Source D also does suggest this demoralisation did exist during the second half of the 1930s. As the law on the Hitler Youth was introduced in 1936 and Hitler Youth became compulsory in 1939, it is reasonable to assume the source is reliable. The source bases the success of the Nazi youth policy on its failure to meet its aims of achieving volksgemeinschaft. Source C demonstrates this failure when Karma was told she was ‘always an outsider’, which was what volksgemeinschaft aimed to destroy.
Overall, three of the sources tend to portray Nazi youth policies as unsuccessful policies, but I believe that the sources should be examined on what the definition on Nazi youth policy success is. Source D is certainly right, they did not achieve their long term aim of volksgemeinschaft, but this does not mean they had no success at all. Source A shows an example of how the Nazi youth policies helped brainwash children, even to the extent they would go against their parents wishes, which shows some element of success. The SOPADE reports and source C show elements of resistance, but the fact sources A and C show that most children didn’t escape Hitler Youth groups shows not only more success, but that resistance was relatively small. Therefore I believe that although the policies didn’t achieve their aims, they still helped the Nazis spread their propaganda enormously.
PART B
Examine the aims and assess the results of the attempts made by the Nazis to transform German society between 1933 and 1945, with reference to two or more of the following groups: Industrial workers; peasants; youth, women and the family.
The Nazi regime made many attempts to construct their ideal society, creating a volksgemeinschaft where everybody helped each other. However, there are serious doubts whether the policies introduced by the Nazis were aimed to fulfill Nazi ideology on the perfect society or for other economic reasons. In answering this question, I am going to examine the real aims of the Nazi social policies, and assess the actual consequences of the policies introduced.
The first group I am going to look at involves women and their families. The Nazi ideology for the purpose of women in society simply involved having as many children as possible and staying at home to look after the children while her loyal husband earns the money for the family. From this, women who went to work, were fashion conscious or westernised in any way were frowned upon under Nazi ideology.
To try to implement this ideology many measures were introduced, but the consequences of these actions have to be questioned. The introduction of marriage loans, which were given as a gift to families if they had over four children, did increase not only the birth rate in Germany but also the number of marriages taking place. Child allowance and child subsidies also helped raise the birth rate, which these policies were obviously aimed to achieve. In this respect they were very successful, but the Nazi ideology was actually being violated, as many women were becoming pregnant out of marriage, which was actually encouraged by the Nazis to increase the population. In this respect the Nazi policies were not successful, and the consequences opposed their ideology.
Another example of this involved the Nazi views on women at work. Many men were angry during the depression over the large female employment force, and Nazi ideology also opposed this, but the percentage of women in employment stayed the same during the Nazi period. This was due to the fact women under 25 were forced into labour during the war, which is again an example of the Nazi regime going against their ideology, making their policies again unsuccessful. However, fulfilling the ideology was perhaps not the main aim of the Nazi regime, with the main aims becoming increasing Germany’s population and helping the war effort, even if the ideology was broken.
The consequences of these policies were very varied. Although the percentage of the women workforce in Germany stayed the same during the Nazi regime, middle class professional women were greatly affected by the Nazi ideology. These were removed from occupations in top civil service and medical careers, and in 1936 were banned from being judges and from other professional occupations. This means that the Nazi policies towards the employment of women did affect many middle class women severely, whilst working class women were less affected as the Nazi government needed the workforce to help military expansion. Again this is an example where Nazi ideology came second to the expansion of Germany in terms of military threat and population. In terms of transforming the role of women in German society, they did ensure that more families were created, but also divorces rose rapidly due to the fact men were encouraged to leave older wives who were infertile for younger wives. The society was transformed, but in the opposite way to Nazi ideology, encouraging promiscuity and prostitution simply to increase the population of the country.
Comparing the aims of the policies towards women and towards industrial workers involves similar aims as before, military expansion being the main aim. However, the Nazi ideological idea of a volksgemeinschaft, a people’s community with no class system with everybody working for the good of the nation, was a major aim in any Nazi policy which aimed to transform German society. Policies offered to poor industrial workers through the German Labour Front (DAF), such as improved working conditions and subsidised holidays were aiming to gain workers support for the Nazi regime in order for them to support the idea of a volksgemeinschaft. The policies used by the DAF such as strength through joy did seem to lead to working class acceptance of the Nazi regime, therefore making the policies very successful.
The reasons for this acceptance by the industrial workers was perhaps due to the fact that many workers were earning more than before due to the increased demand in the economy, rather than any specific Nazi policy. The policies introduced by DAF also helped, as improved work conditions were introduced. One key factor for the industrial workers acceptance of the Nazi regime has to be the fact that unemployment and other factors during the depression were eradicated, leading to acceptance of the Nazi regime due to better living conditions. However, it is important to stress that although the policies seem to meet Nazi aims, the concept of the volksgemeinschaft was not necessarily believed in. Industrial workers accepted the Nazi regime because they benefited in it, not always because they believed its ideology.
The cosequences of the Nazi policies towards the industrial workers are clear. Unemployment fell and many working class people lived better lives, and the policies definitely transformed the society in that respect. However, the Nazi regime wanted more than this; it wanted its people to share the Weltanschaung (common world view), and whether the policies achieved this is very debatable.
Other consequences of Nazi policies towards industrial workers affected different people in different ways. Skilled workers or artisans faced turmoil due to the rise in prices of raw materials and the fact that even with increased demand their prices for their goods could not change as the nazi regime fixed all costs. Other Nazi policies such as banning department stores were aimed to please small traders and close the gap between the mittlestand (middle-class) and the upper class in order to create the volksgemeinschaft. In the end this policy had little effect, as other policies such as promoting big business actually condemned these small traders to bankruptcy. In these areas there would have been resentment towards the regime. The policies were unsuccessful for these people not only because they failed to gain support for the regime, but because the class system actually became even more divided due to the loss of the small traders from the middle class, which is a complete disaster according the idea of a volksgemeinschaft. This transformation was not the Nazi aim of the policies introduced.
One major Nazi policy was to support big business and help it grow to help rearmanenent. This policy was a vital blow in the Nazi bid to produced a volksgemeinschaft, as while the big businesses got bigger, the upper class grew and condemned the small traders and other middle class people to the working class. The Nazi policy aimed to help rearm the country destroyed any previous policies aimed at creating a volksgemeinschaft as the gap between working class and upper class actually grew. This consequence meant that Nazi attempts to transform German society into a volksgemeinschaft would always be undermined as they gave the working class no chance of integrating with the upper classes.
Overall, Nazi policies that were ideologically driven rarely met their aims due to other contradictory policies introduced to help military expansion. Nazi ideology on volksgemeinschaft and the perfect family was undermined by the need to make Germany a great nation again. The only respect in which the Nazis did transform the society is the role of women havimg babies, but this idea was an existing idea in Germany anyway but was just exaggerated by the Nazis. All other policies driven by ideology failed to meet their aims mainly due to other contradictory policies introduced.
