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Category
Art and
Architecture
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Church
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Detail
The Nazi revolution in Germany needed
architecture to give a new image to history
and to offer modern society a strong rallying
point. The Nazi Socialist’s united view on
architecture was the rejection of modern
style.
In 1937 the Nazis opened the House of
German Art to show officially approved art.
At the same time they also put on
Many church members, mostly Protestants,
voted for Hitler. Protestant pastors were
among the most popular election speakers.
In 1933 Hitler signed a concordat with the
Catholic Church.
This stated that Hitler would live the church
alone and let them keep their schools if the
church would stay out of politics.
Churchgoers either supported the Nazis or
did little to oppose them.
1936 – Nazis ran campaigns discouraging
children to attend church schools
1937 – Christmas carols and nativity plays
banned from schools.
1938 – Priests stopped from teaching
religious classes in schools.
1939 – All remaining church schools
abolished
Evidence of success/failure
Failure
An exhibition of ‘Degenerate Art’ (art banned by the Reich Chamber of
Culture). This exhibition was very popular and attracted five times as many
visitors as to the approved German Art exhibition.
Mostly failed: few joined Reich Church and many churchmen spoke out
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Schneider was a pastor who criticized the Nazis, especially Josef
Goebbels.
1935 – Hitler set up a new department to control churches.
The Gestapo arrested 700 protestants who opposed him.
Hitler tried to unify all Protestant churches into one official Reich
Church, because of this the Protestant Churches were split into two
groups but this didn’t work.
The Catholic Bishop Galen criticized the Nazis and in 1941 led a protest
against the Nazi policies of killing disabled people
Much opposition from the Church
Pastor Niemöller, along with Dietrich Bonhoeffer formed an alternate
protestant church.
Niemöller was arrested and spent 7 years in a concentration camp for
resisting the Nazis
Bonhoeffer preached against Nazis, but was stopped by the Gestapo in
1937.
Propaganda
Opposition
Why was Nazi Propaganda so successful?
Mostly succeeded
-Advertisements and statements proclaiming Nazi
ideology were placed in the most outstanding
physical positions
-The Nazi folk was brainwashed as a result of the
increasingly repetitive media flashes
-Nazi beliefs were extremely racist and atrocious,
but simplistic and easy to understand for the
intellectually challenged.
Josef Goebbels – Ministry of Propaganda
Aim – to create a Volksgemeinschaft.
Mass rallies, radios, posters, speeches, film, art etc.
all put across the same message: of the Nazi super
race
Censorship was tight – newspapers were under the
control of Nazi editors. Vital element in the control
of people’s minds.
The propaganda machine was brilliantly organized and presented the same
message Despite the power of propaganda some people still were not convinced
Or else why opposition? False success) People were not convinced by Nazi
ideology, but were forced to vote for Nazi electoral votes as a result of the great
pressure put on them by the S.A
50/50 got people working up to end of war and anti-Semitism, Winterhilfe
etc but why opposition?
70/30 never eliminated opposition but no serious uprising
1. The Media- The media resisted before Hitler came to be chancellor, they
mainly educated the ordinary people about what the Nazis were really
about, they wrote articles criticizing Hitler and the Nazi party.
2. The traditional elite- the Junkers you could say did not resist as much as
they could, those who resisted by mainly not supporting the Nazis,
3. Communists- the communists were probably the strongest resisters to
the Nazis as they, kept spreading their beliefs even though they were
practically crushed. There was also a big sum of them in Russia which
helped. There was a big communist group called the Red Orchestra,
which became very important during the Second World War
4. Religion- the churches resisted by at first being a different political party
and challenging the Nazis in the Reichstag, also reading sermons about
how they did not like the Nazis and in the end the Nazis threatened
them, so they had to agree
5. The Edelweiss pirates; as the state controlled Hitler Youth was
mobilized to serve the state, at the expense of the leisure activities it had
previously offered young people. This tension was exacerbated once the
war began and youth leaders were conscripted. Apart from gatherings on
street corners, the Edelweiss Pirates engaged in hiking and camping
trips, which kept them away from the prying eyes of the authoritarian
Nazi regime. One group, at Munich University, called the ‘White Rose’,
centred around Hans and Sophie Scholl. They were arrested and
executed in 1944. Swing movement
6. Later, in the war years, some people in the army became horrified by the
Nazis’ brutality and worried that Hitler was leading Germany to certain
defeat. In 1944 some officers planted a bomb in his war-room, but it
failed to kill him. 5,000 people were executed in retaliation.
Economy
Schacht solved the problem of lack of capital by:
 Barter deals with other countries
 Printing more money
 Mefo bills - credit notes with which
businesses were paid by the government.
 Autarky or self-sufficiency to ensure that
Germany could survive a wartime blockade.
