How Far Did The Nazis Control Everyday Life In Germany After 1933
How Far Did The Nazis Control Everyday Life In Germany After 1933?
In this project I intend to explain how the Nazis controlled everyday life in Germany from 1933 onwards. I shall look at how Youths, Women, Workers, Control and Propaganda and the Jews, were all either part of the control or a victim of it.
Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th of April 1889 at Braunau, on the Austro-Bavarian frontier. He was the son of a customs official, in the Austrian government. His family was middle class and in an extreme nationalist area, so he had learnt to distrust capitalists and the working class alike.
When he was 19 with both parents dead Hitler moved to Vienna looking to get into the arts college, they rejected him.
For 3 years he stayed in Vienna finding money from odd jobs and sleeping in hostels. During this time he learnt to hate Internationalism, pacifists and above all he learnt to hate the Jews.
When war broke out in 1914 Hitler joined the German army, he served 4 years on the western front, was wounded, temporarily blinded by Gas and was captured but released. He was awarded 4 military medals including the iron cross for bravery.
When the war ended in 1918 Hitler remained in the army and was posted in Munich. His orders were to report on the Fringe Political groups appearing at that time. The group that caught his eye was the German workers party. In September 1919 Hitler attended a meeting f the party and was so impressed he decided to join. In 1920 the German workers party changed their name to the Nationalist Socialist German workers party and in 1921 Hitler was elected its leader. On 8th November 1923 at the height of the Weimar republics economic and political crises with runaway inflation and foreign forces occupying Germany's main industrial region Hitler and his followers attempted to stage a putsch in Munich. They took over a beer hall and said they were forming a new government, from where a revolution would sweep the rest of Germany. Hitler had the backing of General Ludendorf and other Nationalists hostile to the current government. The next morning Hitler Ludendorf and about 2000 supporters set out for the public offices in the centre of Munich. They were confronted by a large force of armed Police who opened fire. The Nazi supporters fled. Hitler suffered a dislocated shoulder was arrested and was sent to prison. The judges gave him a minimum sentence of 5 years and recommended an early parole. The prison was the Lansberg fortress, from which he was released after 8 months. While in prison he started to write his famous book, Meine Kampf, which became the political bible of the Nazi party, within it Hitler, looked forwards to the creation of a third Reich. In succession to Charlemagne Holy Roman Empire, and Bismarck's second empire. It argued that Germany had been betrayed by signing the Treaty of Versailles, and forced into paying reparations to Jewish financiers and was surrounded by enemies. Also one of the main points was the belief that Germans were the Herrenvolk or master race, and should have living space in the east where they could expand and prosper.
When Hitler was released from jail in 1924 he could not involve himself in the politics of Germany because the government had banned the Nazi party, his immediate concern was to build up the party and give it and organisational structure. Under Captain Ernst Rohm semi military group called Sturmabtielung or S.A., rapidly expanded. In 1923 they acquired their famous uniform of dark brown shirts. They also adopted the emblem of a black swastika on a white disk imposed on a red armband. More frightening than the S.A were the S.S. original created as a paramilitary bodyguard group for Hitler. They wore a black shirted uniform with the emblem of a skull as their badge. They became ruthless efficient and elite and frequently their task was to eliminate all opposition to the Nazis. Until the summer of 1929 the Nazis had very little political power having only 12 seats. On the other hand the communists won 54 seats increasing the Nazi hatred and the opinion that Nazis were a fringe element in German politics.
In 1933 Hitler became chancellor of Germany the conservative classes had put Hitler into power in the belief they could control him. Within weeks Hitler demanded a new election, which took place on 5th march. 6 days before the election the Reichstag building was set on fire and a young Dutchman Marinus VanDerLubbe was blamed. He was also accused of being Communist; this gave Hitler the perfect excuse for destroying communist parties. The enabling act was passed in April with a staggering majority this law transferred power to make laws from the Reichstag to the cabinet, in practice this meant that Hitler was now responsible for making laws. With all opposition parties abolished Hitler tuned against the storm troopers. They were a possible threat to Hitler's power. During the night of 30th June 1934 between 150 and 200 members of the S.A. were shot.
Youth
During his reign Hitler was convinced the youth or the young of the nation must be brought up in Nazi style to ensure the success of the Nazi party. In schools, old textbooks were burnt or destroyed and new Nazi versions were published. Anti-Nazi teachers were sacked and all other teachers had to swear oaths to Hitler. To begin with Jews had separate desks then classrooms followed by schools and then Hitler outlawed all Jewish education. Lessons were taught on the Jewish enemy and Nazi race science (inferior and superior), how glorious it would be to fight for Germany, and how the government would not stab soldiers in the back. Also living space was taught, which involved the invasion of Poland, Russia and all German-speaking nations.
