Chapter 2 - The establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and its domestic policies Feb 1933-39

Reichstag Fire

27th Feb 1933

• Reichstag was set on fire by van der Lubbe who was a dutch communist

• Hitler portrayed communists as anti-democratic from this

• 28th Feb - Decree for the Protection of the People and the State which allowed the Nazis to ban political opposition, censor the press and arrest political rivals

March 1933 elections

Turnout was 88% but Nazis did not win a majority alone even after the fear of the reichestag fire

Enabling act:

23rd march 1933

Took place in a theatre next to the reichstag with SA members blocking the exits

Hitler had support of the centre party due to him promising catholic rights

It gave Hitler power to rule without the Reichstag for 4 years, however the fact that he needed the catholic centre parties support shows that it wasn’t too late

What was Gleichschaltung?

The synchronisation, infiltration or merging of German society with Nazism both locally and nationally

How was Gleichschaltung created at the government level?

Regional parliaments were dissolved on the 31st March 1933 and replaced by Nazi dominated governors

Jan 1934 - Regional parliaments were abolished so the federal system was abolished (where power is divided from a central area)

How was Gleichschaltung created at the trade union level?

• 1st May was Labour day and then the day after, union premises were occupied, funds seized and leaders sent to concentration camps

• Unions were replaced by the German Labour Front which was more controlling of workers than actual help

• Workers lsot rights to negotiate working hours, pay or conditions

How was Gleichschaltung created in political parties?

• Communists were banned after the Reichstag fire

• June 1933, SD banned and assets seized

• Nationalists in coalition with Nazis dissolved themselves

• Centre Party dissolved in July 1933

• Law against the Establishment of Parites - 14th July 1933

Gleichaltung limitations:

• Not controlling the army

• Not controlling big business

• Not controlling the civil service

• Church still had influence

Night of the Long Knives:

30th June 1934

• Rohm wanted to merge the SA wih the army who viewed the SA and undisciplined

• Hitler needed the armys support but wanted to avoid an election for president

• Rohm and other leading SS members were shot by the SS

• Schleicher and Strasser were killed along with 200 others

• The army swore allegiance to Hitler not the country (godlike) which led to the dictatorship being created

Death of Hindenburg

2nd August 1934

• Hitler merged the offices of President and Chancellor creating the Fuhrer role

Summary of how Hitler was able to establish his dictatorship?

• Weak opposition with the right falling over communist negative cohesion and the left were hated because of the fire

• Enabling act & decree for the protection of the people and state

• Terror through the night of the long knives

• Propaganda portrayed Hitler as saving Germany

Charicteristics of Hitler as a dictator:

• Lazy, going to bed late & getting up late

• Regularly out of Berlin & didn’t keep contact with the ministers so they had to determine what he would think

• Did not co-ordinate his government over foreign policy until the war

What was the structure of the government?

• Power structures overlapped

• The civil service & judiciary remained looking old

• Reich Chancellery should have co-ordinated government but found it difficult due to the number of institutions

3 examples of clashes:

• SS & police clashed and made their roles become more unorganised

• Economic institutions over the 4 year plans

• State courts clashed with special & peoples courts

6 examples of propaganda:

• Reich Radio company, made radios so cheap 70% ownership in 1939, loudspeakers installed in factories, cafes & offices

• Editor’s Law 1933 ensured Nazis controlled papers & all other viewpoints were removed

• Reich Chamber of Literature listed banned books & performed raids on libraries

• Art - Modern art banned, only paintings portraying traditionalist views allowed

• Film - Weekly review of political information had to be included at all film showings

• Social rituals - Heil Hitler & Nazi salute & Public festivals of Hitlers birthday & more

How effective was propaganda?

• Got people to conform which kept Hitler in power so effective

• People didn’t actually believe the Nazi culture & their ideas showing ineffectiveness

• Hitler myth that Hitler was idolized and seen as a hero for Germany

The SS:

• Elite bodyguards for Hitler made in 1925 & controlled by Himmler from 1929 onwards

• Became independent from the SA & more important

• 1936 - Himmler was appointed chief of the German Police

• 1939 - All police & security organisations merged under the RSHA overseen by Himmler and co-ordinated by Heydrich

• RSHA had police, Gestapo, SD, SIPO

• SS would police, intelligence gather, security, be loyal and brutal to the regimes agencies

Gestapo:

• All-seing, all-knowing

• Small organisation of between 20k and 40k agents

• Many were just office workers who relied on informants for information through gossip

• Focused on specific enemies (socialists & jews)

• They were feared and acted as a deterrent more than their actual power

Concentration camps:

• Established in 1933 for political opponents

• Used to question, torture & re-educate people

• Closed in 1934 as they offended nationalists

• 1936-1939 housed Roma, Sinti, asocials, homeless, long-term unemployed

• 1939 - Only 6 conc camps as a warning

Courts:

• People’s Court tried enemies of the state

• Judges instructed to issue harsher sentences with new laws on political offences

• Increasingly difficult for opponents of the regime to receive a fair trial

Why was opposition limited?

• Terror from the Gestapo & concentration camps led people to conform

• Economic miracle with Nazis providing employment

• Political parties & trade unions disagreed with eachother so they couldn’t revolute

What was the issue of the Church?

The followers were loyal to God not Hitler and it was hard to control them effectively

How did Hitler solve: Protestant Church

• Protestant family values & anti-communism aligned with the Nazis

• Hitler wanted to unite protestant churches under the Reich Church 1933 under Muller

• Nazi policies gradually alienated protestants by introducing the Reich Church

• Confessional Church established in 1934 was in oppositon to the Reich Church under Martin Niemoller

• Niemollers church attrracted 7k/17k pastors & he was arrested then sent to a conc camp for it

• Bonhoeffer joined the confessional church in 1940 & helped jews emmigrate, he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 & murdered in a conc camp

How did Hitler solve: Catholic Church

• July 1933 Concordat signed between Hitler & the Catholic Church guaranteed religious freedom & church independece

• Church would be kep tout of politics & Nazis wouldn’t interfere with their property

• Nazis did then interfere & closed church schools, removed crucifixes to replace with swastikas, banned nativity plays etc, attacked Catholic Youth movement & confiscated Church funds

• 1937 - The pope criticised the regime

German faith movement

• Regime attempted to establish a non-Christian alternative based on ancient Germanic beliefs

• Beliefs like superiority of Germanic race, rejection of Christian ethics of mercy & forgiveness

• Only 5% of Germans joined it

Nazi job creation:

• Hitler promised to solve the 6m unemployed within 4 years

• 1Bn Reichmarks invested into public works like buildings roads, canals & houses

• Car industry encouraged by tax breaks resulte din a 40% increase in production

• Conscription introduced in 1935

• Voluntary Labour Service under Bruning was reintroduced and employed 500k men by 1935 as forced 6 months work pre-military

• Law for the Reduction of Unemployment offered loans to women about to marry if they gave up their jobs

• 1938 - Full employment but ¼ of the workforce was employed in rearmament

What was Schachts Plan (Sept 1934)

• Schacht was appointed President of the Reichsbank 1933 and Minister of Economics 34-37

• His main plan was deficit financing where government spending rises (by 70% between 33 and 36) which is paid for by loans & printing money

• Government had control over trade, tariffs, capital & currency exchange rates

• Gave priority for imports of heavy industry

• Trade treaties between South America & SE Europe had the purchases paid in Reichsmarks which could only be spent on German goods

• Mefo bills were introduced which were credit notes to pay manufacturers of military equipment at 4% interest rate

• Mefo bills were credit and basically I owe yours the government gave that gained 4% interest so were encouraged to be kept to avoid inflation

• By 1936 the balance of payments problem worsened due to arms expenditure increasing so much, this created the guns or butter debate which Hitler rejected and appointed Goring instead

What was Gorings 4 Year Plan (Oct 1936)

• Increased arms production & achieve autarky (all food & industrial goods are produced domestically)

• Increase agricultural & industrial production, imports/exports should be favoured over agriculture

• Hitler was moving towards a total war economy

• Goring was given responsibility for rearmament

• Production rose significantly in aluminium but targets of oil & rubber weren’t met so their demands weren’t satisfied

• 1939 - Germany relied on foreign supplies for 1/3 of raw materials

5 key statistics on the economic state of Germany

• Unemployment in 1933 - 6m then 0 in 1938

• Car industry production increase - 40% from tax cuts

• Germanys military spending compared to Britain - 17% of GNP compared to 8% in Britain

• Working hours per week in 1933 then 1939 - 43 hours compared to 47 hours + overtime

• Women in employment in 1932 then 1937 - 37% to 31% (failure)

What was the German Labour Front?