 Reduction of imports
 Price and wage controls
 The production of ersatz or artificial
goods (e.g. rubber, fuel).
 Into army or public work schemes
Not that successful: temporary fix but problems in economy and shortages
over heating therefore war. Most people worse off
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Small businesses were dissolved by law in 1937, and red tape and
bureaucracy stifled business in general. All businesses had to join the
Reich Chamber of Economics. However big business flourished as
they produced armaments, etc
Hitler ran out of money to pay for projects i.e. four year plan
Ships carrying food and raw materials were unable to get to German
ports
Hours of work were longer
Ordinary Germans were not as well off under Nazi rule
Unemployment did fall, but Jews and political opponents didn't
appear in the figures. Neither did the women forced out of work.
Labour service and conscription further reduced the figures.
Rearmament and public works (e.g. autobahnen) created work.
Wages fell in real terms as; prices outstripped wages.
'Voluntary' contributions (e.g. winter relief) increased. Taxes
increased. Businessmen
Guns or butter debate
Terror
Youth
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90 % Effective but under a police state not entirely as still opposition
Done under SS, SA and Gestapo
Detecting and stamping out opposition
Terror by day and death by night
The concentration camps
The Nazi Police State was made up of many
different branches.
 Their job was to ensure that everybody did as
they were told to.
 In 1921 Adolf Hitler formed his own private
army called Sturm Abteilung..
 -The SS was split up into sections of security,
intelligence and police forces. The most
notorious of which was the Totenkopf, the
Death's Head which was the most feared unit of
Hitler's men.
-When the SS was started it contained about
10,000 men
• The Hitler Youth group was founded in
• Some members of the Hitler youth were charged with war crimes, but
1926, and was aimed to turn the young
since the whole organization was based on children, no punishment was
people of Germany into loyal Nazi followers.
given to those members.
• Meetings took up a lot of time, so children in the youth groups had little
 The program emphasized military games and
time for homework and other school activities.
physical training. He wanted them ready to
• Many children started getting fed up of the time it took up, and the
fight in countless, hard and endless battles.
boring lectures and readings from Mein Kampf.
Hitler wanted them to join the SS or SA.
• One million not members by 1936
• The Hitler Youth group became extremely
popular in the 1930’s. It became so popular
60/40 somewhat effective
that many other youth groups had to be shut
down.
• By 1936 almost all young Germans were
either in the Hitler Youth, or in the League
of German Maidens, a Nazi youth group for
girls.
• Youth groups for girls were not as important
for the Nazis as boys groups, because girls
could not be trained for military service.
The League of German Maidens
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Women
Since girls did not go to the army, the
importance of their youth groups was much
less.
• Instead of military service, girls youth
groups were to prepare them for motherhood.
• There were long meetings, so girls found that
they did not have as much time for
homework. This was to prevent them from
having a career.
Hitler had traditional views on what he thought the
German women should be like; they should be good
mothers, bringing up children at home while their
husbands worked.
-Most German women actually agreed with this. In
traditional rural areas and small towns, many
women felt that the proper role of a woman was to
support her husband. A man’s role was that of a
worker and a soldier-provider and defender. A
woman’s place was in the home, having children
and caring for her family. By 1933 there were
100,000 women teachers, 13,000 women musicians
and 3,000 women doctors.
-The Nazis’ ideal woman did not go to work,
-There was public pressure to stop women smoking
in public.
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50/50
‘The Nazis believed that the place for women was in the home and this was
emphasised through propaganda posters. Their role was to produce children.
This was vital for the Nazis as they would be the future of the Regime. The
Nazis were worried about the declining birth rate. In 1900 there had been over
two million live births per year but this had dropped to under one million in
1933. German women were rewarded for having lots of children. “The Honor
Cross of the German Mother” was awarded to German mothers as follows: Gold
for eight children, silver for six and bronze for four children. The holders of
the award were also given an honored position at Nazi meetings. Contraception
and abortions were made illegal to try and reverse the falling birth rates. This
was successful as the birth rate In 1936 there were over 30 per cent more births
than there had been in 1933 by 1939 had increased by 45%.’ ‘The Nazis wanted
full employment of males and to achieve this they encouraged women not to
work. This was successful as unemployment of males reduced significantly.’
However
During the 1930’s there was a decision to also make women work, instead of
making the men do all the work. This was because of a shortage of labour due to
the War.-Many jobs started to get discovered such as secretarial work, shop
keeping and many, many more other jobs were starting to come into fashion and
from then on many women were allowed to work and earn money as well.
‘There were 1.2 million more women working after six years of Nazi rule than
there had been at the start. ‘Many German women objected to their role as
second-class citizens and some joined illegal opposition political parties like the
Communists or social Democrats to campaign for better status. Others criticised
these policies because they ignored those women who had particular talents for
certain types of employment.’
