Hitler's Germany

Aims of the economic miracle-

• Increase employment (6 million by 1933)
• Rearm and enlarge the army, navy and the airforce (rebuild German industry)
• Make Germany independant/ self-sufficient
• Keep the population happy
• Prioritise German business

Problems-

• Restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles e.g. The SAAR
• World depression - Wall Street Crash
• Lacking raw materials
• Can't afford imports
• Difficult to find people to buy exports

New plan

• 1934
• Hjalmar Schacht
• Aimed to improve Germany's level of raw materials by making trade deals with LEDCs
• The countries would be paid in German manufactured goods. Also gave priority to those raw materials that were vital for rearmament
• This enabled Germany to pay for rearmament and it made Germany more dependant on imported raw materials

4 year plan

• 1937
• Herman Goering
• This set higher targets for rearmament and also wanted to make sure that Germany moved much closer to acheiving autarky
• Experiments were begun to try and produce artificial replacements for those raw materials
• The experiments created jobs - didn't reduce the amount of goods that Germany imported

• Labour service corps - Scheme to provide young men with manual labour jobs (cumpulsory for men aged 18-25)
• Public works - Unemployed men were used to build public services (roads,hospitals e.c.t)
• Conscription - All men aged 18-25 were made to do military service for 2 years
• Rearmament - To 'bring-back' the army and to have more weapons
• German labour front - looked after workers' interests (working conditions) - Dr Robert Ley
• Beauty of Labour - improved working conditions
• Strength through joy - provided opportunities to imrove leisure activities for low-paid workers
• Autarky - Hitler wanted to make Germany self-sufficient
• Hjalmar Schacht - Aimed to improve Germany's level of raw materials by making trade deals
• Herman Goering - set much higher targets for rearmament
• Volkswagen - used in the 'strength for joy' and was designed by Ferdinand Porsche

Economic Miracle-

• Umployement decreased significantly from 1933
• Production had increased - coal (1935-1938)
• 1938-1939 - investment had stealily increased

Not an economic miracle-

• Debt levels increased as expenditure was more than income - increased significantly by 1938
• People are buying cheaper foods by 1937 - families had less money to spend on food
• Nazis were spending the most money on rearmament from 1935

Aryans - 'master race'

• Nazis belived that Aryans were the 'master race'
• The Nazis blamed Jewish people for the problems in German society
• Nazis wanted a German population of only 'pure' Aryan people who fitted their ideal
• They wanted to eliminate people who were disabled, homosexual,held different beliefs, or who werent 'Aryan'

Nuremburg Laws-

• These laws stopped Jews being German citizens
• They banned marriage between Jews and non-Jews in Germany
• These laws were later extended to cover both Romani and black people