Another one of Hitler’s aims was to indoctrinate the youth of Germany through youth groups and education into the regime. To do this Hitler eventually banned all other youth groups except for Nazi ones. In these youth groups boys were trained for war and girls for marriage. The educational policies were aimed to develop loyalty to the regime and take away emphasis on developing as an individual. Lessons like PE, History and Biology became politicised. Hitler was successful in providing traditional ideals to girls and boys and in producing a base of young, loyal, powerful soldiers. The Hitler Youth did not completely succeed though, becoming less popular in the late 30s when things became too militarised and membership compulsory. Alternative youth groups started to arise such as the Edelweiss Pirates and the Swing Movement. The Edelweiss Pirates were a group of lower and working class kids who would often beat up the HJ during their walks. The Swing Movement happened when a group of upper and middle class kids danced to banned, American jazz music and wore English style clothing. These alternative groups reveal the limit to Nazi control. Whilst there was some opposition, Hitler would have regarded his youth program as successful. By 1939 82% of German 11-18 year olds were involved and 97% of teachers were in the Nazi Teacher’s League. By Hitler’s criteria these figures show a success, even though it could be argued that the disillusionment of teachers to the regime suggests otherwise.
Hitler’s policy towards women was that of “Kinder, Kirche und Kuchen”, meaning children, church and kitchen. His aim for women was to restrict female employment so to solve unemployment in general. He also wanted to make sure that Germany was well populated to correspond with his desire for ‘lebensraum.’ He did this through a series of propaganda techniques. Married women were excluded from civil service and other professions and only a restricted number were allowed to go to university. Women who left work to marry an Aryan were given a loan which fell by 25% after each child. Hitler was a success because the birth rate did increase to connect with his expansion aims. The Nazi’s gave medals for mothers depending on how many children that they had. A gold medal was given to mothers with more than 8 children. Overall Hitler was a success in regard to his aims towards women but failed at the start of the war when he once more had to start to employ women.
Hitler’s economic aims were for Autarky, deficit financing and Wehrwirtshaft (meaning gearing the economy to the demands of war.) Hitler knew that to maintain popularity he would have to tackle Germany’s economic problems. To do this he did a number of things. He spent money on public work programmes, encouraged the expansion of the car industry (created the cheap vehicle the Volkswagen), set up the re-armament programme and re-introduced conscription. Hitler wanted to stay self-sufficient so Goerine set up the Four Year Plan. Synthetic substitutes for oil and rubber were to be made. Hitler failed on two accounts on his economic policies. By 1935 the ‘Guns or Butter?’ crisis meant that Germany could not afford both to import food and import industrial raw material. The plan of making synthetic substances did not work and Germany did not become self-sufficient, still having to import raw materials. Hitler was a success in his aims because the industrial output increased beyond that it had been in the prosperous Weimer years. The GNP level also rose and wage levels recovered.
When gearing his economy to war, Hitler had both successes and failures. Historians are divided on whether Hitler was preparing for war in the first place. R. Overy thinks that Hitler planned for total war but miscalculated that in 1939 as he invaded Poland a major war would be provoked. Some historians like Mason argue that Hitler was forced to go to war because of the economic crisis and discontent in the limited supply of consumer goods. Other historians think that it was military conditions that created the decision of going to war. Hitler was successful in planning his war aims because by 1939 he had 1200 bombers and nearly 100 divisions in the army. However this was a failure in some ways because a lot of the army at that point was untrained and unorganised.
Historians debate on Hitler’s foreign policy aims. Historian AJP Taylor argues that he had no precise goal other than wanting to expand, his policy of “lebensraum”. His main aim was winning this lebensraum but he also wanted to revise the Treaty of Versailles’s (ToV) point in taking away Germany’s land. He also wanted to achieve the Anschluss with Austria. Hitler was successful in achieving the Anschluss and in revising the ToV yet he didn’t succeed in his aim of “lebensraum”. Whilst having seized Czechoslovakia and Poland (by the beginning of the war), he did not win the war, and therefore failed on his major over aim.
When discussing the successes and failures of Hitler from his point of view it can be said that he was extremely successful in establishing and ruling a single party state yet he failed on maintaining that dictatorship and achieving his major goal of “lebensraum”. Hitler did not succeed during the Second World War at all but we can see this with the benefit of hindsight. Hitler was very successful in creating the “Führer myth” and in controlling the people but he was not hugely successful in his economic policies or foreign ones.
