The Christian Churches  Germany was a Christian country  Protestants and Roman Catholics  Hitler did not trust the churches  Feared that they had too much influence over the people  Did not like the idea that people were more loyal to the churches than to him

The Christian Churches  Hitler tried to bring the churches under his control  Successful with the Protestant churches  Created a new state Church with a Nazi bishop in charge

The Christian Churches  Not as successful with the RCs  Partly because the RC Church was international and thus more difficult to control  However, many German RCs seemed quite happy with the Nazi regime

The Christian Churches  Some German Christians saw through Hitler and condemned Nazism as the enemy of their faith  Many were arrested because they refused to give up their beliefs  Eg Pastor Martin Niemeller

The Economy  Hitler needed a strong economy to sustain his large army  He knew his Nazi Party would win more support if he could revive the economy and reduce unemployment

The Economy  Introduced road-building as one measure to solve Germany’s economic problems  Provided jobs for large numbers of people  Had the income to buy more goods which provided work for others  Other measures : reclaim waste land and pull down slums in the cities  In this way, Hitler was able to reduce the number of unemployed

Bridge over Rhine River near Köln- Rodenkirchen (A4) (photo taken in 1995)

The Economy  Rearmament started in Greater demand for armaments – jobs for people in the arms factories  A large party bureaucracy was set up, providing thousands of jobs  Purges of Jews and anti- Nazis from the civil service created more jobs for the other Germans

The Economy  Growth in German army also provided jobs  Conscription reintroduced in 1935  6 million unemployed in 1933 reduced to 2.5 million in 1935 to 250,000 in 1939  Made Hitler immensely popular with many Germans

Conclusion  Having fulfilled his promise of economic recovery, and knowing he had the German people’s support, Hitler was now ready for his next plan of action  To extend Germany’s border and prove to the world Germany’s superiority