History - Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 - Unemployment and Living Standards

Reducing unemployment

1. Unemployed Germans

2. Unemployment was politically dangerous

3. Unemployment was a burden

1. January 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor, 25% of the work force

2. If Hitler could not improve the poor living conditions of unemployed workers, they may turn to the Communist party

3. Nazis saw unemployed workers as a waste of resources and wanted as many in the service of the country.

Unemployment scheme

1. Name

2. Aim

3. Workers

4. Success

1. Reich Labour Service (RAD),1933

2. Paid workers for public works (planting trees, draining marshes). Benefitted entire Germany

3. Was voluntary at first. From 1935, compulsory for all young men to serve for 6 months and 422,000 people were involved

4. RAD was organised like army. Not popular as men saw it as service to the Nazi party rather than employment. Workers wore uniforms, lived in camps, did military drills and parades on top of labour. Rates of pay low, poor food and working conditions

Unemployment scheme

1. Name

2. Events

3. Public works

4. Success

1. Autobahn project. Nazis planned 7,000 mile network of dual-carriageway roads

2. September 1933, Hitler personally starts construction of first autobahn. May 1935, first stretch of motorway open. By 1935, 125,000 men employed building motorways. By 1938, 3,500km finished

3. Nazis created buildings, bridges, coastal walls, sports facilities. Spending on these grew from 18 billion marks in 1933 to 38 billion in 1938

4. Created jobs in construction. Better roads and bridges meant quicker, cheaper transport for German industry and agriculture which helped boost sale of goods at home and abroad, creating more jobs in German economy

Unemployment scheme

1. Name

2. Success (soldiers)

3. Success (equipment)

1. Rearmament

2. Treaty of Versailles limited Germany’s armed forces. 1935, Hitler announced military conscription. All young men would have to serve a period of time. By 1939, 1,360,000 men in armed forces. Reduced unemployment

3. Hitler’s larger military needed more arms. Government spending on equipment grew from 3.5 billion marks in 1933 to 26 in 1939. Increase in employment in the arms industry

Invisible unemployment

1. Real number of unemployed

2. Who was ignored in figures

3. Jobs created by Nazis and the economy

4. Jobs created by excess government spending

1. Higher than official figures by almost one and a half million people. Nazis only reduced the number of people recorded as unemployed

2. Women and Jew forced to give up work, political prisoners, people in part-time jobs

3. Armaments industry, armed forces, Nazi security and Labour Service were not ‘real’ jobs and were funded with public money

4. Public works came from spending that could not have been maintained in the long run

Living standards scheme

1. Nazi government opinion on trade unions

2. Action taken

3. Replacement

4. Role

5. Benefits for workers

6. Drawbacks for workers

1. Supported Communist party, disrupt the economy by calling strikes

2. 1933, banned trade unions

3. 1933, set up German Labour Front (DAF)

4. Control employers and employees to ensure businesses worked for the best interests of the state

5. Set out rights of workers in workplace, maximum length of working week, minimum pay

6. Lost the right to negotiate improvements in pay and conditions, maximum working week length increased by six hours, workers who disrupted production were rounded up and sent to concentration camps for re-education

Living standards scheme

1. No trade unions

2. Solution

3. Role

4. Provided

5. Members

6. Benefits for workers

7. Drawbacks for workers

1. Could be a source of unrest amongst workers

2. 1933, set up Strength through Joy (KdF). Division of DAF

3. Make benefits of work more enjoyable so Germans would see work as a way to a happy life

4. Leisure activities for workers. Sports events, films, theatre, outings. Most loyal workers could win foreign holidays

5. Most workers expected to join. 1936, 35 million

6. Gave ordinary workers access to activities normally reserved for the better off. More than 10 million people took KdF holidays

7. Very few could afford the more expensive activities like cruises

Living standards scheme

1. Name

2. Hitler asked

3. Benefits for workers

4. Drawbacks for workers

1. Volkswagen (the ‘people’s car’). Scheme ran by KdF

2. Ferdinand Porsche to design a car for four people, which could travel 40 miles to the gallon so average workers could afford

3. KdF encouraged workers to give five marks from their wages a week to eventually entitle them to a new Volkswagen. The money set up factories to make the cars

4. From 1938, these factories switched to production of armaments. No workers saw their money or Volkswagen

Living standards scheme

1. Name

2. Role

3. How it worked

4. Benefits for workers

5. Drawbacks for workers

1. Beauty of Labour (SdA)

2. Campaigned to get employers to provide better facilities for workers (toilets, changing rooms, showers, canteens)

3. SdA gave employers tax breaks to help with business and decorating costs

4. 1938, Nazi party claimed nearly 34,000 companies improved their facilities. Organised buildings, better lighting, improved noise levels

5. Normal for employers to expect workers to do building and decorating themselves after work hours at no extra pay. Some employers threatened those who did not volunteer with dismissal

Daily cost of living

1. Wages

2. Working hours

3. Improved food

4. Worsened food

1. Average weekly wages rose from 86 marks in 1932 - 109 marks in 1938

2. Average working hours rose from 42.9 per week in 1933 - 47 in 1939

3. Women informed which food to buy and how to cook simple, healthy cheap meals. Pot dish of meat and vegetables encouraged and known as the meal of sacrifice for the nation

4. All basic groceries except fish cost more in 1939 that 1933. Food in short supply as it was government policy to reduce agricultural products to keep up prices for the benefit of farmers