• Replaced independent trade unions & was mandatory for workers to join

• Increased working hours from 43 to 47 a week in 1933 to 1939 + overtime pressure

• Real wages only rose above 1929 levels in 1938

• Strength through Joy (KdF) - State welfare organisation offering workers sport facilities

• Workers could pay towards the peoples car with points but none were actually delivered

What were the Nazi ideals of a woman?

• The idea that a women’s place was at home with children (Kinder), in the kitchen (Kuche), in the church (Kirche)

• Women were expected to have large families to increase population & provide soldiers

Policies to remove women from work (33-37)

• June 33 - Interest free loans to women who married to give up work

• Labour work favoured men

• 33-36 - Married women couldn’t enter most professions

• 1934 - Girls in higher education limited

• 1937 - Grammar schools abolished for girls & couldn’t go to uni

• Resulted in a slightly lowered women in employment (37-31%)

How did Nazis encourage motherhood?

• Propaganda campaign of donating children to the Fuhrer

• Mothers cross (Bronze - 4+ kids), (Silver - 6+ kids), (Gold - 8+ kids)

• Limited contraception, maternity benefits & family allowance

• Lebensborn (1935) - Unmarried Aryan women were fucked by SS members

• Didn’t result in a significant increase in birth rate, only 2 births per marriage 33-39

What policies were reversed after 1937?

• The labour shortage caused women to be needed in work due to Gorings 4 year plan

• Working women increased from 5.7m in 1937 to 7.1m in 1939

• By 1942 - women were 52% of the labour force

How did Nazis tackle education?

• Teachers had to reinforce Nazi beliefs

• Schools were centralised under the Reich Ministry of Education, Culture & Science

• Head teachers had to be Nazi Party members (National Socialist Teachers’ League had to be established)

• Curriculum had a greater emphasis on physical education & more on German history

• Standards of actual education fell due to physical education taking over

What was the Hitler Youth?

• Boys organisations emphasised on preparing for military life with lots of physical activities

• Girls organisations emphasised on preparing for domestic roles & being mothers

• Membership rose from 1% in 1933, to 60% in 1936 and compulsory in 1939

How effective was the Hitler Youth?

• Those from poorer backgrounds enjoyed the activities

• Organisation was poor though

• There was disillusionment among people due to the military emphasis & discipline

• Some ignored it (Swing Youth and Edelweiss Pirates) who were hostile to the Hitler Youth

What were the anti-Jewish policies 33-37?

• 1st April 1933 - Boycott of Jewish businesses which caused bad publicity overall

• 7th April 1933 - Law for Restoration of Professional Civil Service had jews excluded from civil service

• 5th Sept 1935 - Nuremberg Race Laws where jews lost citizenship & couldn’t marry Germans

• 5th July 1938 - Decree prohibiting Jewish doctors

• 28th Oct 1938 - Decree to expel 17,000 polish jews

• 15th Nov 1938 - Decree to exclude Jews from schools & uni

• 3rd Dec 1938 - Decree for the compulsory closure & sale of all Jewish businesses

• 1st Sept 1939 - Decree introducing a curfew for Jews

What other groups were persecuted?

• Sterilisation Law 1933 - Castration of alcoholics, blind, deaf or schizos

• Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals 1933 - Castration for sex offenders

• Persecution of gay people by 1933 with them already being illegal

• 1936 - Unemployed, beggars sex workers & gays were sent to conc camps

• Euthanasia campaign in 1939 - killed those with hereditary diseases & mental illnesses

Did industrial workers benefit from Nazi rule?

• Provided with work after the unemployment crisis

• Strength through joy benefit

• Real wages didn’t increase until 1938

• Working hours per week increased 43→47

• Lost union membership

• Volkswagen payments taken but no cars

Did farmers benefit from Nazi rule?

• Government wrote off some debts

• Prices were fixed

• Post 1935 price controls stopped benefitting from food shortages

• Agriculture was largely unprofitable

• Nazis didn’t invest in agriculture

Did small businesses benefit from Nazi rule?

• Laws banned new department stores from opening & the expansion of pre existing ones

• Got out competed as big businesses were needed

• Many craftsmen earned less than factory workers

Did big businesses benefit from Nazi rule?

• Rearmament increased German industry

• Managerial wages rose by 70%

• No more trade unions

• Government controlled prices

• Wages & imports were controlled by government

• Forced to research into cheap & low quality things for an enlarged market