Between 1933 and 1945 Hitler and the Nazi Part were successful in their creation of a new united German Nation, or Volksgemeinshaft. Discuss the validity of this claim.

        Hitler's ideology and attempt to create his Volksgemeinshaft involved glorifying peasant farmer as decent, honest, uncorrupted and racially pure.  The Nazis also put forward their policy of 'Blood and Soil, to "protect a healthy and economically secure rural community"' By glorifying the peasants, Hitler hoped that they would provide cheap food for the cities and decrease dependency on imports, especially during the war years, thus helping with his aim of Autarky, or economic self-sufficiency.  Some of his "Blood and Soil" policies included increasing tariffs on imported goods, cancelling farmers debts, aiding farmers with financial support, which included exemption from insurance payment.  The Nazis also set up a few laws in order to protect the farmers, which included the Reich Entailed Farm Law, which stated that farmlands that are larger than 30 acres to be hereditary and the setting up of the Reich Food Estate, which controlled and regulated the prices of goods, and the wages.  Many farmers actually benefited from these policies, for example the mortgage interest of farmers was cut down by $280 million in the period of 1934-38, the tax burden was cut by $6\0 million in the same period, while 600 thousand farmlands became hereditary, and farming income rose back to the level before the depression.  However, after 1937, the future of farmers seemed to be dark again, as the wages rose, while the prices of goods were fixed, resulting in farmers not being able to afford to pay these wages, and on the same year, Germany returned to full employment, and the wages offered by farming could not compete the wages given by industrial companies.  Instead of helping farmers, the laws also seemed to be a contradiction of what they set out to do.  The Reich Entailed Farm Law was only applied to 35% of the whole farmland, and it actually curbed the development of large-scale farm units, which contradicted the regimes attempt of self-sufficiency.  Based on unsatisfactory results, unrest seemed to grow amongst farmers between 1936 and 1939.  Ultimately, the Nazis failed to reach their aim of Volksgemeinshaft in the life of farmers, because it's policies seemed to backfire on them.  It seemed that the peasant's reaction to the Nazis policies fluctuated between "a great discontent by old farmer to a serious division of opinion among peasantry, "

        Hitler realised the importance of winning the support of the working class in order to create his Volksgemeinshaft.  In fact, it remained as his greatest "domestic challenge," as most of the working class were supporters of Socialist SPD, and Communist KPD.  As part of his Volksgemeinshaft, he needed to create a disciplined workforce that would not challenge his dictatorship or demand increases.  It was hard for Hitler to achieve his aims, as there were 33 powerful trade unions that fought in the interests of the workers.  Hitler tried to fulfil his aims by taking control of the trade unions, as he ransacked their offices, and all 61 trade unions surrendered under the control of the German Labour Force (DAF). Hitler also applied some policies to attract the working class to his Volksgemeinshaft; these policies were basically were combinations of material improvement and state welfare.   These policies included freezing the wage system, with the introduction of state paternalism, the "Beauty of Labour," a scheme to persuade employers to improve working conditions, the "Strength to Joy" scheme, which provided loyal workers with all-expense paid holidays and the Winterhilfe, a scheme providing the old and poor with food during the winter.  In many ways the workers did receive many benefits, and to an extent fulfilled Hitler's definition of the working class in his Volksgemeinshaft.   All 20 million Germans in the workforce was a members of the DAF, and independent trade unions were abolished, therefore no trade union could fight for the interests of the workers.  Employment rose by 6 million in the first few years of the regime, attracting the workers to be part of the Volksgemeinshaft.  Sixty thousand housing units were provided for the working class.  By 1938, the number of employees that benefited from state paid holidays was 10 million.  The real wages of workers also increased by 20%, while 9 million received aid from the winter help programme.  However, on the other hand, as attractive and perfect as Hitler's schemes may seem, the working hour increased by 16 hours, and many examples of unrest occurred, for example strikes at Russelheim and Berlin, sabotaging their work by going slow and absence.  The monotonous, rigorous work bored the workers, resulting an increasing mistrust in the regime, especially after operation Barberossa, Germany's attempt at invading Russia, as the morale and faith of the working class decreases.  Many workers simply were not won over by the Nazis as they resented being controlled by the state.  In the end, it is hard to justify the response of the working class under the dictatorial regime.  It "must be that they failed, but it did secure their (working class) passive support"

