Life in Nazi Germany

Topic 4

Gleichstaltung

Making people think and act the same way

Volksgemenischaft

The People’s community

Women and the family: Ideal Nazi Women (3)

Traditional clothes, natural appearance - no makeup

Focus on the home and to stay out of work

Marry and have lots of children

Women and the family: The three k’s

Kinder - Children

Kuche - Kitchen

Kircher - Church

Women and the family: Rewards (2)

Newly married couples were given 1,000 marks and allowed to keep 250 for each child they had

The mothers cross given to women who had lots of children - 4 = bronze 6 = silver 8 = gold

Women and the family: Impact (4)

Number of women in work went up by 3 million

Number of marriages rose from 500,000 in 1932 to 770,000 in 1939

Women in universities fell from 18,000 to 5,000 by 1939

Average number of children fell from 3.6 in 1933 to 3.3 in 1939

Youth groups: Hitler Youth (4)

For boys aged 14-18

Trained and prepared to join the army

Wore military-style uniforms and practised marching

Membership increased from 100,000 in 1933 to 7.5 million in 1939 (became compulsory in 1936)

Youth groups: League of German Maidens (4)

For girls aged 14-18

Trained and prepared to become housewives

Taught to cook, clean, iron, and sew

Did sport to improve fitness and beauty

Education: Teachers

Forced to join the Nazi Teachers’ League or quit

Education: History

Celebrated German military successes and taught about Germany’s greatness as a nation

Education: Biology

Taught that Aryans were superior to other races

Education: Race Studies

A new subject that taught about the differences between races

Education: PE (2)

15% of timetable

Boys and girls were kept physically fit

Reducing unemployment: Rearmerment (2)

Over 25 billion marks spent on building up the German army by 1939

Created millions of jobs

Reducing Unemployment: National Labour Service (2)

All men out of work aged 18-25 had to join for 6 months

Worked on public building projects

Reducing Unemployment: Public building projects (2)

Autobahns - 7,000 km of motorways built

Sports facilities - for the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Reducing Unemployment: Invisible Unemployment (2)

Jewish people and women were not counted in employment statistics

500,000 men in the National Labour Service weren’t counted in employment statistics (this was short term)

Standard of Living: People were better off since…. (3)

Regular wages went up by 20%

Managerial wages went up by 50%

3x as many people owned their own car

Standard of Living: People were worse off since…. (3)

Work hours went up from 43 to 49 hours per week

The cost of food rose equivalent to the rise in wages (cancelled out wage rises)

Only high earners could afford a car

Standard of Living: German Labour Front (DAF) (2)

Nazi trade union

Increased work hours and took away worker rights, but limited power of business

Standard of Living: Work schemes (2)

Strength through Joy (KdF) - Gave workers rewards and holidays

Beauty of Labour (SdA) - Prompted workers to improve their work conditions

Racial beliefs: Aryans (3)

A German with blonde hair and blue eyes

Believed to be the ideal German

Race farms were set up where Aryan men and women met to have Aryan children

Racial beliefs: Herrenvolk (2)

The ‘master race’

made of racially ‘pure’ Aryans

Racial beliefs: Untermenschen (2)

‘Subhumans’

racially inferior people which included Slavic people, gypsies, black people, and especially Jews

Persecution: Disabled people

The Nazis believed they had no value and were a burden on society

Persecution: Sterilisation (2)

Mentally and physically disabled were sterilised

They couldn’t have children anymore

Persecution: Euthanaisia

Over 100,000 physically and mentally disabled Germans were killed in the T4 programme (gassing)

Persecution: Concentration camps

Homosexual people, prostitutes, criminals, and other ‘undesirables’ were sent to concentration camps

Persecution of Jewish People: Boycott of Jewish businesses (2)

1933

SA stormtroopers stopped people from buying things from Jewish shops

Persecution of Jewish People: Nuremberg Race Laws (3)

1935

Reich Law on German Citizenship passed

Stopped Jewish people from being German citizens and from marrying Germans

Persecution of Jewish People: Kristallnacht (4)

1939 - The Night of Broken Glass

A huge wave of violence orchestrated by Goebbels and encouraged by the Nazis

91 Jewish people killed, 7,500 Jewish shops looted, 30,000 Jewish men sent to concentration camps

Hundreds of synagogues were destroyed