Volksgemeinschaft

Did the Nazis achieve a social revolution between 1933- 1939?

How far did the Nazis succeed in winning over the hearts and minds of

ordinary German citizens?

What is meant by Volksgemeinschaft?

Hitler aimed to create a ‘national people’s community’

Weltanschauung- shared ideals- a common world view

Volksgenossen- Fellow GermansBlut und Boden- Blood and soil

Outsiders

What problems are there with the concept of Volksgemeinschaft?

What do you think Hitler was really trying to achieve?

Role of Women

‘One might be tempted to say that the world of women is a smaller world. For her world is her husband, her family, her children and her house’

Kinder, Kirche, Kuche- Children, Church, Kitchen

Family as the ‘germ cell of the nation’ State backed motherhood- made an

attractive financial proposition

How did women fit in with Nazi ideology?

Volkisch ideas about role of women – subservient wife, prolific mother, guardian of moral virtue & racial purity

Three K’s – Kinder, Küche, KircheRestrictions – women excluded from judiciary,

medicine & civil service; university places limited to 10%Incentives – free loans to newlyweds,, tax rebates,

medalsNuremberg Laws, 1935 – banned sexual intercourse

between Germans & JewsLebensborn – impregnation by SS officersOrganisations – National Socialist Womanhood;

German Women’s Enterprise

Interpretations

Reactionary- in response to the Weimar trend- full employment, vote, fashion, freedom of women- Nazis picked up on a Depression era reaction

Contradictions in Nazi policy- family unit, but Hitler Youth, sterilisation programme, euthanasia programme, Lebensborn programme- birth outside marriage

Nazi economic recovery-women stayed in employment

Ideology versus economic need- many laws relaxed as demand for workers increased

Success?

Did women absorb Nazi propaganda?Nazi family values an extreme version of CatholicismIncrease in social services for womenUnable to reconcile social policy with

political,economic and military ambitionsNo evidence that policies were unpopular- secured

the approval - ‘tolerance’ by womenModernism versus traditionalist tendencies within the

Third ReichFamily used a tool of the totalitarian state-

reproduction

Church

Shared values?- family / state / nationalism (Lutheranism) anti- communism

Church an obstacle to achieving total controlHitler speaks of a need for ‘Positive

Christianity’ Catholic 32% population / Protestant 58%-

Lutheran / CalvinistCatholic Zentrum / BVP political partiesProvincial religion- protestant state based

Third Reich and Religion

Reich Church- ‘coordination’ of Protestant churches

German Christians- ‘racial based’ Christianity (Ludwig Muller)

Confessional Church- breakaway from Reich Church- (Niemoller) (Bonhoffer)

German Faith Movement- ‘pagan’ Nazi Faith (Alfred Rosenberg)

Stages of Nazi Policy towards the Churches

ControlWeakenReplace

Interpretation

‘Only insititution which had both an alternative ideology…and retained organisational autonomy’

Subservience to the stateEnsuring the survival of insititution through

cooperation- self defence- rather than political oppostion

Individuals rather than Institutions opposing the regime

Highlights the limits of the Totalitarian State

Overall- did Hitler break down the classes?How much had society changed by 1945?Descriptions of life in the 1930s before the outbreak

of war (Lutz Niethammer 1986)- comments about life - ‘quiet’, ‘good’, ‘normal’

People seem more concerned with employment, economic stability, order and peace.

Class structures probably not altered as a result of Nazi rule.

‘Revolution of form, not substance’- Hitler’s aim to deceive the people. VMS a propaganda gimmick.

Conclusions continued

Social effects were at times contradictory- sometimes modernising/ sometimes reactionary

Deep social divisions and discontent existed beneath the propaganda- this was dealt with by repression.

If a social revolution was achieved it was as a result of the elimination of people

Strongest argument for social revolution is based on the regime’s social destruction- things changed as a result of war- but this was not intentional. Nazi Germany had an impact on society beyond its own existence.