hitler's germany lesson 5 hitler's economic policies
TRANSCRIPT
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…