Post by Mr Modica on May 29, 2013 19:17:28 GMT
Use alongside class notes!
Nazi Germany
Hitler’s ideas
•Nationalism – a strong Germany
•Socialism – state to control the economy, although Hitler did not see this as so important (did not want to upset big business)
•Race – Aryans were the most superior, Jews and Slavs the most inferior
•War – inevitable so it was important to keep Aryans healthy
•Lebensraum – Living space for German colonists in the conquered land of the East
•Leadership – one leader who made all the decisions (dictatorship), democracy was seen as weak.
Nazi Economy
The economy in Nazi Germany was used for various things, to fix the economic problems, to control the workers and to prepare for the war Hitler knew he would have to fight.
Aims
· Hitler had promised people “work and bread” – he had to reduce unemployment.
· He wanted to make Germany self sufficient so they did not have to rely on foreign trade.
· He wanted to prepare Germany for war.
Reduce Unemployment by:
•Public work schemes (autobahns) employed young men in National Labour Service
•Conscription into army after 1935
•Rearmament – building guns
•Women encouraged to give up jobs
•Jews forced to give up jobs
•The trade cycle
Control of workers
•Needed workers to work longer hours for less pay.
•Trade unions abolished, replaced with the German Labour Front.
•Beauty of Labour – improved working conditions (workplace canteens)
•Strength Through Joy –provided incentives (free holidays on the Robert Ley cruise liner)
Prepare for war – Four Year Plan
•Led by Goering
•Autobahns – easy to move army
•National Labour Service – like the army
•Conscription
•Volkswagen – turned into tank factories
•Self sufficiency – no imported goods
•Choice between “guns or butter”.
If Germany made a sacrifice in the short term, they would be able to plunder conquered countries in the long term.
Were people better off?
•If you were poor, yes, you had a job and food
•The National Labour Service paid badly
•Could not buy luxury consumer goods (shoes) or tropical fruit
•Women and Jews weren’t working any more
•Workers – longer hour less pay, no trade unions to protect rights
•Strength Through Joy gave the opportunity to go on a cruise, but not many had the chance
The Police State - Terror
The Nazis used fear to maintain their control on the people and punish anybody who threatened their power.
•Himmler was in charge of the SS and Gestapo
•SS – Blackshirts, started as Hitler’s body guard, became concentration camp guards and ran the Holocaust, elite Aryan soldiers
•SA – Brownshirts, used to disrupt political meetings and as hired thugs, not important after Night of the Long Knives.
•SD – network of secret Informers, they could be anyone so the saying ‘speak through a flower’ emerged
•Gestapo – secret police, Germans believed there was one on every street corner, investigated people and ran the informers
•Show trials designed to scare people, i.e. Van de Lubbe and Stauffenberg bomb plotters
•Prison and concentration camps (Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen)
•Labour camps and death camps
•Coupled with programmes such as T4 to get rid of anyone unfit to work and seen as too expensive for the state to look after
•Not only Jews ended up in concentration camps, anyone who Hitler saw as inferior or anti-Nazi ended up there too, e.g. the work shy, homosexuals, gypsies
•Role of torture and release to set an example, everyone knew someone who knew someone who had been affected by state terror
•Judicial system run by the Nazis under Chief Judge Roland Freisler, ensured trials were not fair
Propaganda
Definition – a strong attempt to persuade or convince people of a particular point of view.
The Nazis saw propaganda as very important as it was a means to control the population and convince them that what the Nazis were doing was the best for Germany. It also helped to destroy the Nazis opponents as the Nazi propaganda methods were much better and thorough than say, the Communists.
What methods did they use?
•Goebbels in charge
•Elections of 1932 – posters, banners, flags, records of speeches, “Hitler over Germany” (flew to big stadiums and made speeches)
•After Hitler was in power, propaganda showed the ideal Nazis and kept people from seeing other ideas
•Cheap Radios sold – ‘Peoples Receiver’ – so Germans could listen to Hitler at home, speeches also played over loud speakers in public places
•Film – Eternal Jew – ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ banned.