Young boys were forced into the Hitler youth which was an organisation that taught boys basic military training, useful skills e.g. Fixing bikes, signalling etc. It also concentrated on sport, at Hitler youth boys were mixed both rich and poor and were told to play war games. This was where the entire camp was separated into 2 groups attacking and defending, and they had to act out battles, including actual fighting although without actual weapons. One of the main objectives of the Hitler youth was to channel aggression.
The girls were put into the German girls ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Young boys were forced into the Hitler youth which was an organisation that taught boys basic military training, useful skills e.g. Fixing bikes, signalling etc. It also concentrated on sport, at Hitler youth boys were mixed both rich and poor and were told to play war games. This was where the entire camp was separated into 2 groups attacking and defending, and they had to act out battles, including actual fighting although without actual weapons. One of the main objectives of the Hitler youth was to channel aggression.
The girls were put into the German girls league, which was the feminine equivalent to the Hitler youth. In this group girls were taught to live by the 3 k's Kinder, Kirche and Kuche, Children Church and Kitchen. The Nazis believed that girls should be 'comrades' of the boys. The girls were taught to be wives, mothers, to raise children, cook, clean and look after children. Cigarettes make-up and perms were frowned upon.
Despite the strict regulations the Nazis never had complete control over the youth, there were gangs that defied the control, of which were mostly middle class teenagers. Not only did they refuse to attend Hitler youth but also they went to 'parties' where they listened to English music, and sang English songs. They also danced outlawed dances like the Jitterbug to banned Jazz music, they accepted Jews at their clubs they were also deliberately slovenly. The Nazis issued a handbook assisting the police in identifying these renegade youths. Some were shown with unkempt long hair others with exaggeratedly English clothes. This resistance protested against the Nazis in many ways including beating up nazi officials, graphitising, or just 'hanging out'. At the weekends the groups went camping and sang songs just like in the Hitler Youth however they altered the lyrics to purposefully mock Germany. When they spotted bands of Hitler Youth they taunted and sometimes attacked them. In contrast to the Hitler Youth the Pirates included both boys and girls and were much freer in their attitudes towards sex, which was strictly forbidden by the Nazis. The government reacted to this by imposing a curfew after 9 o'clock banning hanging around or smoking, they also punished people who disobeyed with forced labour, indoctrination or even death. Two of the most infamous groups were the Edelweiss Pirates and the Texas Band. These groups were at the centre of the Nazi investigation and when they were caught they were hung.
Hitler clearly never had complete control over the Youth of Germany however the majority were controlled to an almost professional degree
Workers
When Hitler came to power in 1933, 6 million Germans were unemployed. His most urgent task was to find them jobs, for during the election campaigns he had promised the voters 'work and bread' if he ever reached power. Also there were other reasons for him trying to get jobs for the workers, for example if he didn't he would lose support and then lose his power, also Germany's economy was in ruins and one of the best ways of rebuilding an economy is to get rid of the mass unemployment. Hitler's first action was to establish a national labour service (reichsarbeitsdienst). This organisation gave men jobs in public works, digging drainage ditches on farms, planting new forests, building schools and hospitals. The largest work scheme the construction of a network of motorways. Men in this organisation had to wear military uniforms and live in camps. Also they were only given "pocket money" as wages. However for many thousands of men it was better than the life they used to have, now they had work and free meals.
The results of Hitler's assault on unemployment are clearly visible in the table below:
Unemployment in Germany (Year) Number of Unemployed
January 1933 6,014,000
January 1934 3,773,000
January 1935 2,974,000
January 1936 2,520,000
January 1937 1,853,000
January 1938 1,052,000
January 1939 302,000
These figure apply mainly to men. Many Jews and women were forced out of their jobs soon after Hitler came to power, although their jobs were giver to unemployed people the Jews who became unemployed were not counted in the Unemployment registers. Women were considered to only be fit to work in the kitchen. The most important reason for the fall in unemployment during these years was rearmament. Hitler planned to make Germany a strong and independent country and that meant building up the size and strength of the armed forces. Also this created jobs in industry as well as the army as men were needed to produce the weapons and necessary equipment.
