Nazi rule saw radical economic changes, ideological social policy, aggressive cultural control, and violent racial persecution between 1933 and 1945.
Economic Recovery: 1933–1939
Public Works and Unemployment
One of Hitler’s immediate priorities after seizing power was reducing Germany’s crippling unemployment.
Reich Labour Service (RAD): Compulsory for all young men from 1935; they worked on public infrastructure including road-building and land reclamation.
Autobahns: The construction of a motorway network began in 1933, designed to stimulate employment and improve transport.
Housing and public buildings: Large-scale housebuilding and civic construction schemes aimed to boost industry and create jobs.
Unemployment rates fell from 6 million in 1933 to under 1 million by 1939, although statistics were manipulated by removing women and Jews from the workforce.
Rearmament and Economic Planning
Economic recovery was closely tied to rearmament, in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles.
Mefo Bills: A system of credit notes issued by the Reichsbank to disguise government military expenditure and stimulate arms production.
Expansion of the Wehrmacht: Military conscription reintroduced in 1935 expanded the army and created demand for weapons and supplies.
Heavy industry: Key companies like Krupp and IG Farben thrived under state contracts, fuelling industrial output.
Four-Year Plan (1936–1940)
Introduced by Hermann Göring, the Four-Year Plan aimed to prepare Germany for war and make it economically self-sufficient (autarky).
Synthetic materials: Research and production of artificial rubber (Buna), oil and fibres were prioritised.
Increased agricultural production: Farmers were supported to boost domestic food supply.
Central planning: The plan increased state control over business and labour.
Mixed results: Germany remained reliant on imports and never achieved true autarky.
Wartime Economic Performance: 1939–1945
Total War Economy
The outbreak of WWII transformed the economy, focusing all efforts on war production.
Initial inefficiencies: In the early war years, civilian production continued alongside military needs, limiting output.
Albert Speer’s reforms (from 1942): As Minister of Armaments, Speer:
Streamlined production.
Rationalised supply chains.
Introduced standardised designs.
Increased productivity despite Allied bombing.
Armaments miracle: By 1944, Germany had tripled tank and aircraft production compared to 1942.
Labour Shortages and Forced Labour
War intensified labour shortages, exacerbated by conscription and casualties.
Women: The Nazi regime was initially reluctant to employ women, limiting their role in the wartime economy.
Foreign labour: Over 7 million forced labourers were brought from occupied Europe, especially the Soviet Union and Poland.
Exploitation: Harsh conditions, poor rations and lack of rights characterised their experience.
Exploitation of Conquered Territories
Germany plundered resources from occupied lands to sustain its war economy.
Raw materials: Coal, grain, oil and metals were taken from France, the Soviet Union and the Balkans.
Slave labour: Millions from occupied countries were forced to work in German factories and farms.
Food shortages: Exploitation led to starvation in occupied regions and food rationing in Germany itself.
Nazi Social Policy
Volksgemeinschaft: The People’s Community
The Nazis sought to create a unified, racially pure society, loyal to Hitler and the regime.
Class unity: Propaganda emphasised national unity over class divisions.
Exclusion: Jews, political dissidents and others were excluded from this ideal.
Ideological conformity: Education, leisure and work were all directed toward cultivating loyalty to the Führer.
Women in Nazi Germany
Women’s roles were shaped by a conservative, patriarchal ideology.
Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church): The slogan summarised Nazi expectations.
Marriage loans: Financial incentives for newlyweds, reduced if the wife took a job.
Mother’s Cross: Awards were given for large families to encourage childbirth.
Labour policy: Women were discouraged from working, though many joined the workforce during the war due to shortages.
Education and Youth Indoctrination
Children and young people were central to the regime’s long-term plans.
Curriculum: Subjects were restructured to include racial theory, Nazi history and physical education.
Teachers: Required to join the Nazi Teachers’ League and teach in line with party ideology.
Youth groups:
Hitler Youth (boys): Trained in military drills, ideology and obedience.
League of German Girls (BDM): Focused on domestic skills and racial awareness.
Compulsory membership: By 1939, all young Germans were required to join these organisations.
The Racial State
Anti-Semitic Legislation and Discrimination
Nazi racial policy was rooted in the belief in Aryan supremacy and the inferiority of others.
Nuremberg Laws (1935):
Defined who was considered Jewish.
Banned marriages and sexual relations between Jews and Aryans.
Stripped Jews of German citizenship.
Social exclusion: Jews were barred from the professions, education, and public life.
Kristallnacht (1938): A state-orchestrated pogrom destroyed synagogues and Jewish businesses; 30,000 Jews were arrested.
Persecution of Other Groups
Roma and Sinti: Subjected to sterilisation, internment and deportation.
Disabled:
Aktion T4 programme (1939–41): Euthanasia campaign targeting mentally and physically disabled Germans.
Estimated 70,000 murdered before public outcry curtailed the programme.
Homosexuals: Criminalised and interned in concentration camps.
Religious minorities and political enemies: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists and Socialists were persecuted and imprisoned.
The Holocaust
Final Solution: The systematic genocide of Jews began in earnest after 1941.
Ghettos: Jews confined in overcrowded, disease-ridden areas (e.g. Warsaw Ghetto).
Einsatzgruppen: Mobile killing squads that carried out mass shootings in Eastern Europe.
Extermination camps: Industrialised murder in gas chambers at camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor.
Death toll: Approximately 6 million Jews were murdered, along with millions of other victims.
Cultural Control
Propaganda
Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, orchestrated the regime’s information control.
Mass media: All newspapers, films and radio were censored and used to spread Nazi ideology.
Volksempfänger: Cheap radios were distributed to ensure every household could hear Hitler’s speeches.
