Did life improve for the German people under Nazi rule up to 1939?

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Katie Taylor 10H                                                                                                       4/27/07

Did life improve for the German people under Nazi rule up to 1939?

        

When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 there were only three National Socialist members in the first cabinet. Yet Hitler aimed to completely “destroy” the Weimer constitution and to do this he wanted to transfer all legislative power of the Reichstag to himself. However, any change in the Constitution required a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag before they could become effective.  He arrested or excluded Communist deputies, and bribed the Nationalist Party and the Centre Party. As a result, in March, the Nazis outvoted the Social Democrats and due to the Enabling Bill this gave Hitler unlimited power. From now on Hitler could draft and pass any laws without the Reichstag. In just eighteen months the German Constitution had been destroyed and Hitler had successfully managed to concentrate all power into his own hands.        

Hitler lost no time in consolidating his position and on July 14, 1933 all political parties except the Nazi Party were declared illegal. When President Von Hindenburg died in August 1934, Hitler announced that he would take on himself the offices of President and Chancellor. He named himself the Führer (meaning Leader and Reich Chancellor), and his dictatorship was now complete.

 Hitler did not just want to create the laws he wanted to control the people including their thoughts and ideas. This would make it easier to maintain his control later on when introducing new ideas based on his right-wing opinions. Through control of all mass media under the Ministry of Propaganda, (in the hands of Dr. Goebbels), Hitler was able to put forward his strong ideas and laws to the German people. Germany effectively became a totalitarian state.  This affected different groups of people in different ways. For some people life in Germany under Nazi rule, compared to the economic depression and unemployment of previous years improved greatly. For those groups of people who did not fit the criteria of the “ideal German” life slowly got worse.

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Hitler had strong anti-Semitic opinions. In , Hitler argued that the German race was superior to all others. He went on to say that Aryan superiority was being threatened particularly by the Jewish race.  He believed the Jews were responsible for everything he did not like, including modern art, pornography and prostitution. Hitler also alleged that the Jews had been responsible for losing the . He also claimed that Jews, who were only about 1% of the population, were slowly taking over the country. As people around the world had regarded the Jewish people with suspicion since the Middle Ages ...

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