How Far Did The Nazis Transform German Society?

Influences:

× **** (League of German Girls)

× Jung Madel

× Media

× Schools poo

× German Student’s League

× Hitler Youth

× Pimpfen

Aims:

× Be obedient

× Idolise the Fuhrer

Separate Spheres:

The Nazis believed that women and men should move in “separate spheres” (i.e. separate worlds). The women should take the role of house carer and producer of children, whereas men would be within the business world. The thing about these worlds is that they compliment each other and one can’t work with out the other.

The Nazi Ideal Woman: Bare many children

Roots within nature (i.e. breastfeeding)

Care for the family and the home

Traditional roles as homemakers and child carers.

Speech by Hitler in 1934: “For her world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home…”

Many of the Nazis’ ideas were just more extreme or explicit versions of the views that were widespread well before the Nazi party gained power.

Nazis wanted to reverse many trends that had been brought in during the 1920s and early 1930s. There had been an increase in female employment in the non-agricultural sense and a declining birth rate. Women had been given the vote and more cultural freedom (such as the flappers) and with the gender imbalance, more opportunities were rising.

Sauckel and Speer tried to persuade Hitler to be more lenient in his attitude towards women when the war started. Men would be away fighting and unable to fulfil their work in the factories – thus the women were needed to complete this work. It wasn’t until 1943 that Hitler stated all women from 17-44 must sign up for state allocated work.

For some women life improved under the Nazi regime. In such things as the Women’s Organisation (see below) and the youth groups, the Nazis widened women’s experiences. Social services were improved (see Nazi Policies Towards Women) and they could avoid the unpleasant paid employment.

Several historians now stress the inaffectiveness of Nazi restricitions or policies towards women, as many changed throughout their time of power to suit the economic needs. Only a few women were forced out of work and these policies relied mainly on propaganda of moral or financial pressures.

Hitler was a skilled politician as well as a fanatic and he realised he was not in a position to embark immediately on the implementation of his full vision. He talked of the need for a "positive Christianity" and his initial concern was to gain some support from Church hierarchy and gradually reduce their influence.

Catholics:

22 million members

Powerful instituion with ranges of bodies

Catholic centre party and other Catholic parties recieved 1/5 of the votes in Weimar elections.

Protestants:

Over 40 million members

Mainly Lutheran

28 State-Based Churches

Youth organisations had 0.7 million members.

Reich church; Set up as a means of coordinating religion and the German Christians developed as a powerful movement. The idea to create a unified and state-controlled church caused a reaction and the Confessional Church broke away.

German Christian; German Christians wanted to restructure the whole of Protestantism into a new racially based type of Christianity. They were seen as the "** of the church" and their slogan was "the Swastika on our breasts and the cross in our hearts".

Confessional Church; This confessional church broke away from the Reich Church and its concern was to defend the Protestant Church against interference. The clergy was about 5,000 in size.

German Faith Movement; These wanted to replace Christianity with a new pagan Nazi faith. This illustrates when the Nazis might have done if they had won the Second World War.