        The mittlestand, or middle class, had always been the Nazis keenest supporters; this group included small businesses, self-employed, shopkeepers and clerks.  Hitler realised it was important to maintain the support from this class, but he imposed a few policy for the benefit of the middle class.  Hitler imposed a ban on department stores, as they tend to outsell the small businesses, he also placed new restrictions to avoid competitive pricing.  He also gave preferential treatment to this group of the society, and they were also given low interest rates and a share of confiscated Jewish trade.  However, as his other policies ended, his policies for the middle class led to a backlash.  Small stores continued to be out priced by department stores, as a result of the Reich Food Estate, 1/4 million small stores were forced out of business.  Hitler's rearmament policy favoured big business, and self-employed workers fell by 1/2 million between 1936-39.  It shows, again that what Hitler thought would build his "perfect community" seem to backfire.

        Unlike the middle class, the upper class, which was made of aristocrats, disliked, and was not liked by Hitler.  Hitler saw these aristocrats as a threat to his Volksgemeinshaft, seeing them as fans of "Jewish decadent art" such as gambling.  In order to restrict these aristocrats, Hitler imposed a ban on hunting and campaigned vigorously against the pleasures of the idle rich, like theaters, casinos and restaurants.  In many ways, his policies seemed to work, ad the percentage of aristocratic generals declined from 61 to 25.  This decline of aristocracy proves that Hitler seemed to be well on his way to create his classless Volksgemeinshaft.

In order to create his Volksgemeinshaft Hitler saw the responsibility of women as bearing and bringing up the future leaders of Nazism.  Having an ideal woman, who is confined to the home, with the motto "Kinder, Kuche and Kirche," literally translated as, "children, kitchen and church."  Not only were they told to be housewives, they were banned from a higher form of education, and from certain professional jobs, which included parliamentary and jury duties, Himmler claimed that women "Cannot think logically or reason objectively, since they are ruled only by emotion." Hitler also imposed the ban against smoking, make up and fancy clothes as far as women were concerned.  The Nazis tried to impose this ideology by creating many schemes that benefited mothers and married woman in Germany.  These schemes include granting financial incentives, for example marriage loans, the repayment for which decreased in as children were born, improving the maternity service, the introduction of propaganda to raise the status of mothers and housewives, for example the Mother's Cross, and the Women's front.  The Nazis also imposed restrictions upon abortion, and made it legal for a man to divorce a woman on the grounds of racial impurities and infertility, which was contradictory to the Nazi belief of a happy family.  Hitler and the Nazis also restricted female admittance to university to a mere 10% in order to prepare women for their "proper role."  The Nazis also realised the psychological need of women seeking for their identification by constantly keeping a number of exemplary female personalities, for example Gertrude Scholz-Klink, the leader of the Nazi women front.  This move, however, contradicts the belief of the Nazis that discouraged women from holding a job.  In many ways Hitler managed to create his Volksgemeinshaft, since the number of births increased by 1 million during the period 1933-37, the number of female students at university level decreased from 20% to 10%. All 230 women organisations were under the umbrella of the Women's front, 1.5 million young girls went through the maternity school and the marriage rate of women aged 20-25 increased by 9.2%.  At the end of the war, more women than men preferred suicide to living in a world without the presence of Hitler.  In many ways, the Nazi policy towards women "did succeed in mobilising the allegiance of most women" However, on the other hand, Nazis policy to women "shows a contradiction between Nazi ideology and reality." As, while encouraging women to become housewives, the Nazi also called the women to have a compulsory duty year, intended for unmarried women to serve the state for a year, as a labour worker.  Women were also forced to go back into the working field, due to a shortage in workers, since the men were at war.  In fact the labour force of women increased from 11.6 million in 1933 to 14.6 million in 1937.  The number of female doctors also increased from 5% in 1930 to 37.3% in 1939.  It is also questionable whether the increase in the birth rate was due to the Nazi policies or the general trend of increasing birth rate at the end of a depression period.  The divorce rate also showed an increase, as with the number of prostitutes and STD's, which is contradictory to Hitler's beliefs in a strong-loving family.  It is difficult, in the end to determine any transformation in the status of women in the third Reich, however, the "Nazi propaganda seemed to have had some effects on women, but not as much as the regime would have expected."

