Hitlers Do

mestic Policy
Social and Economic
Overall Aim:

Volkgemeinshaft (peoples community) Build a classless society that was

racially and socially unified encouraging people to work together/

In order to achieve this Hitler focused his attention on the education of youth,
women of Germany as well as recovering the economy.

Education & Youth

Aims
Indoctrinate with Nazi ideology
Create loyalty and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good of the nation
Education became a tool for the consolidation of the Nazi system.
This was to be achieved through the traditional structure of the education system
and the development of various youth movements (Hitler Youth)
Education

The teaching profession itself was reconditioned.

o Politically unreliable individuals were removed and Jewish teachers were
banned.
o The Nationals Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) established and its
influence continued to grow.
1937 it included 97% of all teachers and 2/3 of the profession

had been on special month-long courses on Nazi ideology

The curricula/syllabuses were adapted.
o To fit it was the Nazi Aryan ideal, a much greater emphasis was placed on
physical education 15 % of school time was given over to it.
o On the academic front, Religious Studies was dropped and the focus was
more on Biology, History and German.
Biology delivered Nazi racial theory
History glories of German nationalism were emphasized
Students had "race books" and were given assignments were
they were required to determine the physical features that go
hand in hand with the specific racial soul characteristic of the
individual.
Students were taught that Just as Jesus saved people from
Hell, Hitler saves the German volk from ruins

Hitler Youth

Responsibility for developing a new outlook lay within the youth movements.
Hitler Youth was created in 1926 and expanded rapidly after 1933 with the

support of the govt.

Membership grew from 1.5% (1932) to 77% (1938).
A youth in the Third Reich claimed The Hitler Youth was interfering everywhere

in peoples private lives

There was a great stress on political indoctrination, emphasizing the

life/achievements of Hitler, German patriotism, athletics, and camping.

Boys engaged in physical and military type activities.
Girls were prepared for their domestic and maternal tasks.
Hitler Youth focused on offering fun/action to the young but this was backed up
by intimidation to persuade members to conform to all the states demands.

Successes and Failures:

Education
Teaching profession felt its status under threat in 1936 32% were
members of the Party.
1938 recruitment of teachers had declined and there was 8000 vacancies
and only 2500 came out of teacher training colleges.
The number of students halved in higher education before the onset of

war.
Hitler Youth
Provided opportunities for those with poorer backgrounds.
However, as membership became more widespread, the Hitler Youth
arguably became less successful because it includes less committed
youngsters.
The youth were simply attracted by the games, sports, hiking, singing etc.
but it soon changed from exciting activities to indoctrination.
The organization suffered from its over-rapid expansion and the leadership
was inadequate.

Women and Family

Nazi policy towards women was largely reactionary

Nazis wanted to reverse many of the recent trends that had increased opportunites
for women throughout Europe such as increased female employment, declineing
birth rate etc.
These trends had been present in Germany under Weimer Republic.

A reaction against these trends had set in the Depression.

Aims for women
To have more children and to take responsibility for them
To care for the house and husband.
To stop paid employment
The attitudes towards women was summarized by the slogan Kinder, Kirche,

Kuche (Children, Chruch, Kitchen)

Women had a different role from men: to breed genetically pure Germans to
ensure German supremacy.

What did Hitler do?

Reduced the amount of women in employment

Married women were excluded from the civil service and other
professions.
Employers were encouraged to employ men in favour of women.
The numbers of women allowed into university was restricted - only 10%
of university students could be female
The Great Depression reduced the number of female workers and enabled
the govt to justify its campaign for women to give up work for the benefit
of unemployed men.
As a result of all this, the percentage of women in employment fell from

37% (1932) to 33% (1939).

Hitler also increased the amount of marriages and births
It was considered essential to increase the population substantially and women
were therefore portrayed as primarily the mothers of the next generation.
June 1933 interest free loans of 600RM were made available to young

women who withdrew from labor market in order to get married.

Family allowances were improved dramatically.
Families with six or more did not have to pay income tax.
Anti-abortion law strictly enforced.
All of this was backed by an extensive propaganda campaign that glorified

motherhood and large families.

Birth rate increased from 14.7 (1933) to 20.3 (1939) per 1000 inhabitants.
Marriages increased from 9.7 (1933) to 11.1 (1939) per 1000 inhabitants.
Economy

Germany faced ongoing economic problems since the end of WW1.

The world economic depression worsened this.


1.
2.

Hitler's 3 main economic policies/goals he worked for were:

Reduce unemployment among German population
Expand the German military (rearmament)

Reducing Unemployment
Even before the onset of Great Depression, workers were being laid off (1929
the annual average of registered unemployment was 1.9 million._
However, length/severity of the economic recession increased number of
employment (1932 the figure rose to 5.6 million).
June 1933 - Law to Reduce Unemployment was renewed and expanded and
the RAD was expanded to employ 19-25 year olds.

The investment in the first three years was directed towards work creation
schemes such as: Reforestation, Land reclamation, Motorization, Building
o The cumulative effect of these policies was to triple public investment
between 1933-36 and to increase govt expenditure by ~ 70%
Total Public Investment: 2.5RM - 1933 and 8.1RM 1936

Total Govt Expenditure: 9.4RM 1933 and 15.8RM - 1936

a result of these strategies, there was a dramatic growth in jobs.

o Unemployment decline to 1.6 million in 1936.

Rearmament created new jobs in armament industry

From 1935 onwards, every man aged 18 25 had to serve at least two

years in the armed service

1939 1.4 million men in the army
The construction of the autobahns (motorways) created work for 80,000 men.
Hitler also managed to reduce unemployment by starting to prosecute minorities,

most notably Jews, which opened up jobs commonly held by the Jewish
population in Germany
Getting rid of Germany's unemployment problem not only made Hitler and his
Nazi party very popular in Germany, but also calmed people's thoughts about
Germany turning into a Socialist/Communist state, which many people were very
worried about