hitler's germany lesson 5 hitler's economic policies

Recap

Hitler’s Consolidation of Power: FREAKF Fuehrer due to:R Reichstag FireE Enabling ActA All other parties outlawedK Knives

Hitler’s GermanyEconomic Impact

Backdrop

“The misery of our people is horrible to behold! Along with the hungry unemployed millions of industrial workers there is the impoverishment of the whole middle class and the artisans. If this collapse finally also finishes off the German farmers we will face a catastrophe of incalculable dimensions. For that would be not just the collapse of a nation, but of a two-thousand-year-old inheritance of some of the greatest achievements of human culture and civilization …”

Lesson Objectives

1) How Nazis exerted GREATER CONTROL over the economy

2) How Nazis sought to APPEASE the working public

3) The road to MILITARISATION

Main Aims

1) Reduce Unemployment2) Build up German (weapons)

industry3) Achieve autarky or economic self-

sufficiency

Creating Employment Through Public Works

Creating Employment

Hitler initiated public works programmes like the building of roads, motorways (Autobahnen) and public buildings Reduce unemployment while providing

infrastructure and facilities for the public

Creating Employment

“Large scale borrowing for public expenditures, and at first this was principally for civilian work -- railroads, canals and the Autobahnen [highway network]. The result was a far more effective attack on unemployment than in any other industrial country.” 

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith

Rise of Industrialists

Rise of Industrialists

Big businesses had close relationship with Nazi government

New Plan 1934 Important industries were subsidised

and imports were barred – why?

Rise of Industrialists

Production of important products like oil, steel, coal and explosives increased – why? Companies that produced these were

encouraged by valuable government contracts

Rise of Industrialists

Four Year Plan (1936) Aim: prepare Germany for

war in 4 years Huge amounts spent by state

on war materials – benefitted companies producing these

Donations made to Nazi Party

Secure party finances as well as power and influence

Hermann Göring

Control of Trade Unions

What’s a ‘trade union’?

Control of Trade Unions

Hitler abolished trade unions How did this help big

businesses? Workers forced to join a

Nazi-controlled workers’ organisation known as the DAF (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) or German Labour Front▪ Employers and employees

united in a single body

Control of Trade Unions

Control over workers No longer allowed to strike/bargain for pay

increases/fight for better conditions Introduction of ‘work books’ – employers’

comments Need government’s permission to change jobs▪ In certain industries, some were not even allowed to

change jobs

Prices stabilised, unemployment reducedWorkers’ benefits and pay suffered

Control of Trade Unions

Working Conditions Wages restricted Workers worked for long

hours (72 hours a week in 1939)

Social security benefits reduced

If you were a worker, how would you feel?

Workers’ Leisure Time

Benefits were needed to keep people happy

Workers’ Leisure Time

‘Strength Through Joy’ aka ‘Kraft durch Freude’ (KdF) To control people’s leisure time Cheap theatre/cinema tickets, courses,

cultural events and sports Even package holidays!

HAD GREAT APPEAL!

Workers’ Leisure Time

‘Strength Through Joy’ aka ‘Kraft durch Freude’ (KdF) KdF-Wagen Scheme▪Workers save 5 marks a week towards a cheap car▪Very popular!!

Familiar?

Workers’ Leisure Time

‘Beauty of Labour’ Aimed at improving working conditions for

workers▪ Washing facilities and low-cost canteens set up

Campaigns such Good ventilation in the workplace gave the government the ability to create workplace benefits while installing a sense of community and a better relationship between the totalitarian dictatorship and the German population

Militarisation

Militarisation

1935 – Conscription for army Jobs!! – making war

materials 1939 – 1.4m men in

army

1935 - Luftwaffe – A Modern Airforce Jobs too!!

Historian’s Assessment

‘It was real and impressive. No other European economy achieved such a rapid recovery ... To most people in 1930s Germany it seemed there had been an economic miracle. TheVolksgemeinschaft [national community] was more than mere rhetoric; it meant full employment, higher wages, stable prices, reduced poverty, cheap radios and budget holidays.’

HistorianNiall Ferguson

Historian’s Assessment“It is too easily forgotten that there were more

holiday camps than concentration camps in Germany between 1935 and 1939. Workers became better trained, farmers saw their incomes rise. Nor were foreigners unimpressed by what was happening. American corporations including Standard Oil, General Motors and IBM all rushed to invest directly in the German economy." 

HistorianNiall Ferguson

If Hitler was assassinated in 1938, would he have been regarded today as a respected German leader?

Something to think about…