Transcript Hitler & the Economy - Aurora Public Schools

Nazi Germany 1933-1945
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Unemployment was 33% or 6,000,000 people
German exports were minimal compared to
normal
Needed to reduce unemployment, stimulate
the economy
Dr. Hjalmar Schacht was appointed president
of the Reichsbank
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A non-Nazi, but well respected by businesses
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Reduce unemployment—public works projects
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Construction of Autobahnen, planting trees, digging
ditches for irrigation
Subsidies for private construction
Loans for industrial activity
Use people instead of machines when possible
Expand the bureaucracy
Discourage female labor—stay home! Have
babies!
1935—conscription returns, increase in war
materials production: rearmament
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Each worker’s leisure time was calculated and
mapped out, the state provided approved
recreational activities:
Activity
# Events
# People
Theater
21,146
11,507,432
Concerts
989
705,623
Hikes
5,896
126,292
Cultural Events
20,527
10,518,282
Museum Tours
61,506
2,567,596
Courses/Lectures
19,060
1,009,922
Weekend Trips
3,499
1,007,242
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Trade agreements made with other countries;
Germany got raw materials & sold back
German goods (cars! Volkswagons!)
Ended trade unions & strikes
Seizing Jewish businesses gave money to the
government/”German” businesses
Website:
http://www.johndclare.net/Nazi_Germany3_
Gunsnotbutter.html
Year
Total Unemployed
1933
6 million
1934
3.3 million
1935
2.9 million
1936
2.5 million
1937
1.8 million
1938
1 million
1939
302,000
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This was the Great Depression—did the
propaganda machine of the Nazis convince Europe
that Germany had done something no one else
could accomplish?
It was more of a “Bookkeeping Miracle”:
Women were removed from the rate
 Jews lost citizenship in 1935 & were removed
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People were given work by the gov’t and told
to take it or go to a concentration camp
Conscription (the draft) reinstated (illegally,
according to Versailles) in 1935—as men did
their time in the military, they were
“employed”
4 million were put in the army
Only about 2 million jobs created, and many
went towards factories for rearmament