•Control of the Arts – Art, Literature and Music (Wagner was considered good, Jazz banned, Picasso banned)
•Controlled the Press and published Der Sturmer, the Nazi newspaper
•Rallies held e.g. Nuremburg where thousands of people would march under the Nazi banner in a massive show of unity
•1936 Olympic Games showed Hitler’s Germany to the rest of the world
•Architecture – Hitler favoured classical architecture such as the Romans had used and built accordingly
•Book burning e.g. Babalplatz, anti-Nazi books burnt and any authors considered not to fit the Nazi ideal had their books burnt too
Youth in Nazi Germany To ensure the survival of Nazi ideas and to get his Thousand Year Reich, Hitler had to control the next generation too. Young people in Nazi Germany were very important to Hitler.
•Education Nazified – favoured subjects for example History, Eugenics and PE
•Teachers were indoctrinated, forced to join Nazi teaching associations and those who refused to teach Nazi ideas were fired
•Young people’s time both inside and outside school was controlled to discourage opposition
•Hitler Youth for boys 14 – 18, activities included camping, marching and fighting in preparation for war, wore a uniform
•League of German Maidens for girls, activities included cooking, child care, keeping fit in preparation for their role as mothers of the next generation
•Both boys and girls were indoctrinated with Nazi ideas
•Edelweiss Pirates, Swing Youth and White Rose Group all opposed Hitler
Anti Semitism Hatred of the Jews built up in Nazi Germany gradually to ensure Germany did not revolt against Hitler. Anti Semitic propaganda was used to back up his ideas and anyone who tried to help the Jews was dealt with severely.
Evolution of Anti Semitism
•Shop Boycott April 1933 – not that successful
•Nuremburg Laws – 1933 – 1945 – removed citizenship, Jews forced to wear a yellow star, had their first names changed
•Kristallnacht 9 Nov 1938 - the night many Germans “lost their innocence”, Jewish shops and businesses attacked and many arrests made
•The Wannsee Conference 1942 – decision to gas the Jews in the ‘Final Solution’
Why were the Germans ready to accept the Nazis hatred of the Jews?
•History of anti Semitism across Europe in general
•Anti Semitism in Germany before Hitler
•Jealous of Jewish wealth, especially small shopkeepers
•People accepted Nazi anti Semitic propaganda as the truth
•Germans wanted someone to blame for Germany’s difficulties
•People were scared that it might be them next if they did not cooperate
•Education system taught hatred of Jews
•People never believed that it would end in the Holocaust
Religion
The Christian Church at first supported the Nazis. They did not like the weak Weimar Republic and when it looked like it was about to collapse they had to choose between the Nazis and the Communists. As the Communists were atheists, they chose the Nazis.
•The Reich Church came at the beginning of Hitler’s time in power – German Christians – said they had a ‘Swastika on our chest, Cross in our heart’, showed Church and State could work together
•Catholic Church did a deal with the Nazis not to interfere with each other but Hitler broke the promise, the Catholic Church stopped supporting them but it was too late
•Pastor Niemoller opposed the Reich Church, he set up his own confessional, anti Nazi church and ended up in a concentration camp
•Hitler tried to completely do away with the Church because they were seen as a potential threat due to the loyalty given to God
•Nazis supported ancient Pagan religions instead
Opposition Those who opposed the party in Nazi Germany were dealt with severely. They covered a wide number of different groups, all of whom were seen as a threat to Hitler’s power.
Communists, Democrats, Trade Unions, church and Jews were all suppressed
•Low grade opposition such as refusing to salute and telling anti Nazi jokes
•Edelweiss Pirates, Navajos and White Rose set up as non political opposition
•White Rose group – Hans and Sophie Scholl – produced anti Nazi Pamphlets at university and were tried and executed
•Martin Niemoller – Confessional Church – did not like Nazi ideas and was sent to a concentration camp
•Stauffenberg Bomb plot - German officers who did not like Nazi atrocities and thought they were going to lose the war, attempted to blow up the room Hitler was having a meeting in
World War Two
In the early 1930’s and up to the defeat of France in 1940 Hitler was at his most popular, but as the German army started to be defeated in Russia and at D-Day and with intensive allied bombing of cities such as Dresden, his popularity started to decline and opposition became greater. Hitler was also seen less and less in public.