However this went directly against one of the clauses in the treaty of Versailles, which stated Germany could only have an army consisting of up to 100000 men, also forbidden was an air force, conscription, submarines, tanks or heavy artillery, for a navy they were only allowed a maximum of 6 warships. In March 1935 Hitler passed the law for compulsory military service in young men and set up an air force. The army quickly grew from 100000 men in 1933 to 1400000 in 1939. The men in military service did not count as unemployed so this took a vast amount from the registers. To equip this new army 46 billion marks were spent on weapons. One of Hitler's greatest desires was a strong independent Germany. He wanted a self-sufficient country in food and materials. He ordered Germany's scientist to find artificial substitutes for as many goods as possible. Substitutes began to appear for almost everything with wool and cotton being replaced with pulped wood, coffee from acorns, petrol from coal, make-up from flour etc. as all these goods were created in Germany in place of imports, occupations were found in the factories all over the country. Under the new Nazi rules trade unions were forbidden, the government organisation the German labour front, took their place. A former chemist ran this: Dr Robert Ley, he made a speech in 1933 the day after trade unions were abolished:
"Workers! Your institutions are sacred to us National Socialists. I myself am a poor peasant's son and understand poverty.... Workers! I swear to you we will not only keep everything which exists, we will build up the rights and protection of the workers even further." Dr Ley made improvements in the life of workers. He made sure that bosses could not fire employees on the spot however he also made sure workers could not quit a job without the government's permission. On the other hand he abolished the right of workers to bargain for higher wages, made strikes illegal and abolished the limitations on the number of hours any given worker could work per week. By 1939 many Germans found themselves working 60- 72 hours per week.
Hitler Wanted to control every aspect of peoples lives this included leisure. A huge organisation called "Strength through Joy" (Kraft durch Freude-KdF) was founded and had the job of organising people's leisure activities. This movement was run by Dr Robert Ley the leader of the German labour front. He worked out that there are 8,560 hours in a year and the average citizen spend 1/3 of them sleeping and a 1/4 working that left nearly 3,740 hours free. Dr Ley wanted to make sure that these hours were not wasted, people doing nothing get bored and frustrated, and people in this state make bored and frustrated workers. Happy people with plenty to do in their free time would be more likely to make good workers.
Dr Ley drew up massive leisure programmes for the working classes. These programmes included cheap holidays; two 25,000 tonne cruise ships were built to take workers on ocean cruises at extremely low prices. A cruise to the Canaries would cost 63 marks, the same as two weeks wages. Even still, loyal hard working members of the Nazi party received priority when it came to booking any holidays. Also on offer were trips to Italy and Switzerland, skiing in Bavaria or walking holidays in the mountains.
Every year the KdF organised huge sport gathering, mass outings to the theatre, they had a touring orchestra that went to places not usually visited by travelling entertainment and put on evening classes for adults.
Dr Ley's organisation also was involved in a scheme to provide everyone with cheap cars, this turned out to be a scam. Hitler ordered an Austrian engineer-Ferdinand Porsche- to build a People's Car or Volkswagen, he specified it had to look like a beetle. The retail price for a beetle was set at 990 Marks and workers could buy one in instalments. Despite all the promises not a single beetle was built for a German customer. At the outbreak of war the Volkswagen factory was converted to produce munitions instead of the now famous Beetle.
It is clear that Hitler had almost total control over workers from the start of his reign. Even still there was the problem of the lack of workers in the later years leading up to the war so he had to resort to using women. This did go against the idea of the "Nazi woman" yet it was the only way he could keep the work place full and controlled.
Control and Propaganda
Hitler's head of propaganda was Doctor Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels used every type of media to win people to his side however his main three were: first he made sure newspapers printed only stories favouring the Nazis, any paper that published a different story was closed down instantly. He controlled every single radio station, constructing radio towers and cheap radios, so that every family could be in tune with the Nazi message. Also he built loudspeakers on pillars in the streets and ordered all cafes to have their radios switched on for important programs. The most spectacular form of propaganda Goebbels used was the mass rallies. The most famous of these rallies were held Nuremberg for an entire week in August every year. They were held in 4 specially built areas just outside the town, each area could hold 400,000 people. During these rallies people would watch army parades and gymnastic displays, choirs and brass bands played for the masses, and of course there was the speeches. Frequently there would be air shows and firework displays. Every event at a rally was staged to perfection, at the 1937 rally 100,000 men each exactly 3/4 of a meter apart marched past Hitler carrying 32,000 flags and banners, above them in the sky 150 searchlights created a dome of light that could be seen in the night from over 100 km away. Goebbels was a brilliant organiser of propaganda, however he could not trust it alone to win people. He had to use censorship to inhibit other ideas from spreading. Almost everything was censored from information to entertainment. Jazz was banned because it had its origins from black people from America, films were censored for all sorts of reasons, a Tarzan film was banned as it showed both Tarzan and Jane in very little clothing, a film on the German navy was banned as it showed a drunken sailor. Goebbels ordered universities to destroy books written by Jews or Communists usually by burning them. In one night in 1933 students destroyed 20,000 books in a bonfire outside the university of Berlin. People couldn't even say things against the Nazis in private; anti-Nazi jokes were forbidden and anti-Hitler jokes were punishable by death. Any public posters had to be approved by Goebbels or a member of his organisation. Many songs were rewritten to support Nazism.
