Life in Nazi Germany, Jason and Griffin: 3D Gallery

Establishment and consolidation of Nazi power

During the 1930s, the Nazi Party attempted to gain complete control of the Germany government by eliminating any competition they may have. Between March and July of 1933, the Nazi Party forced all political parties to disband and the German Communist Party was banned under a presidential decree. Hitler then created a centralised state where he appointed loyal commissioners to the states. Hitler also made membership to the Nazi Party obligatory and established a one party state. Finally, on June 30th, 1934 (the Night of Long Knives), between 85-200 men were killed by Nazi loyalists, confirming Hitler’s complete authority.

Establishment and consolidation of NAzi power

The Nazi Party used art to reinforce Hitler’s dream of a unified statehood and race. The Nazis used traditional art forms to spread their message across Germany and attempted to rid themselves of any art from the Weimar Era. Some typical themes in Nazi art was anti-feminism, blood and soil, order, and of course anti-semitism. In an effort to rid themselves of all non-nazi texts, they coordinated the “burning of the books” on May 10th, 1933. On this night, all texts written by Jewish people, Bolsheviks, people of color and all books deemed Un-German were destroyed. During the 1930s, many artists were expelled from Germany and much of Germany’s creativity was lost.

Arts and Culture

The Nazi Party used art to reinforce Hitler’s dream of a unified statehood and race. The Nazis used traditional art forms to spread their message across Germany and attempted to rid themselves of any art from the Weimar Era. Some typical themes in Nazi art was anti-feminism, blood and soil, order, and of course anti-semitism. In an effort to rid themselves of all non-nazi texts, they coordinated the “burning of the books” on May 10th, 1933. On this night, all texts written by Jewish people, Bolsheviks, people of color and all books deemed Un-German were destroyed. During the 1930s, many artists were expelled from Germany and much of Germany’s creativity was lost.

Economy

When the Nazi Party began to rise to power they promised to help farmers and small Urban trainers. However, when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany he immediately abandoned these ideas and turned his focus to big business. Hitler’s main economic hope was to strengthen Germany’s chances in any upcoming wars. To do this, he put 70% of Germany’s production in the hands of large German monopolies. While Hitler did lower both unemployment and Germany’s national debt, his success was skewed by the forced labor laws he put into place and the incline of Germany’s economy even before he came into power.

Minorities

Hitler’s main goal as the leader of Germany was to create one national race. To do this, he attempted to rid Germany of any people that did not match his “master race.” This was seen in the forced sterilization of people with hereditary illness to prevent them from reproducing. Children with these diseases were also often targeted, with kids between the ages of 3-16 being murdered, often with either injections or forced starvation. Hitler also banned all marriages between Aryans and Non-Aryans. Gypsies were either murdered or sent to work camps against their wills. Finally, Hitler’s persecution of Jewish people began with their shops being boycotted, then preventing them from owning property, and finally forcing them to concentration camps or sentencing them to death.

Religion

There was little room for religion in Hitler’s plan to unify an entire nation of Aryans. Hitler created a religion of his own to attempt to discredit the Catholic and Protestant church. While the Protestant Church was able to survive the new wave of “german Christians,” their strength was greatly limited when Hitler banned many activities involved with the Protestant religion, such as the combination of education and religion. The Catholic church made an agreement with Nazi Germany to recognize each other’s practices without interfering. However, the Nazis disregarded their promise and spread anti-Catholic throughout Germany. Overall, churches surrendered to the Nazi regime and gave little resistance to Hitler’s rules.

Women

Hitler thought the role of women in Nazi Germany was to be housewives. They were expected to give up employment once they were married and to take care of the family full time. If they decided to have children they were expected to look after them and support the husband. After 1933 women were excluded from leadership, medicine, and law positions. A 10 percent cap was placed on women attending universities meaning that not more than 10 percent of the students at the university could be female.

Youth

Similar to Hitlers views on females roles, Hitler believed that “Those who have the youth on their side have control the future”- Hans Schemm. Many of the Nazi youth organizations were steered towards two main objectives: the boys were trained for war and the girls for motherhood. They put a large emphasis on sports and exercise, in fact most schools often had PE for two hours a day. These activities were centered around competition and encouraged commitment to penalize the uncommitted and weak.

Methods

Along with teaching the youth Nazi ideas, The Nazi Government used several techniques to silence the opposition including intimidation, censorship, and concentration camps. To silence the opposition Hitler would give the Gestapo (German Police) complete control meaning they could lock anyone up with no reason at all. Censoring the opposition could be anything from making Jewish people wear a Star of David, to things like opening every letter in the mail and crossing information out so people couldn’t read it. Everyone who disagreed with Hitler or didn’t fit his views would be thrown in a camp and potentially later killed.

Propaganda

Hitler flooded the nation with campaigns in the form of newspapers, radio broadcasts and even flyovers with a loudspeaker. A weekly newspaper named Der Angriff (The attack) was published by Joseph Goebbels to promote Nazi Ideas. Dynamism was characterized by Hitler's use of flyovers to address the audience. Hitler wrote a book called Mein Kampf which addressed his political ideology and has a chapter dedicated to propaganda. “The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses” this quote is from Mein Kampf.

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Life in Nazi Germany, Jason and Griffin