Transcript role of education, the arts, the media, and propaganda

Domestic Policies of Hitler:
Economy, Education, Arts,
Media, and Propaganda
Hitler and the Economy –
Dealing With Unemployment
Hitler knew if he could do the following, he
would secure more support:
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Get the unemployed back to work
Get small businesses to become sufficiently
profitable again
Provide security and promotion opportunities for
civil servants
Improve benefits: pension, sickness leave,
workman’s comp, insurance and vacation days
From Hitler’s appointment until Nov. 1938,
unemployment fell (6 mil 1933 - 2.5 mil 1936)
Hitler and the Economy - Economic
Policies of Hjalmar Schacht
Stabilized the German currency after the inflation of 1923
Persuaded major industrial companies to support the
Nazis in elections and urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler
chancellor
His reward was appointment as the President of the
Reichsbank in 1933 and Economic Minister in 1934
 Successfully promoted trade
 Introduced the “New Plan” – public works
 Created the National Labor Service – men aged 18-25
were required to join and learn basic skills for the most
needed work
Clashed with Hitler’s plan to rebuild the military; Schacht
felt it would drain money from where it was really needed
Hitler and the Economy –
Four-Year Plan
Four-Year Plan (1936) – Hermann Goring
shifted the economy to wartime production
It created huge public works projects and
armament expenditure was rapidly increased,
while taxes were lowered
It was based on deficit spending
Hitler and the Economy –
Economic Help
Farmers – With guaranteed prices for their
produce, farmers recovered during the first
three years of the regime
Small businesses – Were helped with state
spending and loans
Industry – Grants and loans were made to
install machinery
Unemployed – Work was created in slum
clearance, housing, road repairs, hospitals,
schools, and Autobahn construction
Hitler and the Economy –
Various Important Policies
In Apr. 1933, Jewish businesses were boycotted
In Jun. 1933, loans were provided on condition that
female spouses leave their jobs (and make babies)
In 1935, conscription was reintroduced, drawing
working-age men from the labor
By 1938, 75-80% of all business that had been Jewish
as of 1933 had been Aryanized - Aryanization is the
process of taking over Jewish-owned firms through
discrimination, pressure, force, or shady legal means
Kristallnacht – Night of the Broken Glass (Nov. 1938)
– Thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed
Hitler and the Economy –
Wartime Economy 1939-1942
Hitler didn’t envision war in 1939 because
he believed that it would take Germany
another four years to be ready
The wartime gains between 1939-42 didn’t
bring about the gains that might have been
suspected because:
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A full-scale domestic war effort wasn’t
achieved until the later years of the war
There was no body with overall responsibility
for organizing the war effort
Hitler and the Economy –
Albert Speer
In 1942, Speer was appointed head
Minister of Armaments and War
Production
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Streamlined industry
Communicated better with managers
Freight movement was streamlined
Industrial plants were more flexible in what
they could produce
Doubled German armament production
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1942 – 4,500 tanks; 1944 – 17,300 tanks
Hitler’s Germany - Education
German Teacher’s League - Teachers had to
belong to this league. Those who didn’t were
dismissed
Children were encouraged to inform authorities
if teachers don’t teach Nazi values
Hitler’s Germany - Education
Textbooks were rewritten to
emphasize:
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The German army had been “stabbed in
the back”
Economically drained by the Jews
How to recognize a Jew
The superiority of the Aryans
Hitler’s Germany - Education
History – blamed Jews
Biology – Social Darwinism
Geography – Lebensraum
Science – war slant
Math – war slant
PE – very important to instill war values.
Sports with a potential military application
were emphasized
Hitler’s Germany - Education
Hitler’s Youth – a group to train boys 14-18 to
have Nazi virtues
German Young Folk – younger 10-14 year old
version of Hitler’s Youth
Both became compulsory in 1939
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Boys would even dress in uniforms and do regular
military drills
Hitler’s Germany - Education
League of German Maidens – Female counterpart of
Hitler’s Youth
Young Girls League – Female counterpart of German
Young Folk
Both became compulsory in 1939
Girls were taught to be dutiful wives and mothers
Hitler’s Germany – The Arts
All culture had to be German or Nazi
Controls were placed on:
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Music
Theater
Literature
Radio
Press
Visual arts
Film
Hitler’s Germany – Arts
Outdoor theater emphasized the
theme of “Blood and soil” and
reinforced the kinship between
modern Germans and ancient
Greeks
All actors had to be members of the
Nazi party and only books by
approved authors could be read
Student groups conducted book
burnings to demonstrate their
disdain toward intellectualism
Hitler’s Germany – The Arts
In 1933 in Berlin, a
book burning of
over 20,000 books
took place
Texts included:
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Jewish authors –
Einstein & Freud
Hemingway
Keller
Hitler’s Germany –
Media and Propaganda
The goals of propaganda were to:
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Promote the German nation as supreme
To rid the nation of all Jewish influences
To develop the Fuhrer as a faultless leader to
whom all Germans owed obedience
To encourage pride in the Aryan race as the
highest form of human development
Hitler’s Germany –
Media and Propaganda
Newsreels, movies and
books were impossible
to publish without prior
approval and censorship
by Goebbels' ministry
He made sure that it
presented Germany's
domestic and foreign
policy aims in terms of
Nazi ideology
Hitler’s Germany –
Media and Propaganda
Hitler emphasized the importance of
propaganda in Mein Kampf:
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The masses find it difficult to understand politics,
their intelligence is small. All effective propaganda
must be limited to a very few points
The function of propaganda is, for example, not to
weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but
exclusively to emphasize the one right which is has
set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an
objective study of the truth…
Only after the simplest ideas are repeated
thousands of times will the masses finally
remember them
Hitler’s Germany –
Media and Propaganda
Goebbels also pioneered the use of
broadcasting in mass propaganda,
promoting the distribution of
inexpensive single frequency radio
receivers (the so-called
Volksempfänger (People's radio)) to
the German public
This ensured that millions of people
heard the output of the Reich's
propaganda ministry while being
unable to receive news and other
broadcasts from outside Germany
Hitler’s Germany –
Media and Propaganda
He played probably the most important
role in creating an atmosphere in Germany
that made it possible for the Nazis to
"clean" the Reich of Jews, homosexuals
and other minorities
Hitler’s Germany –
Media and
Propaganda
Rallies were held in
Nuremberg each year
from 1923-1938
400,000 attended
these rallies
Hitler gave a speech
150 search lights lit up
the sky
Bombers flying in the
shape of a swastika
Spotlights at a
Nuremburg Rally
1936 Nuremburg
Rally
Nuremburg Rally, 1938