Schools
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All schools came under Nazi control. School
books were rewritten and teachers had to join
the Nazi teachers League.
Everything the teachers taught had some
connection with the war, if not it was
considered as useless.
Subjects were changed; the most affected
were history, which was now based on
German history from a pro-German point of
view, and biology, which focused on “Racial
Instruction” in which the pupils were taught
that the German race was superior.
Girls had a different timetable, which
focused more on domestic science.
P.E. became much more important, it was
given15% of school time, if the pupils failed
the examination they could be expelled.
Religious studies became less important
subjects; the pupils were given the choice on
whether to drop it or not in 1937.
The very best pupils went to special schools
in which they were taught to be the future
leaders of Germany, some of them could
later expect to get a high position in the SS.
Impossible to measure but did control the curriculum and got Nazi
youth to fight to the end
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From 1935 on, Jewish children were not allowed to attend schools.
Workers
Effects of
war on the
people of
Germany
Hitler’s first reaction was to set up a National
Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst or RAD)
 This organization played their part in
breaking down class barriers and gave men
jobs in public work schemes such as digging
drainage ditches on farms, planting new
forest and building schools and hospitals.
 But for thousands of men, that was better
than living with no work at all and they got
free meals
 In March 1935 Hitler started a compulsory
military service for young men and set up an
air force,
 Doctor Ley had made some improvements in
the life of workers, making sure that bosses
could not sack workers on the spot, workers
couldn’t leave the job without the
government’s permission and that only
government run labour exchanges could
arrange new jobs.
 Kraft Durch Freude (KDF), meaning
“Strength through Joy”, was a large
organization which organized leisure
activities for people.
 It did not confine itself to trips and concerts
and it also got involved in a scheme that
enabled the German workers to buy their
own car, names as the “Volkswagen Project”
(‘people’s car’)
Mostly failed (unemployment went down) but most workers worse off
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Men in RAD had to wear military uniform and live in camps and were
given only pocket money as wages.
 In 1935 it was compulsory for men at the age of 18-25 year old to do 6
months service in RAD.
 Work was usually exhausting and living conditions was very poor.
 Hitler abolished all trade unions 1933 and set up the German Labour
Front in their place
 He also abolished the right of the workers to bargain for higher wages,
made strikes illegal and got rid of the limitations on the number of hours
a person could be made to work for,
 By 1939 many Germans found themselves working 60-72 hours a week
 Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled every part of people’s lives
including their free time.
 Doctor Ley persuaded people to start paying for cars on hire purchase
before the Volkswagon factory went into production. But none the
customers had received a car by the time World War 2 broke out in
1939.
 The Volkswagen plant had then turned into weapons production and
none of the money paid for the cars was ever refunded
 Workers were not allowed to leave their jobs without government permissio
 The DAF also sought to direct the private lives of the workers through
"Strength through Joy". This distracted workers from poor wages etc. It
fitted in with Nazi "volkisch" philosophy. It provided cheap holidays and
organized leisure activities. It also provided the government with income.
The workers paid for these activities.
100% disaster
1939-41 Germans lived off rations which were better than before the war, but
the diets were always the same. meat-453g, bread-2.2kg, fats-340g, sugar-340g,
coffee-435g. this was the normal ration that was given once every week. War
seems to go well for Nazi-Germany
-1941-43 Hitler ordered the invasion of the USSR
-1943-44:: The war starts to get tough for Germany, government prepares "Total
War" with every part of Germany geared to the war effort. Everything that did
not contribute to the war efforts was eliminated, in 1943 professional sport
ended, magazines non important towards war were closed. Women start
working since men are in battles. Number of doctors to treat victims was going
down. Attack on Hamburg in 43 led to a fire storm which wiped out large areas
of the city. Many Germans died, government had to step in and build emergency
accommodation for air-raid victims, since emergency services had collapsed.
-1944-45 Goebbels ordered the following:
 All non-German servants and all workers to go into armaments factories.
 To save fuel, railway and postal services were reduced, and close all
letter boxes.
 All theatres, opera houses, music halls and places of entertainment
(exept cinema for propaganda) were to be closed
 The age limit for compulsory labour for women was raised to fifty.
The Volkssturm (home guard) was formed.
Ultimately why did the Nazis manage to control Germany and why did opposition fail?
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Terror was a very important factor. Everybody knew that they were being watched. In every block of flats there was someone recording when people went in
and out and who they met. People could be arrested at any moment and never be seen again.
Children spied on their parents. Hitler tried to break down the family and make children loyal to him. He was described as their father in schoolbooks.
Endless and powerful propaganda had its effect. It was impossible to get anti-Nazi views heard at all and the mass of people only heard good things.
There was no mass feeling of resentment against Hitler, at least until the middle of the war.