Download Domestic Policies - BTHS World History

Domestic Policies
And Response to Opposition
From Chancellor to Dictator
• 1933
– January Hitler appointed
Chancellor
– February Reichstag fire
• Communists and union
leaders arrested
– March Reichstag elections
• Nazis won 44%,
Nationalists only 8%
– March Enabling Act
• Hitler could then bypass the
Reichstag to make laws
– March State parliaments
are Nazi majority
• (all state parliaments
abolished in 1934)
From Chancellor to Dictator
• 1933
– April Hitler replaced all
18 state governors with
Nazis
– May Trade unions
banned and replaced by
the German Labour
Front
– June All parties except
Nazis banned
– July Law passed making
the Nazi Party the sole
legal party
From Chancellor to Dictator
• 1934
– June Night of the Long
Knives
• Ernst Rohm and other SA
leaders arrested or killed
• Hitler claimed they had
been planning a putsch
• SA absorbed into the
military
– August President
Hindenburg died
• Hitler made himself Fuhrer,
combining positions of
President and Chancellor
• Army swore an oath of
loyalty to Hitler
Hitler’s Ideology
This is not clearly defined, although his
reasoning is set forth in Mein Kampf. It was
different from Mussolini’s fascism in that
Hitler had a unique racial and anti-Semitic
program not present in Italy.
The Nazi’s 25 Points of 1920 were a strange
mix of nationalist and socialist elements. It
became clear though that Hitler was not
committed to the socialist element.
Hitler’s Ideology
The Volk community was
everything to Hitler, the
individual was nothing.
His aim was to create a
society in which every
individual saw the
purpose of their life as
contributing to the greater
good of the German volk.
He attacked individual
rights and his
Volksgemeinschaft had
no room for asocials,
disabled, or non-Aryans
Policy Toward Asocials
• 1936 “asocial colony” of
Hashude
– For chronic alcoholics
– Late 1930s they were
sent to concentration
camps
• 10,000 tramps were sent
to concentration camps
• 25,000 gypsies (Germany
had about 30,000) died in
camps in WWII
Policy Towards the Disabled
• 1932 the Prussian
Health Council
proposed voluntary
sterilization for certain
hereditary diseases
• July 1933 Nazi
Sterilization Law made
it compulsory (320,000
were sterilized)
• Euthanasia 1939-41
– Physically and mentally
handicapped (72,000)
Anti-Semitism
•
•
•
•
•
May 1933 SA organized one day
boycott of Jewish businesses
Shortly after Hitler in power,
Jewish civil servants are fired
1935 Nuremberg Laws deprive
Jews of German citizenship
1938 Kristallnacht
– Attack on Jewish properties
and synagogues
– 20,000 Jews arrested
– Jews made to pay for cleanup
– Jewish doctors and lawyers
were forbidden to work for
Aryans
– Jewish children had to attend
separate schools
1942 Wansee Conference
– Final Solution (extermination
of Jews) was decided
The Use of Fear
•
•
•
Decree for the Protection of People
and State
– Feb 1933 allowed for indefinite
detention w/o trial
Dachau
– 1st concentration camp opened in
March 1933
– Never fewer than 10,000
prisoners
– Overall about 225,000
imprisoned for political reasons
(far fewer than Stalin)
Hermann Goering set up Gestapo in
1933
– Heinrich Himmler took over
– In some cases over 50% of all
charges were brought to the
police by citizens
The Use of Fear
• SS created in 1925 (Himmler
in control after 1929)
– Immense power after Night
of the Long Knives
– 200,000 members by 1935
– Ran the concentration
camps
– Enforced racial policies
• SD set up in 1931 by Himmler
– Gathered intelligence and
monitored public opinion
• After 1933, judges could be
removed for political beliefs
– Judges ordered to interpret
the law according to ‘the
will of the Fuhrer’
Control of the Media
•
Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and
Propaganda
– March 1933
– Josef Goebbels
– Reich Radio Company brought all
broadcasting under Nazi control
– Volksefpfanger (cheap radio)
mass-produced
• In 1932 only 25% of
households had a radio
• By 1939 more than 70% had
a radio
– In 1933 there were 4700 daily
newspapers
– By 1944 there were only 1000
newspapers
– Eher Verlag (Nazi publishing
house) controlled 66% of the
press by 1939
Nazi Policies Toward Women
• Kinder, Kirche, Kuche
• Employment was restricted
– Excluded from civil service
• Marriage encouraged
– From 1933, women who
left work to marry were
given an interest free
marriage loan (amount to
be repaid fell 25% with
each child born)
• Women’s Enterprise (DFW)
trained women in domestic
skills
– By 1935 3.5 million women
taken courses
Nazi Policies Toward Women
•
•
European birth rate was low, but
especially in Germany, so…
