better washing facilities, sports facilities, good meals
- Regime claimed that by 1938- 34,000 companies had improved working conditions
> workers beared costs of these improvements, firms expected employees to paint factories and build new facilities in own time
9
Q
PRORA HOLIDAY RESORT
A
- Built on Baltic Sea as part of Strength Through Joy in 1936-1939
- 8 buildings for 20,000 people
- Planned holiday resort- never finished and largely used as propaganda
10
Q
WOMEN
A
- Kinder (children), Küche (kitchen), Kirche (church)
- intended to raise birth rate and remove women from employment
> Hitler heavily praised women for their sacrifices and being loyal - employment of women: 1933- 37%; 1937: 31%; 1939: 33%
- Marriage Loan 1933- 800,000 couples took offer; newlywed women to leave work- loan repayment decreased by 1/4 for every child
- German Women’s League 1933: coordinated all women’s groups under Nazi control; 1939: over 6 million members
- Reich Mothers’ Service- by 1939 1.7M women had attended motherhood training service
- Law for prevention of Hereditary diseased offspring: 100,000 women sterilised by 1937
- Mother’s cross 1938: awards given to women for birthing; Gold for 8+
- Birth control discouraged, abortion severely restricted
- rearmament led to women being needed at work; in 1939 all single women had to report for compulsory labour in war-related industries
11
Q
SUCCESS- women
A
- Birth rate raised- yet arguably due to better economy
- Despite objection to paid employment for women it grew- 1933- 37%; 1937: 31%; 1939: 33%
- women instrumental in many aspects:
> 1939- all single women to report for compulsory labour in war-related industries
> key role in welfare workers, secretaries in Nazi machinery of destruction, nurses in Euthanasia programme
> weekly stew day- economic stew, money saved donated
> Koop wrote that docility was the only trait that mattered in women
12
Q
BOYS
A
- Hitler Youth established in 1926; all other groups except Catholic ones banned in 1933, Law for incorporation of HJ made them official and equal to schools- banned Catholic organisations, compulsory by 1939
- Prepared boys for military life, indoctrinated political propaganda
> initially popular in 1933 onwards- comradeship, loyalty, honour, sacrifice; support waned and absences grew as it became militaristic- Swinger youth and edelweiss pirates - Gestapo reports in Cologne contained names of 3,000 pirates whose activities became more extreme (beat up Hitler Youth, helped Jews)
13
Q
GIRLS
A
- League of German Girls- be faithful, be pure, be German
- Compulsory by 1939
- girls taught their bodies belonged to the nation, responsibility of keeping purity and marrying suitable men
- Faith and Beauty groups instructed women in baby care and social skills
- Duty of health and cleanliness emphasized
- Jutta Rüdiger- leader, taught importance of marrying suitable German soldier
- Post 1934- years’ work on the land or domestic service- unpopular with city girls; made compulsory in 1939
- Sense of comradeship- classless groups
14
Q
CHURCHES
A
- Coordinating churches into Volksgemeinschaft was difficult- divisions of faith
- Majority Protestant, but significant minority Catholic
> Protestants: 58% of population, North and East, linked to DNVP and DVP
> Catholics 32%; Bavaria and Rhineland, linked with Centre Party - Religious loyalties deeply-rooted
- Hitler raised as a Catholic and spoke of a positive Christianity- but at other times stated he wanted to eradicate it to place himself at forefront of loyalty
- Lack of coherent Nazi religious policy- Hitler reassured Church leaders that nazism was not threat, Robert Ley wanted to replace it with Nazi faith
15
Q
PROTESTANT CHURCH
A
- Main was Evangelical Church- seen as threat for single national Church
> politically conservative and nationalist; saw Germany as Protestant state
> many anti-semitic and anti-communist, strong respect for State
> strongest areas of support for Nazis were Protestant North and East
> 1933- Nazis turned 450th bday of Luther into major celebration (Catholic monk who challenged authority of papacy and started Protestantism in Germany- expressed anti-semitic views)
16
Q
REICH CHURCH
A
- 1933- Nazi regime coordinated Evangelical Church into centralised Reich Church
- Church election July 1933- German Christians won majority and prepared Nazifying Church- Müller became Reich bishop and abolished all elected bodies
- German christians- pressure group operating in German Evangelical- “SA of Church”, pastors who wore SA or SS uniforms and swung Swastika flags in church
- November 1933- German Christians held mass rally celebrating triumph, demanded all pastors not declaring their allegiance and non aryans to be dismissed
- Aryan Paragraph- 18 pastors dismissed
17
Q
CONFESSIONAL CHURCH
A
- September 1933- dissident pastors Niemöller and Bonhoeffer established Pastors’ emergency League and set up confessional church- support of 5,000 pastors
- Defiance- demonstrated failure of Gleichschaltung
- 1935: Ministry for Church Affairs marginalised bishop Müller
- Regime began repressing CC while exploiting its division
-Church Secession Campaign persuaded party members to renounce Church membership
> 1939: 5% of population listed as god-believers
> party members not allowed to hold office in Protestant or Catholic churches
> teachers and civil servants targeted to renounce faith
18
Q
CATHOLIC CHURCH
A
- bigger challenge- international church following pope
- 1930s- Catholics least likely to vote for Nazis; but prepared to compromise
- Catholics saw communism as worse than nazism, hated jews
- CONCORDAT July 1933
> Vatican recognised regime and promised to not interfere
> Regime promised to not interfere in Catholic Church and allow control of schools, organisations, lay groups - Nazis broke terms
> Summer 1933- Nazis seized property of organisations and forced them to close; Catholic newspapers forced to drop “Catholic” from name; SS and Gestapo surveilled priests - June 1934- NOLK executed leading Catholics like Gerlich (known critic and editor of Catholic journal)
– Catholic hierarchy made no protest to protect Catholic Church
19
Q
CONFLICT WITH CATHOLICS
A
- Some Catholic priests began speaking out 1935-36
- von Galen- Archbishop of Münster key
RESPONSE - permission to hold public meetings restricted
- newspapers and magazines censored
- Goebbels propaganda against financial corruption of Catholic lay organisations- funds seized and offices closed
- Membership of HJ compulsory
1937 Pope Pius XI issued encyclical sneaked into Germany criticising repression - Gestapo and SS placed inside Catholic Church organisations
- Tightened restrictions on Catholic press- Catholic youth groups closed down
- monasteries closed down and assets seized
- Goebbels published sex scandals involving Catholic priests- 2,000 arrested
- 1939- all Church schools converted into community schools
- OVERALL
> Older Catholics continued attending services; but were torn with being seen as Good Germans
> many careful not to place themselves in outright opposition
> Church did not mount organised resistance
> by 1939 concordat effectively dead- façade kept in operation
