1. Nazi Economics

2. Goals and Ideologies

3. The Situation in 1933 6 million unemployed (34% of workers)
Reparations temporarily suspended – nobody will lend Germany money
Nazis elected promising “Work and Bread”
What should their major goals be?

4. Unemployment,

5. Economic Ideology
Hitler wasn’t an economic ideologue – he wanted to strengthen the economy
Major principles:
Anti-Communism
No particular concern for the rich
Government above everything – no individual rights

6. Hitler’s Economic Policies
Public Works
Autarky
Nationalization
Strength through Joy

7. RAD – National Labor Service
Gave men jobs in public work schemes
Had to wear a uniform & live in camps
Given free meals and pocket money
Built drainage ditches, schools, a new network of motorways and planted new forests.

8. Predict: What were Hitler’s aims for RAD?
Kick-start the economy
Build impressive buildings to encourage nationalism
Improve the transport network for industrial and military use
Improve living conditions for Germans

9. Other Employment Measures
Fired Jews from civil service (government) jobs
Fired women and gave their jobs to men
Expanded the military
“Non-productive” people were arrested and put into concentration camps
People who refused RAD jobs
Mentally ill people
Disabled people
Unemployed Jews, women, and others were not counted towards unemployment numbers

10. Autarky Autarky: national self-sufficiency
Why would Hitler want Germany to be able to rely on its own food and materials, instead of importing them?
Valuable in times of war
Germany lost WWI because it ran out of war materials and food
Scientists developed replacements for natural resources that Germany didn’t have

11. Why emphasize building cars?
Low-cost cars helped keep Germans happy
Created jobs in other industries
Steel
Glass
Rubber
Leather
Could easily be switched to military production
“The People’s Car”

12. Nationalizing Industry
Nationalization = government takeover of private businesses
Gave the government control over:
Production (allowed focus on the military)
Workers (and labor unions)
Employment
Private businesses could still exist – if they did what the government told them to do
Confiscated or banned most Jewish-owned businesses

13. Labor Rights Unions banned in 1933 – why?
Hitler believed they advocated communism
Possible source of resistance to Hitler
All Germans joined one union – the German Labor Front (DAF)
Increased work hours
Frozen wages
No voice for workers

14. “Strength through Joy” (KfD)
Provided workers with recreation opportunities
For the workers:
Cheap cruises and vacations
Health clubs
Sports
Theatre and movies
For the government:
Control over workers’ free time
Built support for the government

15. Women and the Family
Weimar Germany was a relatively good place for women
Education
Voting rights
Employment opportunities
Nazi Germany emphasized the “three K’s” for women
Kinder (children)
Kriche (church)
Küche (kitchen)

16. Women and the Family
1933 Unemployment Relief Act – loan for couples who got married if the woman left her job
Mother’s Cross (1938) – given to women who had many children
Abortion banned for healthy mothers
Women were banned from working:
1921 – in the Nazi Party
1933 – in professional jobs
1936 – as judges, prosecutors, or jury members