the economy

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

What were the main aims of the Nazi Economic policy? [4]​
  • Overall aim of AUTARKY (Self-sufficiency)
  • Reduce unemployment
  • Make Germany ready for War
​Explain how the Nazis tried to solve unemployment [6]
  • Public works programmes
  • Social Policies - exclude Jews & Women from the workforce
  • Forced Labour (RAD)
  • Rearmament / conscription
Think + Revise
​The Nazi Economic policy was a great success' How far do you agree? [10]

did the workers benefit from Nazi economic policy?

Read through the following statements - do they provide 'evidence' of a) the success or failure  of Nazi economic policies and b) evidence that German people / workers benefitted under the Nazi regime?
  • 1933 the Sturm Abteilung (SA) arrest ed Germany's trade union leaders.
  • Robert Ley formed the German Labour Front (DAF), the only union organization allowed in the Third Reich.
  • A pay freeze was introduced in 1933.  Wages were now decided by the Labour Front and compulsory deductions made for income tax, and for its Strength through Joy programme.
  • The Labour Front issued work-books that recorded the worker's employment record and no one could be employed without one.
  • The government banned the introduction of some labour-saving machinery & The Nazi government gave work contracts to those companies that relied on manual labour rather than machines. This was especially true of the government's massive autobahn (motorway) programme.
  • The Nazis concentrated on rearming. Thousands of Germans worked in factories producing weapons.
  • Conscription into the German armed forces helped to reduce the numbers of unemployed.
  • Hitler encouraged the mass production of radios. 
  • Youth unemployment was dealt with by the forming of the Voluntary Labour Service (VLS) and the Voluntary Youth Service (VYS), these planted forests, repaired river banks and helped reclaim wasteland.
  • Women in certain professions such as doctors and civil servants were dismissed. (Civil Service Laws)
  • Women were incentivised to remain at home by being given a marriage loan of 1000 marks to stay at home.
  • In 1935 the Reich Labour Service (RAD) was introduced. Under this measure all men aged between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five had work for the government for six months. (For free)
  • Later women were also included in the scheme and they did work such as teaching and domestic service
  • The Strength through Joy (KDF) organisation was set up to encourage workers to work as hard as they could for Germany and the Nazis. It offered cheap holidays and a 'People's Car' (VW). A cruise to the Canary Islands cost 62 marks - easily affordable to many, though most cruises were taken up by Nazi Party officials.
  • Walking and skiing holidays in the Bavarian Alps cost 28 marks. A two-week tour of Italy cost 155 marks.
  • Ley ordered the building of two new cruise-liners that were used to take German workers on foreign holidays. In 1938 an estimated 180,000 people went on cruises to places such as Maderia and the Norweigian fjords. Others were given free holidays in Germany.
  • The Strength through Joy programme built sports facilities, paid for theatre visits and financially supported travelling cabaret groups. 
  • The Nazis created a scheme whereby the workers could get a car. The VW Beetle, designed by Ferdinand Porsche, cost 990 marks. This was about 35 weeks wages for the average worker.
  • To pay for one, workers went on a hire purchase scheme. They paid 5 marks a week into an account. Theoretically, when the account had reached 750 marks the worker would be given an order number which would lead to them receiving a car. In fact, no-one received a car. The millions of marks invested into the scheme were re-directed into the rapidly expanding weapons factories. This accelerated as World War Two approached. No-one complained as to do so could lead to serious trouble with the secret police.
  • Unemployment had fallen from 6 million in 1933 to 300,000 by 1939
  • Industrial production in 1939 was above the figure for Weimar Germany before the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
  • By 1939, Germany still imported 33% of its required raw materials
  • Government income had been 10 billion Reichsmarks in 1928. In 1939, it was 15 billion. However, government spending had increased from 12 billion Reichsmarks in 1928 to over 30 billion in 1939. 
  • From 1933 to 1939, the Nazi government always spent more than it earned so that by 1939, government debt stood at over 40 billion Resichsmarks.
  • Annual food consumption in 1937 had fallen for wheat bread, meat, bacon, milk, eggs fish vegetables, sugar, tropical fruit and beer compared to the 1927 figures. The only increase was in rye bread, cheese and potatoes.
  • Real earnings in 1938 were all but the same as the 1928 figure. (Real earnings are wages adjusted to allow for inflation).

summary