An American wrote source F, perhaps he might’ve been writing to inform Americans of what was really happening in Germany. His statement seems to have been researched and is very factual. It is useful for finding out what life in the 1930’s was really like, because it shows that life in Germany would have been hard for many people because they were unemployed, although Hitler put forward the impression that he had solved the unemployment problem in Nazi Germany.
Question 5: Study Source A. Read sources D, E, and F. In what ways do they explain the information shown in Source A?
Source A clearly shows that the unemployment figures fell between 1933-1939. Although Hitler claimed that he had reduced unemployment, Sources D, E and F show that there were other hidden reasons as to why the rate of unemployment seemed to decrease. Source D, a rhyme meant to guide women, shows that women were pressurized to stay at home cooking and cleaning. Although in Nazi Germany, many women were at home, they weren’t counted as unemployed. This helps to explain why source A shows that unemployment decreased – although increasing amounts of women were at home and non-working, they weren’t counted as unemployed, so the figures in Source A would obviously show that unemployment went down. Source E proves that although the unemployment decreased, there weren’t many advantages to working under the Nazis. The man speaking in Source E states that he used to have his own trade, but now he is working extremely hard for the Nazis for low wages. The Nazis and Hitler were so determined to abolish unemployment that if you happened to be unemployed, the Nazis would give you a job placement and there was no choice but to accept. Many people were forced into jobs, and that is why Source A shows that unemployment decreased. Source F largely focuses on ‘invisible unemployment’. This Source clearly explains Source A. There were certain groups where there were many unemployed people, they just weren’t regarded as being unemployed by the Nazis. For example, part-time workers were counted as fully employed, although they weren’t paid the wages of fully employed people, Jewish people weren’t counted as unemployed, neither were women or unmarried men under the age of 25. In conclusion, Source A may show that unemployment figures fell, but there was also a lot of hidden truth surrounding those figures.
“Economic success was the main reason for the popularity of the Nazis in Germany before the second world war”
Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view
Economic success was a main reason for the popularity of the Nazis, but there were other reasons as well. After the Wall Street Crash, Germany had sunk into a Depression. Many Germans became poor and unemployed after the Wall Street Crash. Many blamed the government because they had lost possessions and savings in the crisis, and they turned to Hitler. A simple message that Hitler put across was “Work and bread”. It sounds incredibly simple, but millions of Germans were starving and unemployed, and Hitler’s popularity began to grow. Hitler promised “a new Germany”. He appealed to Nationalism – the German’s love of Germany as a strong united country. Hitler and the Nazis gave a feeling of togetherness.
As I previously mentioned, there were also other reasons, apart from the economy as to why the Nazis were popular. They used lots of propaganda, in order to gain publicity, for example, films, parades, and marches. This brought excitement to the German people. Sources D, F and B are all examples of propaganda, for example, Source B is a photograph of Hitler digging an autobahn (motorway). Hitler was definitely trying to gain publicity in this example, because it would show people how committed he was to providing new jobs.
Germany had been badly affected after the Crash, and Hitler promised stability. Many Germans would’ve liked the sound of this; they would want to go back to having a job with regular income with stability in their lives. Hitler also promised strong leadership, the strong leader would obviously be him, but many people blamed the government for the Depression, so one strong leader might have been what many Germans wanted.
After WW1, Germany had been punished. One of their punishments was that they were restricted army-wise. They hadn’t been allowed a large army. However, one thing that Hitler did was re-armament. This would’ve helped him to become more popular, especially with Germans who felt that Germany should’ve won the war. Source C shows the increasing amounts that Germany spent on weapons as part of the re-armament. Re-armament would have provided thousands of jobs, The Nazis wanted to expand the army, so there would be more vacancies for people to join.
Source A shows that unemployment decreased. This would have helped the Nazis become more popular, and is an example of economic success. Not many Germans would have been aware of the invisible unemployment factor, or maybe they chose to ignore it. But for many Germans, they would have looked at the graph and taken it at face value without stopping to think how true it actually was.
I think that Economic success played an important part of the rising popularity of the Nazis, but I think that there were many other reasons apart from economic which helped the Nazis become popular, for example propaganda, marriage loans, re-armament and the promise of a strong leader.
Hayley Hassan