        One thing Hitler had to achieve to create his Volksgemeinshaft was to ‘stamp out Christianity’ the Nazi ideology rejected Christianity, because it saw Christianity as a product of Jewish culture.  It seemed in a way that Hitler wanted to replace Christianity, a religion he believed reflected the values of an inferior race, with a new, assertive Aryan faith, which was represented by the German Faith Movement, which promoted "positive Christianity," which he talked about in point 24 of the party programme.  In order to create his Volksgemeinshaft, Hitler needed to gain support from the church hierarchy, and eventually control the presence of Christianity, gradually reduce the influence of churches in everyday life, to ultimately reach his Volksgemeinshaft.  The tension that existed between churches and the Nazis seemed to be too deep-rooted.  On one hand, Christianity is all about love and forgiveness, while the Nazis were dependent upon hatred and struggle.  However, this aim was not, by any means unachievable, as the Nazis and the church did share some common outlooks.  They share the view of traditional cultural values, the importance of family life, hostility towards communism, the respect for state, nationalism, and to an extent, there are even some anti-Semitic views within the Christianity system.  The Nazis gradually changed the church system, starting by setting up the Reich Church, as an umbrella for Protestant churches to combine ad co-ordinate religions.  The Nazis also set up the German Christians, which was a restructured Protestanism, into a new racial branch of Christianity that adopted Nazi style salutes and uniforms.  Ultimately, the setting up of the German Faith Movement, which was meant to replace Christianity with a new pagan of Nazi faith, showed Hitler's aim to set up his Volksgemeinshaft.  Hitler may have found some success in creating his Volksgemeinshaft, as by 1937, 100 thousand Germans left church, and by 1939, 3.5 million Germans were members of the German Faith movement.  By making Hitler Youth compulsory, the young were disassociated from the church, in fact during the period 1935-37, the number of children attending Sunday school decreased from 65% to 5%.  The Catholic Church also didn't speak out against the Nazi holocaust, where, even the Pope refused to comment on the immoral behaviour of the Nazis.  However, within Germany, there was some religion-based protest against Nazi policies, for example, the protest against euthanasia, by Cardinal Von Gallen, led to the programme being wound up.  The German confessional church also broke away from the Reich church in order to defend the pure Protestant church, which had 5000 clergy.  The Nazis policy also didn't seem to affect many German, as most of them remained faithful to the church, seeing the church as an alternative focus from the Nazi regime.  In fact by 1935, the Catholic Church organisational structure remained intact, and only 5% of the whole German population were involved in the German Faith movement.  There are many reasons why the Nazis couldn't impose rules on religion, as you cannot tell one what to believe in, it's a basic human right.  However, as the Nazis realised it, the churches remained as a "major obstacle to the Nazi attempt to establish total control over German life" On the other hand, despite its failure, it does "illustrate what the Nazis might have done if the had won the Second World War"

        Although there is evidence to show that the Nazis were successful in creating a new society, in reality the impact of Nazi policies remains a subject of debate.  Many historians believe that the Nazi’s did not come remotely near to producing a social revolution, such as Ian Kershaw, while others believed that Hitler and the Nazi’s did succeed in changing the social structure of Germany, such as David Schoenbaum.  The differing opinions upon this matter are due to conflicting, but most evidence suggests that Hitler created a new community on the outside, but at the core of the community, Hitler may have not changed the individuals significantly.  This could be due to a couple of factors, for example although they may have found a few successes, and may have appeared to succeed in creating a new society, deep in the society the fact remains that the Nazis could not enforce their ideas and beliefs, and cannot control what people were thinking and believing in.  The fact that many Nazi policies were contradictory also makes it hard for the community to reach Volksgemeinshaft. Ultimately, it seems as if the Nazi’s may have caused a shift in the social system, but it did not create a new nation.

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How far do the sources support the view that "The actual pattern of women's employment in Nazi Germany is totally contradictory to the Nazi ideal of womanhood"?

