The New Plan solved Germany’s economic problems and enabled Hitler to rearm his forces. Although the New Plan was successful Hitler wanted to rearm much faster. He put Herman Goering in charge of the economy in 1936 and Schacht lost his power. Goering introduced the Four Year Plan. The aim of the plan was to prepare Germany for war within four years.
- Massive orders were given to German industry for guns, tanks and planes, all of which meant huge contracts for industry.
- The Four Year plan also aimed to make Germany self-sufficient in materials essential to war such as oil, rubber and steel. This policy was known as autarchy. Hitler remembered the effect of the British naval blockade in World War I. If the raw materials were not available in Germany, German scientists were encouraged to find synthetic (ersatz) substitutes eg. synthetic rubber and synthetic oil were made from coal.
Hitler never achieved his aim of making Germany completely self-sufficient by the time war broke out in 1939, but perhaps Germany would have been defeated more quickly if autarky hadn’t been introduced.
In his election campaigns Hitler had promised to provide ‘bread and work’ for the German people. This was a promise he could not afford to break. In 1933 there were six million Germans unemployed. By 1939 this figure had come down to 300,000. How did the Nazis do this?
- The Nazis created jobs through government spending on Public Works Schemes. Millions of people were ordered to join the Reich Labour Service and sent to work wherever the government told them to go. They would often work on building motorways (autobahns), hospitals, schools and improving agriculture. Huge public buildings were constructed including a new Olympic stadium for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Such buildings not only created jobs but impressed people.
- Rearmament also created jobs.
- More men were recruited into the army. When Hitler came to power in 1933 the army was limited to 100,000 men by the Treaty of Versailles. By 1938 the figure had risen to 900,000 men.
In 1933 the Nazis banned trade unions because trade unionists tended to support the Socialist and Communist Parties, the enemies of the Nazis. In their place the Nazis developed the idea of everyone working together for the good of the country. So they set up the German Labour Front. This Nazi organisation controlled all aspects of workers’ rights and conditions eg. wages, hours etc. Strikes, of course, were illegal. Workers found that their wages were kept low and that they were working longer hours. The workers expected some benefits and the German Labour Front set up two organisations to improve the lives of the workers.
- The Beauty of Labour organisation tried to improve working conditions by, for example, improving safety standards, reducing noise levels in factories and introducing hot midday meals.
- The Strength through Joy organisation was set up to provide workers with leisure activities when they were not working. These included film shows, concerts and excursions. Those who worked hardest could be rewarded with a cruise on a Strength through Joy ship. Another venture by this organisation was the development of the Volkswagen, the people’s car. Workers were encouraged to start saving for one.
Behind all these improvements was an attempt to control people’s working lives and leisure time, and to convince the workers of the need to work harder and longer for less money. They were told that they were helping to build a great and powerful Germany.
