starter activity

1
? starter activity
I was unemployed for many years. Id have made a
pact with the devil to get work. Hitler came
along and got me work, so I followed him.
German worker, 1985, explaining why he joined the
Nazis in the 1930s. What does this tell us about
the economy the reasons why people supported
the Nazi regime?
2
How successful was Nazi economic policy?

• To what extent was Nazi economic policy
  ideologically driven?

3
? Your task

• Read Hite Hinton, p. 212 and list Hitler and
  the Nazis war aims.

4
Hitlers war aims

• Tackle problems of Depression
• Restore Germany to full employment
• Rebuild Germanys military prepare for future
  war, Wehwirtschaft
• Greater self-sufficiency, autarky
• Win support of Mittelstand
• Corporativist govt.

How many of Hitlers aims are represented in this
1930s propaganda poster?
5
? Your task

• Read p. 216 and list the methods used by the
  Nazis to stimulate economic recovery

6
Methods

• Job creation
• Increased public expenditure investment
• Tax concessions employment incentives
• Trade unions dissolved formation of DAF (May
  1933)
• RAD
• Conscription

Incentives for young families. Were there any
links to other areas of Nazi policy?
7
Schact

• Hjalmar Schact appointed president of Reichsbank
  (March 1933) Economic Minister (1934)
• Deficit financing (Mefo bills)
• End of reparations (1932)
• Suspension of debt repayments

Study the biography of Schact on p.217 and list
the reasons for his success.
8
New Plan

• Balance of trade deficit redressed with New Plan
  (1934)
• Bilateral trade agreements, e.g. with Balkan
  states where products raw materials were
  bartered rather than bought or sold
• Increased economic influence over regions, e.g.
  Austria, Czechoslovakia Balkans

9
? Your task

• Study source 12.19. List the points Hitler
  claims contributed to Germanys success. Now
  imagine you are a critic of the regime. Write a
  brief counter speech refuting these claims

10
What was the Four-Year Plan?

• Goering and the Nazi economy, 1936-9

11

• Study the biography of Goering on p.221 and list
  the reasons why he was so successful within the
  Nazi regime. What were his failings?

12
Hermann Goering (1893-1946)

• WWI ace fighter pilot
• 1922 joined NSDAP, wounded during Munich Putsch,
  1 of 3 original NSDAP ministers in Jan 1933,
  involved in N of the Long K
• 1935 C-inC Luftwaffe
• 1936 Plenipotentiary for 4 Y Plans
• 1946 Nuremberg trials, committed suicide,
  cremated at Dachau

How was Goerings lifestyle another example of
Nazi hypocrisy?
13

• Read p. 218 and list the reasons for the
  Four-Year Plan

14
Why was the Four-Year Plan introduced?

• Hitler impatient with Schachts caution
• 4 September 1936, Goering put in charge of
  Four-Year Plan
• Priority given to rearmament autarky
• Office of the Four-Year Plan issued regulations
  controlling foreign exchange, labour, raw
  materials and prices

Hermann Goering Commissioner Plenipotentiary for
the Four-Year Plan, 1936
15

• Create a scales chart to evaluate the successes
  and failures of the Plan

16
Success or failure of Four-Year Plan

• Aims of autarky were to increase production of
  key commodities, e.g. iron food
• Develop ersatz products, e.g. using coal to
  produce oil
• By 1939 Germany still dependent on foreign
  imports for 1/3 of raw materials
• Expansionism replaced autarky

Hitler Goering, eye-up chemical products to be
used for ersatz production
17
How significant was the drive for rearmament?

• Example of radicalisation in the Nazi regime
• Guns or butter debate
• Tim Mason - Hitler hindered by need to supply
  both needs
• Richard Overy - periods of economic development
  (1933-6, public works, economic revival and
  1936-9, rearmament)

What other examples of govt. policies becoming
radicalised can you think of?
18
How were major areas of the economy organised
during the Third Reich?

• Hite/Hinton, p.224

19
Agriculture

• Government measures to reduce high food prices
  debts
• Attention focussed on large estates rather than
  smallholders
• Production from agriculture overall fell

20
Industry

• Industry brought under state supervision
  (Reichsgruppe for Industry)
• State controlled resources, but industry remained
  largely privately owned
• 300,000 small businesses went bankrupt 1933-1945

21
Transport

• Massive investment (3.8 billion RM p.a. by 1938)
• Confusion and overlap, e.g. with investment and
  administration of railways

22
Foreign trade

• Schachts bilateral trade agreements replaced by
  policy of autarky
• Foreign conquests made up lack in domestic
  production

23
?

• Study p.224-6 and work out what the numbers refer
  to on the slip of paper your teacher gives you.

24
Who benefited most from the Nazi economy?
25
? Your task

• Read Hite/Hinton, p.227-235
• Complete the table, p.227 shown below

26
?

• Which social group came off worst under the
  Nazis. Make a case for your original group.
• Write a short judgement paragraph explaining
  which group you think benefited most from the
  regime and which suffered the most as well.

27
? Your homework task

• Read p.232 and write definitions of the following
  Nazi organisations
• DAF
• Kraft durch Freude
• Schönheit der Arbeit
• Trustees of Labour
• Councils of Trust
• RAD
• NSBO

28

• DAF German Labour Front, estd. May 1933, headed
  by Robert, replaced independent TUs, membership
  reached 22 million by 1939
• Kraft durch Freude Strength through Joy,
  created by DAF, subsidised holidays leisure
  activities, 1938 10m took KdF holidays
• Schönheit der Arbeit Beauty of Work,
  improving working conditions
• Trustees of Labour estd. 1933, officials
  responsible to Minister for Labour,
  responsibilities included pay conditions
• Councils of Trust estd. 1934, subordinate to
  Trustees of Labour, workers councils looking at
  conditions
• RAD 1935 compulsory labour introd for all men
  (19-25), 1939 extended to women, public works
  schemes or agriculture
• NSBO Nazi workers organisation, estd. In
  1920s, superseded by DAF

29
Was Nazi economic policy ideological?

• Hite / Hinton, p.236-7

30
Ideology

• Support given to the Mittelstand
• Wehrwirtschaft (defence economy) preparing
  Germany psychologically as well as militarily
  economically for war
• Autarky (economic self-sufficiency)
• State control of key industries businesses
• Racism, eg. Aryanisaion of businesses

31
Economic policy

• Investment in infrastructure, e.g. autobahns
• Deficit financing, e.g. Mefo Bills
• Public works schemes to stimulate the economy
• State economic controls, e.g. Reich Food Estate
  Reich Economic Chamber
• Reich Entailed Farm Law Law for Protection of
  Retail Trade
• Ersatz production

32
? Your task

• Write a short judgement explaining whether or
  not you think Nazi economic policy was
  ideological.