        The Nazi's idea of an ideal women was one that saw women confined to the home, with the motto Kinder, Kuche, Kirche, which can be literally translated as "children, kitchen and church."   This is because the Nazis and Hitler saw women bearing the responsibility of bearing and bringing up the future leaders of Germany. They were expected to be housewives and were banned from jobs and higher education.  In reality the Nazis seemed to have different priorities which were economically based (i.e. having to bring women into the workforce), rather than ideologically (i.e. promoting the domestic role for women) in their origin.  Sources 1 to 7 have differing opinions on Hitler's success in achieving the Nazi ideal for women

        Source 1 is an example of a source that does not support the view that the reality of womanhood during the Nazi period is contradictory to the Nazis ideal.  Source 1 clearly states what is expected of a woman in that period, as it says,

"For her world is her husband, her family, her children and her home,"

This implies that a woman is to tend her family, and should not hold a job, or a life outside bearing her children and taking care of her family.  However, the source is a speech by Hitler, the fuhrer, who came up with the Nazis ideal, and will therefore enforce his idealism of womanhood.  The speech was also delivered to the National Socialist Women's organization, which was a wing of the Nazis, and will therefore also possess the same beliefs as the Nazis.  Or it could have just simply been a speech with the purpose of propaganda, as it was delivered in 1934, when Hitler had just come to power.  As with all Hitler's speeches it is full of feeling and passion and we should not overlook the fact that such speeches were designed to whip up the public's excitement and make them believe certain things.  This may have been his ideals, but even he may not have believed it was achievable.   Source 1 is biased in the favor of Nazi success and is useful as an indicator of Hitler's idealism and mastery as a propagandist as opposed to being a reliable source telling us about Nazis policy

        Source 2 is yet another source that doesn't show any contradiction of the Nazis ideal of womanhood and reality.  As with source 1, it clearly states the function of a woman is to support their family morally, and to devote her life to her family and husband, as it states,

"Her mission in marriage is…comrade, helper and a womanly complement to man"

It also states clearly that a being a housewife is a noble profession that must be taken seriously.  This is a very traditional view, and although it may seem old fashioned to us living in the 21st century, placed within the historical context of the 1930s, it was not such an alien concept.  However source 2, as with source 1, is biased as it was either written or spoken by Gestrud Scholtz, the head of the Nazi Women's organisation, which was under the Nazi's organisational wing, and served the purpose of upholding Nazis aims of a "woman in the New Germany."  This could have made the source biased to a certain level, and therefore could have been an inaccurate account on the reality of German women.  The very fact it is not known of when, where or how the source was delivered also adds to the degree of inaccuracy of the source.  For example if source 2 was a part of a speech delivered to an audience its content maybe different to a part of a persons conversation with a friend

        Source 5 is another source that only talks in terms of the Nazi ideal of womanhood, rather than the reality.  It clearly states that a woman's place is at home, being a mother, and it is therefore unnecessary to hold a job, particularly one in a typical male field, source 5 even implies that a woman holding a professional job is not a woman in the eyes of the Nazis, as it says,

"We (the Nazis) are opposed to women going into professions which makes them 'mannified'"

It is useful because it clearly shows the view of the Nazi personnel, as the source came from Rudolf Hess, as he was a member of Hitler's cabinet, and said to be the third most important Nazi after Hitler and Goering, and as the two previous sources, source 5 would have a tendency to be biased and unlikely to be trustworthy or reliable.  It is probably just another piece of propaganda designed to promote the ideals, rather than the realities, the Nazis wanted people to be.  The source, of which we know nothing on how it was delivered, was either written or spoken in 1936, when a shortage of labor seemed to be forcing women to return to the workfield, the source would therefore be likely to be have appeared in the media to persuade the women to stay at home, instead of rushing into the labor force.  With all of the sources discussed so far, it is important to be aware that despite the fact they are all primary sources, they all come from people involved in the Nazi regime.  This is important because the nature of Nazi society was that they were trying to enforce concepts such as Gleischaltung and all were aware of the need to make people believe the Nazi ideal of womanhood, even if this idea did not work in the real world.