Any rule breaker was usually met by an instant sentence to a concentration or work camp. These camps were brutal and often fatal to the inmates, with many of them being worked to death or shot on arrival. Towards the end of the 1930s deaths were commonplace and very few who entered the camps left. The SS Death Head Unit ran the camps; therefore receiving their orders almost directly from Hitler. In the camps conditions were terrible, often there would be around 500 men sharing one tap at which, only a quarter of an hour in the morning would it be functional.
Probably the greatest achievement of Goebbels was the Olympic games of 1936 hosted in Berlin. Hitler was originally opposed to holding the games yet Goebbels convinced him that this would be an ideal opportunity to show that Germany was the ultimate nation. Due to anti Jewish principles in Germany, nations such as the U.S. planned to boycott the games, in response the Nazis included a token Jew in their team, he won them a silver medal. Goebbels built a brand new stadium with the most modern electric lighting, television cameras and the largest stopwatch ever built. With guests and competitors arriving from almost 50 nations it would take all of Goebbels talents to show that Germany was modern, civilised and a successful nation that spared no expense. When the Olympics opened everyone was awestruck by the scale of the stadium facilities and organisation. On the other hand the were also appalled by Germany's fanatical devotion to Hitler and the presence of military and S.S. soldiers seemingly everywhere. To the delight of the Nazis, Germany came top of the medal table a far stride further than any other country however to their dismay a black American athlete Jesse Owens became the star of the games he won 4 gold medals and broke 11 world records yet Hitler refused to award them as it went against his Aryan ideals. The 10 black members of the American team won 13 medals.
To most of the German peoples entwined in the Nazi propaganda regime the games appeared to represent all the qualities they desired in Germans. However many visitors who were not accustomed to such blatant propaganda were shocked by this Nazi control.
The nazi's generally controlled the nation yet if they had total control they would have had no need for the concentration camps.
Women
The place of women in Nazi Germany was at home, they were ordered to live by the 3 k's which young girls were also taught in the Hitler youth movement. In 1933 Hitler passed the law for the 'encouragement' of marriage. It said that the government would loan 1000 marks to any newly married couple. When their 1st child was born they could keep a quarter of the money, when their second child was born they could keep another quarter, etc. 10 years later in 1943 the Nazi leaders to encourage women to have children, this law was extremely different: "All single and married women up to the age of 35 who do not already have 4 children should be obliged to produce 4 children by racially pure... German Men. Whether these men are already married is without significance. Every family that already has 4 children must set the husband free for this action." Women in Nazi Germany found themselves being forced to stay at home within months of Hitler's rise to power almost all female workers had been sacked even at home women were not free to do as they liked. The Nazis set the fashion, make-up and trousers were frowned upon hair was to be arranged in plaits or buns yet not dyed or permed and slimming was discouraged as being slim was not thought to be good for child bearing, the only thing women were actively encouraged to was to have children. Every year on the birthday of Hitler's mother, the motherhood cross was awarded to the mother with the most number of children. Also the government organised homes for unmarried mothers these could be recognised by a white flag with a red dot in the middle. These maternity homes were also brothels; an unmarried woman could go there with the aim of being bred with Aryan S.S. men. A nazi newspaper stated, " Only when the number of cradles exceeds the number of coffins can we look forwards to a better future. Despite the removal of women from professions, in 1939 more and more women found themselves working in the factories, to produce the necessary materials for war. Even though the women were working, they still had to run their families as the stereotypical Nazi housewife.
Jews
During his years in Vienna Hitler found a deep hatred for the Jews. This may have been because they were often so wealthy as they usually ran banks, also as he was often mistaken for one and regularly insulted for this. He carried this hate all his life and acted upon it whilst in power.
Anti Jewish actions were an essential part of Hitler's National Socialism, which he constantly reminded his followers both in his book Mein Kampf, and his speeches. When the Nazis came to power the S.A. organised a wave of anti-Jewish violence: Window smashing, looting of premises, and assault on individual Jews. However because the American Jewish community was highly influential when it came to banking and finance, the president of the Reichsbank warned Hitler that Germany's need for foreign loans would be jeopardised by this needless violence. Hitler called of the attacks for the time being and instead the Nazis began to reduce the stature of the 600000 Jews and in their daily lives.