– Medals for prolific mommies
• Bronze 4-5 kids
• Silver 6-7
• Gold for 8 or more
– Divorce was made easy for
childless marriages
– Results
• 990,000 born in 1932
• 1.28 million born in 1937
By 1936, women were needed
due to labor shortages (1943
they were conscripted)
Youth in Nazi Germany
•
Hitler Jugend was set up in 1925
– By 1933 there were only 55,000
– Other youth groups totaled 5-6
million
– 1933 all other youth groups
closed, except those run by
Catholic Church, and absorbed
into the HJ
– By 1939 82% of 11-18 year-olds
in the HJ or the League of
German Maidens (for girls)
– 1939 membership was
compulsory, but attendance was
far from perfect
– Boys were trained for war and
girls for motherhood
Education
• Main aim was to develop
loyalty to the regime
• No emphasis on the
individual
• 1933 Law for Restoration of
a Professional Civil Service
led to a purge of teachers
• History and Biology lessons
especially became
politicized
• Emphasis on physical
education
• Eugenics (idea of selective
breeding) was introduced
and taught
Nazis and Religion
• Catholic Church:
– 1933 Concordat with the
Pope
• Bishops had to take
oath of loyalty to Nazi
state
– Nazis broke the agreement
in 1936 by closing down
Catholic youth groups and
monasteries
– Pope denounced the Nazi
regime in 1937 ‘With
Burning Concern’
– The Catholic press was
closed down in 1941
Nazis and Religion
• Protestant Churches
– Nazis tried to control from
within
– 1933 Nazis won 75% of
votes in Church elections
and their leader, Ludwig
Muller, was made Reich
Bishop
– Church leaders opposed
and established the
‘Confessional Church’
• Its leaders were
imprisoned
German Economy
• By 1933, Hitler knew he
needed to tackle economic
problems (unemployment)
• Hitler ignored socialist
elements of the Twenty-Five
Points and rejected SA calls
for nationalization of industry
(industrialists obviously liked
this)
• 1936 New Plan
– Govt control of foreign
exchange and trade
agreements
– Peasant farmers protected
by tariffs and helped by
cheap loans and tax
exemptions
German Economy
• What did Hitler do to
solve unemployment?
–
–
–
–
1932
1934
1937
1938
5.6%
2.3%
0.9%
0.2%
• Public works spending:
– New houses, planting
forests
• Expansion of car
industry:
– Removed tax on luxury
cars and cut tax on gas
– Autobahn
German Economy
• Cash incentives to women
for giving up their jobs
• Massive re-armament
program after 1935
• Re-introduced conscription
in 1935 – young men 18-20
no longer in workforce
• By 1937, there was actually
a shortage of skilled labor
• By 1938 GNP had risen to
80 billion from a low of 44
billion in 1933
• By 1939 wages had
recovered to 89% of their
1928 level
Four Year Plan (1936)
• Germany’s balance of
payments (imports and
exports) was out of whack
• Hitler could not risk cutting
back on food imports, so
decided to cut industrial raw
materials imports (rubber, oil,
iron)
• Planned to produce synthetics
domestically
• Overall the plan was not a
success, though rubber and oil
production did increase
• By 1939 Germany was still
importing 19% of its food
requirements
Rearmament
• Government spending in
billions of Reichsmarks
–
–
–
–
1932
1933
1935
1938
0.8
1.9
6.0
17.2
• 1933 Germany had 100,000
army, no tanks, no warplanes,
limited navy
• By 1939 it had 1200 bombers,
980,000 army, navy was three
times larger
• 66% of German industrial
investment was devoted to war
production from 1936-1939
Historical divide:
• Most historians say that Hitler was actually
only gearing up for a limited war (series of
short blitzkrieg campaigns) that would allow
Germany to exploit economic resources of
conquered countries before moving on.
USSR spoiled this when Germany got
bogged down in a war of attrition with them.
• Some historians point to the overwhelming
percentage of spending on war preparation
as proof of total war plans, and that Hitler
miscalculated his invasion of Poland
dragging all of Europe into war.
Opposition to the Nazis
•
Came from many places:
– Socialists
– Communists
– Working class people
– Church
• Both Catholic and
Protestant
– There was some slight
opposition from within the
army, but since rearmament
policies favored Nazi
officers, it was few and far
between (at least until
middle of 1944!)
– By 1945 500,000 Germans
were in concentration camps
for opposition
Limited Opposition
• Over the years the Nazis
became fairly popular due
to:
– Propaganda
– Their results on
unemployment and in
foreign policy
• Organized opposition was
eliminated
– 1933 political parties, trade
unions, etc.
• Opposition was illegal
and the SS and Gestapo
inspired fear and terror