        Many of the other sources differ, in that they do see a contradiction between the Nazis aim and argument of women in domestic roles and the real situation of women having to enter the workforce.  Source 3 is an example of a source that shows that the Nazi ideals were contradictory to the reality.  Source 3 describes the facts of women employment during the years of the Third Reich, women in the workforce was an idea not promoted by Nazi propaganda.  Based on the figures given, it shows very much that the figures of female employment in Germany increased, contradicting the fact that the Nazis wanted the women to stay at home and tend their family.  It concluded that the employment of women

"Formed three-fifths of Germany's wartime labor force"

The source is a secondary source by historian Richard Grunberger, in his book, The Twelve Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany 1933-45, so it is less likely to be biased and could be more reliable than the previous three sources.  It was published in 1971, long after the regime, which could mean either that is reliable because we can assume that a respected historian would have researched and cross referenced such figures, or that is unreliable because many of the documents containing key figures would have been destroyed at the end of the regime in 1945.  It could also be the case that many key statistics were in 1971 official secret documents kept in East Germany and were inaccessible.

        Source 4 may have been based upon manipulated statistics from the German Department of Labor, it states that there were more than 6,670,000 women laborers that were sent home during the period of 1933-1936, the source also states that the Nazis policy only caused women were squeezed out of better paid jobs into sweated trade, which ironically contradicts the Nazis idealism of women, as according to source 5,

"Degrades the family"

Since it has a "miserable wage" and long working hours.  However, this source backs up source 3, because such sweated traders included the textile trade as mentioned in source 3.   However, the source is almost anonymous, as it was only known to be written by an "American Journalist," of whom we don't know his/her views, and whether or not his/her views are reliable or trustworthy, despite the fact that it was written in 1937, while the Nazis were in power, from the tone of the source, it seems that the journalist could have been opposed to the Nazis as in 1937, Hitler started to disregard the treaty of Versailles, and found a lot of opposition from the foreign world, regarding his foreign and domestic policies.

        The statistics provided in source 6 both do and do not support the view that the Nazi's ideal of womanhood contradicts the reality of the sources.  The number of marriages, according to source 6 increased by  31% from the figure of 1929, to the figure in 1939, while the number of life births increased by 359,685 births from the figure of 1931 to the figure in 1939.  Both of these figures, however could have been misleading, as it seems to be a trend across Europe of an increase of birth and, marriage rates after an economic depression.  Whether these figures were results of Hitler's policies, such as loans and tax incentives or the demographic trend remains uncertain.  On the other hand, the employment of women increased by 1.4 million, as much as 12.4%, showing that despite an increase in marriage and child birth, the number of women working actually increased, as did the number of married women working outside home, which increased from 4.2 million to 6.2 million.  This is contradictory to the belief that women were to stay at home and take care of the family.  As with the other sources, source 6 has it's own degree of inaccuracy.  It is unknown to us where these figures originated from, as it is crucial, because if it had been from a Nazi state department, it would be more likely to be manipulated for the Nazi needs.  We also don't know when these figures were published, or as mentioned before whether or not they were manipulated to serve ones needs.  The other fact is that the figures only go up to 1939, the year of the outbreak of the war, when women were forced into labor, and therefore cannot be a general representation of the reality of the impacts of Nazis policies.  

Source 7 is very unlike the previous 6 sources, as it implies that the Nazi ideals were not contradictory to the reality, until the point of the war where women were forced to go back into the labor force.  Source 7 also sees the contradiction was due to

"the increased need for female labor"

which forced the Nazis to reverse its "ideological prerogatives."  As the source was a passage from the book "The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems, Perspectives and Interpretation" by Ian Kershaw, a historian whose views would not therefore likely to biased and are likely to be well researched.  However, it was written in 1985, and has the same degree of inaccuracy as source 3, where it could go in one direction or the other, may have been more inaccurate account, as it was written a long time after the regime, or it could even be more detailed and researched.

        It seems as though each source has it's own opinion upon the matter of contradictory of reality to Nazi's idealism of womanhood.  We must be aware that as the nature of each source differ; their opinions and views will differ too.  Each whether agreed or disagreed with the statement to an extent, and have different degree of accuracy, as mentioned above, the degree of accuracy depends upon the writer, when it was written, and by what means.  The primary sources, which do back up the statement was made by Nazis personnel, and therefore supports their own ideals, while the others may have been more likely to e truthful, but they were not directly involved in Nazi Germany, and may have based their opinions upon primary sources, such as sources 1, 2 and 5, and have cross referenced it with statistics, of which could have been manipulated, such as source 6.  Ultimately, the different views of different sources has a dependency upon the writer of the source, and each source has it's own degree of unreliability, inaccuracy and untrustworthiness.  

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