In April 1933 a law was passed forbidding the Jews from the civil service and the universities. In October another law expelled them from working in journalism. Then in November 1935 the infamous laws 'for the protection of German blood and honour' were passed. These laws forbade marriage between Jews and non-Jews, stripped Jews of German citizenship and forced them to wear the yellow Star of David as a badge of identification. Now they could be easily picked out and ridiculed. Many Jews considered these laws as an omen of what was to come and decided to emigrate before worse could happen. Among those left were the 2 novelist brothers Heinrich and Thomas Mann and the world famous scientist Albert Einstein. In 1936 the anti-Jewish campaign was lessened because Germany was holding the Olympics.
In 1938 Hitler decreed all Polish Jews should be expelled from Germany, in revenge a young Polish Jew Herschal Gryuszpan murdered a German diplomat in Paris on the 7th November. Instantly the S.S. the Gestapo and Hitler Youth wreaked terrible vengeance on the Jews. On the night of the 9th November now known as krystallnacht seven thousand Jewish shops were destroyed, over 150 synagogues were burnt 91 Jews were killed and thousands were arrested. That night was the beginning of the end for the Jews. They were now ordered to pay a collective fine of 1 billion Reichmarks, as reparations paid for the damage to their own property. This was followed by a decree forbidding them from independent craft, sales, services and management, while Jewish doctors and lawyers were given 3 months to liquidate their practices. Most worrying of all, Himmler ordered a massive expansion of the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Lichtenberg and Auswitsch.
When Austria came under Nazi control in 1938 the Austrian Jews met similar fates. By 1939 370000 Jews and 30000 Jewish supporters had fled the country, many more had been sent to concentration camps with pacifists, beggars, alcoholics, travellers, and sexual deviants. During the war these camps were turned into death camps with mass gassing almost every day. The camp commandant at Auswitsch produced the following testimony at the Nuremberg trial after the war: "The ' final solution' meant the complete extermination of all Jews in Europe in June 1941. I was ordered to establish extermination facilities at Auswitsch. At that time there were already 3 other camps, Belsen, Treblinka and Wosel. I visited them to see how they carried out their extermination. The commandant told me he liquidated 80000 in the course of half a year. He was principally concerned with the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. He used monoxide gas and I did not think his methods were efficient. So at Auswitsch I used Cyclon B, which is crystallised Prussic acid dropped into the death chamber. It took from 3 to 15 minutes to kill people in the death chamber. We knew when they were dead because their screaming stopped. After the bodies were removed our special commandos took the rings and extracted the gold teeth of the corpses. Another improvement that we made was that we built our gas chamber to accommodate 2000 people at one time." Only when the war came to an end did the appalling facts and figures of the camps become known. It is thought that over 6000000 Jews lost their lives in them.
Hitler controlled the Jews to such an extent that he took their lives from them. They were denied all civil liberties and freedoms. Even still some Jews resisted the most famous probably Anne Frank, who went into hiding and recorded events in her famous diary, which has now been published around the world.
Conclusion
In every aspect of Nazi Germany 99% of the people submitted to the Nazi control. The control was often applied mainly by fear, or desires for a fresh start at life e.g. the workers. Hitler controlled the government by using democracy to get into power and then destroy it from within.
In the youth he used compulsory organisations to focus the young minds solely on Nazi ideals.
In the workers he offered them work and better standards.
Women he controlled by imposing strict regulation to shape the women to be perfect Nazi housewives.
For the Jews it wasn't so much of a control as a death sentence, he even managed to turn children against them by rewriting schoolbooks. There was also a fear factor in the Jews as most of them were rapidly disappearing into concentration camps and never returning.
Propaganda was a major tool in Hitler's application of control. Hitler once stated: "The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small but their powers of forgetting are enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan." This shows he understood the force of propaganda and used it to his advantage.
On the other hand almost every aspect had a minority that rebelled against the control, for example the pirates in the Youth, refusing to join the organisations.
In conclusion, despite the heavy effective measures the Nazis had imposed there were always groups which did not comply with the harsh laws, like the hidden Jews, the women who wore trousers, make-up etc, the pirates in the youth who evaded capture despite Nazi attempts, the other political parties which still attempted to function during Hitler's reign, like the Social Democrats and the Communists.
This shows that the Nazis could control the majority of the population but were unable to win the minds of every person that they attempted to control.