The Manipulation of Education
"no boy or girl should leave school without
complete knowledge of the necessity and
meaning of blood purity."…read more

Indoctrinating the young...
· Textbooks were vetted to fit Nazi ideology by the Education Ministry.
· By 1936 around 97% of teachers had joined the Nationalist Socialist Teachers'
League (1927).
· The league was responsible for the indoctrination of teachers through sending
them to education courses.
· Those teachers who voiced any criticism of the regime could be reported to the
Gestapo by their pupils, parents or other members of staff.
· Under the Law for the Re-establishment of the Professional Civil Service all Jewish
teachers were dismissed.
· School children celebrated Hitler's birthday (20th April)
· Pictures of Hitler were a standard fixture in every classroom.…read more

How the curriculum changed...
· The Nazis aimed to promote `racial health' and put particular emphasis on physical education which
included military style drills.
· There were studies of Nordic sagas and other traditional stories to emphasise a `consciousness of German
being'.
· Essays were written with propaganda themes such as `The Reich Labour Service' and `The Jews are our
misfortune'.
· History was based on the glory of Germany and that Germany's defeats such as the Treaty of Versailles
were the Jews' fault.
· There was stress on race in Biology and pupils were taught to measure their skulls and decide upon each
others racial type. There was also an emphasis on `survival of the fittest'.
· The concepts of Lebensraum (blood and soil) were taught in Geography and how German land had been
taken away ion 1919.
· In Maths questions could be based upon the trajectories of artillery shells or pupils could have been asked
to calculate the relative costs of treating the mentally ill.
The construction of a lunatic asylum costs 6 million RM. How many houses at 15,000 RM each could have
been built for that amount?
· Girls had to study needlework, domestic science and eugenics (girls were taught the characteristics of a
good husband and father) to prepare them for their future as wives and mothers.
· Sex education was banned as it was stressed that couples should have as many children as they could.
· In 1937 pupils were given the choice of whether to study Religious Education or not.…read more

Effects of these manipulations...
Girls:
· Girls staying on at high school were put into domestic science classes or languages
streams.
· By 1931 girls made up 35% of students at grammar schools. This was reduced to
30% in 1940.
· In January 1934 a law was made which limited the number of female placements
at universities to just 10%. Competition was so intense that sixth formers began to
report their classmates to the Gestapo.
Boys:
· Along with attending additional organisations such as the Hitler Youth boys were
encouraged and prepared to join the army after finishing school.
· Through indoctrination boys were prepared for war.…read more