(Miss Webster's site: springwoodgcsehistory.blogspot.co.uk/p/germany-content.html)
Nazi Germany
Hitler’s ideas
•Nationalism – a strong Germany
•Socialism – state to control the economy, although Hitler did not see this as so important (did not want to upset big business)
•Race – Aryans were the most superior, Jews and Slavs the most inferior
•War – inevitable so it was important to keep Aryans healthy
•Lebensraum – Living space for German colonists in the conquered land of the East
•Leadership – one leader who made all the decisions (dictatorship), democracy was seen as weak.
Nazi Economy
The economy in Nazi Germany was used for various things, to fix the economic problems, to control the workers and to prepare for the war Hitler knew he would have to fight.
Aims
· Hitler had promised people “work and bread” – he had to reduce unemployment.
· He wanted to make Germany self sufficient so they did not have to rely on foreign trade.
· He wanted to prepare Germany for war.
Reduce Unemployment by:
•Public work schemes (autobahns) employed young men in National Labour Service
•Conscription into army after 1935
•Rearmament – building guns
•Women encouraged to give up jobs
•Jews forced to give up jobs
•The trade cycle
Control of workers
•Needed workers to work longer hours for less pay.
•Trade unions abolished, replaced with the German Labour Front.
•Beauty of Labour – improved working conditions (workplace canteens)
•Strength Through Joy –provided incentives (free holidays on the Robert Ley cruise liner)
Prepare for war – Four Year Plan
•Led by Goering
•Autobahns – easy to move army
•National Labour Service – like the army
•Conscription
•Volkswagen – turned into tank factories
•Self sufficiency – no imported goods
•Choice between “guns or butter”.
If Germany made a sacrifice in the short term, they would be able to plunder conquered countries in the long term.
Were people better off?
•If you were poor, yes, you had a job and food
•The National Labour Service paid badly
•Could not buy luxury consumer goods (shoes) or tropical fruit
•Women and Jews weren’t working any more
•Workers – longer hour less pay, no trade unions to protect rights
•Strength Through Joy gave the opportunity to go on a cruise, but not many had the chance
The Police State - Terror
The Nazis used fear to maintain their control on the people and punish anybody who threatened their power.
•Himmler was in charge of the SS and Gestapo
•SS – Blackshirts, started as Hitler’s body guard, became concentration camp guards and ran the Holocaust, elite Aryan soldiers
•SA – Brownshirts, used to disrupt political meetings and as hired thugs, not important after Night of the Long Knives.
•SD – network of secret Informers, they could be anyone so the saying ‘speak through a flower’ emerged
•Gestapo – secret police, Germans believed there was one on every street corner, investigated people and ran the informers
•Show trials designed to scare people, i.e. Van de Lubbe and Stauffenberg bomb plotters
•Prison and concentration camps (Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen)
•Labour camps and death camps
•Coupled with programmes such as T4 to get rid of anyone unfit to work and seen as too expensive for the state to look after
•Not only Jews ended up in concentration camps, anyone who Hitler saw as inferior or anti-Nazi ended up there too, e.g. the work shy, homosexuals, gypsies
•Role of torture and release to set an example, everyone knew someone who knew someone who had been affected by state terror
•Judicial system run by the Nazis under Chief Judge Roland Freisler, ensured trials were not fair
Propaganda
Definition – a strong attempt to persuade or convince people of a particular point of view.
The Nazis saw propaganda as very important as it was a means to control the population and convince them that what the Nazis were doing was the best for Germany. It also helped to destroy the Nazis opponents as the Nazi propaganda methods were much better and thorough than say, the Communists.
What methods did they use?
•Goebbels in charge
•Elections of 1932 – posters, banners, flags, records of speeches, “Hitler over Germany” (flew to big stadiums and made speeches)
•After Hitler was in power, propaganda showed the ideal Nazis and kept people from seeing other ideas
•Cheap Radios sold – ‘Peoples Receiver’ – so Germans could listen to Hitler at home, speeches also played over loud speakers in public places
•Film – Eternal Jew – ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ banned.
