Germany, Section 3. - Impact of war on life.

  • What was the impact of war on life in Germany 1939 - 1947
?
  • Created by: Lulu
  • Created on: 17-03-13 16:23

Allied Bombing

From 1942 Britain & USA began bombing German cities.

  • Aircraft carried out 1,442,280 missions
  • 2,700,000 bombs dropped
  • 650,000 civilians killed
  • 1 raid on Cologne in 1942 killed 40,000 civilians
  • The German cities became ruins
  • Germans forced to work 60 hours + per week
  • Millions of Germans made homeless

Cities Affected: Dresden, Berlin, Hamberg, Cologne, Frankfurt

(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00588/news-graphics-2005-_588864a.jpg) Dresden Bombing

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Shortages and the Black Market

Food Rationing

  • As the Germans got more common defeats, food became in shorter supply.
  • Parks & gardens dug up for use as vegtable patches
  • Not only food was rationed
  • Soap, Clothes and shoes were also rationed
  • Black market- illegal trades on goods which are in short supply
  • The authorities did their best to stop the black market
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Food Rationing

1 weeks rationing for 1 person

ITEM RATION

Bread 2.4kg

Potatoes 3.5kg

Meat 250g

Cheese 60g

Jam 175g

Coffee  60g

Cereal 150g

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Propaganda

Goebbels made effective use of propaganda to promote war effort.

1939-1942

  • Posters
  • Germany smashing enemies to pieces
  • Claimed that Dec '41 - Jan '42 Germany gave 1.5 million furs & 67 million wollen garments to their army (Wehrmacht) in Russia 

1943-1945

  • Germans lost at Stalingrad - Propaganda changed
  • 'Victory for Germany - Certain in the long run'
  • Total war used more
  • Bombing of German cities used to promote war effort
  • People urged to save fuel, work harder, and avoid tooth decay
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Role of Women

The Nazis truly believed that the women's place was at home - kinder (children), kirche (church), kuche (kitchen) - , however they recruited more and more woman into industry. 

  • 1933 - 4.2 million married women working in industry
  • 1939 - 6.2 million women in industry

They had to rethink the 3 k's (kinder (children), kirche (church), kuche (kitchen)) due to labour shortages

  • 1944 - 13 million men in the army - women had to fill those gaps
  • By 1944 - 41.5% of women worked
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Later War Years

Albert Speer - Reich minister for arnaments and productions

Economic

  • Closure of non-essential businesses
  • Factories given self-responsibility
  • Each factory to focus on a single product
  • Workers of the small firms shut down moved to bigger, more efficient factories
  • Great increase in productivity
  • Direct control of ecomnomy under Speer's leadership
  • Used production lines - reduced man hours by 50%

Social

  • Small firms shut down
  • Brought in foreign workers to cover labour shortages
  • By 1944 - 29% of industrial workers were foreign
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Volkssturm

A German militia set up by Hitler in 1944 to recruit younger and older German males.

  • Made up of men & boys, who were expected to provide their own guns and uniform
  • They lacked lacked experience and weren't as serious as fighters
  • Made their own troops rather than being in the actual army

(http://sunday-news.wider-des-vergessens.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Volkssturm-Kinder-in-den-Kampf.jpg)

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Keywords

Black Market - Illegal trade in goods which are in short supply

Blitzkreig - 'Lightening war' Used by German air forces in 1939

Conscription - Compulsory milatry services for a certain time

Munitions - Ammunitions / Weapons produced for the armed forces

Stalingrad - City of 'Tsaritsyn' was renamed 'Stalingrad' in 1925

Total War - A war in which all avaliable weapons / resources are used

Evacuation - Removing women and children from a place of danger to one of safety

Volkssturm - A German militra set up by Hitler in 1944 to recruit younger and older males

Wehrmacht - German army

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