•Control of the Arts – Art, Literature and Music (Wagner was considered good, Jazz banned, Picasso banned)
•Controlled the Press and published Der Sturmer, the Nazi newspaper
•Rallies held e.g. Nuremburg where thousands of people would march under the Nazi banner in a massive show of unity
•1936 Olympic Games showed Hitler’s Germany to the rest of the world
•Architecture – Hitler favoured classical architecture such as the Romans had used and built accordingly
•Book burning e.g. Babalplatz, anti-Nazi books burnt and any authors considered not to fit the Nazi ideal had their books burnt too
Youth in Nazi Germany To ensure the survival of Nazi ideas and to get his Thousand Year Reich, Hitler had to control the next generation too. Young people in Nazi Germany were very important to Hitler.
•Education Nazified – favoured subjects for example History, Eugenics and PE
•Teachers were indoctrinated, forced to join Nazi teaching associations and those who refused to teach Nazi ideas were fired
•Young people’s time both inside and outside school was controlled to discourage opposition
•Hitler Youth for boys 14 – 18, activities included camping, marching and fighting in preparation for war, wore a uniform
•League of German Maidens for girls, activities included cooking, child care, keeping fit in preparation for their role as mothers of the next generation
•Both boys and girls were indoctrinated with Nazi ideas
•Edelweiss Pirates, Swing Youth and White Rose Group all opposed Hitler
Anti Semitism Hatred of the Jews built up in Nazi Germany gradually to ensure Germany did not revolt against Hitler. Anti Semitic propaganda was used to back up his ideas and anyone who tried to help the Jews was dealt with severely.
Evolution of Anti Semitism
•Shop Boycott April 1933 – not that successful
•Nuremburg Laws – 1933 – 1945 – removed citizenship, Jews forced to wear a yellow star, had their first names changed
•Kristallnacht 9 Nov 1938 - the night many Germans “lost their innocence”, Jewish shops and businesses attacked and many arrests made
•The Wannsee Conference 1942 – decision to gas the Jews in the ‘Final Solution’
Why were the Germans ready to accept the Nazis hatred of the Jews?
•History of anti Semitism across Europe in general
•Anti Semitism in Germany before Hitler
•Jealous of Jewish wealth, especially small shopkeepers
•People accepted Nazi anti Semitic propaganda as the truth
•Germans wanted someone to blame for Germany’s difficulties
•People were scared that it might be them next if they did not cooperate
•Education system taught hatred of Jews
•People never believed that it would end in the Holocaust
Religion
The Christian Church at first supported the Nazis. They did not like the weak Weimar Republic and when it looked like it was about to collapse they had to choose between the Nazis and the Communists. As the Communists were atheists, they chose the Nazis.
•The Reich Church came at the beginning of Hitler’s time in power – German Christians – said they had a ‘Swastika on our chest, Cross in our heart’, showed Church and State could work together
•Catholic Church did a deal with the Nazis not to interfere with each other but Hitler broke the promise, the Catholic Church stopped supporting them but it was too late
•Pastor Niemoller opposed the Reich Church, he set up his own confessional, anti Nazi church and ended up in a concentration camp
•Hitler tried to completely do away with the Church because they were seen as a potential threat due to the loyalty given to God
•Nazis supported ancient Pagan religions instead
Opposition Those who opposed the party in Nazi Germany were dealt with severely. They covered a wide number of different groups, all of whom were seen as a threat to Hitler’s power.
Communists, Democrats, Trade Unions, church and Jews were all suppressed
•Low grade opposition such as refusing to salute and telling anti Nazi jokes
•Edelweiss Pirates, Navajos and White Rose set up as non political opposition
•White Rose group – Hans and Sophie Scholl – produced anti Nazi Pamphlets at university and were tried and executed
•Martin Niemoller – Confessional Church – did not like Nazi ideas and was sent to a concentration camp
•Stauffenberg Bomb plot - German officers who did not like Nazi atrocities and thought they were going to lose the war, attempted to blow up the room Hitler was having a meeting in
World War Two
In the early 1930’s and up to the defeat of France in 1940 Hitler was at his most popular, but as the German army started to be defeated in Russia and at D-Day and with intensive allied bombing of cities such as Dresden, his popularity started to decline and opposition became greater. Hitler was also seen less and less in public.
(Miss Webster's site: springwoodgcsehistory.blogspot.co.uk/p/germany-content.html)