Film and theatre: Heavily regulated; works had to support Nazi themes of heroism, sacrifice, and racial purity.
Rallies: Events like the Nuremberg Rallies created dramatic displays of power and unity.
Art and Architecture
Nazi aesthetics aimed to project strength, order and racial ideals.
Degenerate art: Modernist works were banned and ridiculed in exhibitions.
Traditional art: Favoured heroic realism—idealised images of soldiers, workers, and Aryan families.
Architecture:
Inspired by Classical models (e.g., Greek and Roman).
Spearheaded by Albert Speer, who designed grandiose structures to symbolise power and permanence (e.g., the Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg).
Music and Literature
Classical music: Composers like Wagner were celebrated for their perceived Germanic spirit.
Jazz and swing: Labelled as degenerate and banned.
Book censorship: Non-German, Jewish, socialist, and pacifist books were burned in mass ceremonies, notably in 1933.
Control Through Censorship
Reich Chamber of Culture: All artists, writers and performers had to register and conform to Nazi standards.
Censorship: Enforced through laws, surveillance and threats of imprisonment or worse.
Fear and conformity: Many Germans internalised censorship and self-policed to avoid state retribution.
These aspects of Nazi economic, social and cultural policy show how the regime sought to transform every element of German life according to its radical ideology. The result was a totalitarian state that combined superficial prosperity and apparent order with extreme repression, racial persecution and the preparation for war.
FAQ
The Nazis used sport as a key tool to promote physical strength, discipline, and loyalty to the regime, reinforcing ideals of Aryan superiority. The Hitler Youth and League of German Girls included mandatory physical training aimed at preparing boys for military service and girls for motherhood. Schools also increased physical education to account for nearly 15% of the curriculum. The regime organised national competitions and glorified athletic achievement to instil national pride. The 1936 Berlin Olympics became a global propaganda event, showcasing Germany’s organisation, power, and supposed racial supremacy. German athletes were held up as models of Aryan excellence, and non-Aryan athletes were downplayed or excluded where possible. Beyond competition, sport functioned as a means of ideological training—emphasising obedience, camaraderie, and sacrifice. Those deemed physically unfit, especially disabled individuals, were excluded, reflecting the Nazi obsession with racial purity and eugenics. Thus, sport became an instrument of social engineering in Nazi Germany.
Cinema played a central role in Nazi propaganda, with Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, recognising its powerful emotional influence over the masses. All films required approval from the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, ensuring they aligned with Nazi ideology. Filmmakers were encouraged to produce both overt propaganda films and subtler works that reinforced Nazi values. Major examples include Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will” (1935), which glorified the Nuremberg Rallies, and “Olympia” (1938), celebrating the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Feature films often contained anti-Semitic, militaristic, or nationalistic themes, such as “Jud Süß” (1940), which portrayed Jews as corrupt and dangerous. Even seemingly apolitical genres like romantic comedies or dramas subtly promoted ideas of duty, sacrifice, and racial hierarchy. Theatres were also tightly controlled, with newsreels preceding every film showing Nazi achievements or military victories. Cinema thus became an essential medium for shaping public opinion, reinforcing conformity, and distracting the population from dissent.
Artists and intellectuals who did not conform to Nazi ideology were systematically censored, persecuted, or exiled. The regime created the Reich Chamber of Culture, which all artists, musicians, writers, and performers had to join to practise legally. Those deemed "undesirable"—especially Jews, modernists, and political dissidents—were excluded and their work banned. Modernist movements such as Expressionism, Dadaism, and Bauhaus were labelled “degenerate art” and publicly denounced in propaganda exhibitions like the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich. Celebrated figures, such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and physicist Albert Einstein, fled Germany due to censorship and intimidation. Intellectual life was stifled as universities were purged of Jewish or anti-Nazi academics, and research was redirected to serve military and ideological goals. Literature was also tightly controlled, with public book burnings targeting "un-German" works. Overall, Nazi policies reduced cultural diversity and stifled intellectual freedom in favour of uniformity and state propaganda.
The Nazis reinterpreted and repurposed German folklore, mythology, and heritage to support their ideological narrative of Aryan racial superiority and national rebirth. Folktales, especially those collected by the Brothers Grimm, were revived and adapted in Nazi-approved versions that emphasised obedience, purity, and the triumph of good (Aryans) over evil (racial and ideological enemies). Pagan symbols, such as the swastika, were appropriated as ancient Aryan emblems, reinforcing a mythic racial continuity. The regime idealised rural German peasant life as pure and racially uncontaminated, promoting it through festivals and propaganda to contrast with the perceived corruption of urban modernity. Historical myths like the Teutonic Knights and figures such as Arminius were used to evoke nationalist pride and anti-foreign sentiment. State-funded cultural programmes promoted these narratives through books, plays, pageants, and school curricula. This constructed cultural past helped legitimise Nazi ideology by portraying it as a return to authentic German values and identity.
The Nazi regime sought to regulate personal appearance and fashion to reflect ideological values of modesty, discipline, and racial conformity. For women, fashion was expected to be traditional and demure—make-up, high heels, and extravagant styles were discouraged. The ideal Aryan woman wore plain dresses, braided hair, and no cosmetics, reflecting her role as a mother and homemaker. Men were encouraged to dress in a clean, simple, militaristic style. Uniforms became an important expression of Nazi authority and identity; organisations like the SS, SA, and Hitler Youth had distinct, well-designed uniforms to promote unity, obedience, and discipline. Jewish people were forced to wear distinguishing symbols, most notably the yellow Star of David during the war, to isolate and stigmatise them. The regime condemned so-called "degenerate" fashion influenced by Weimar-era cosmopolitanism and foreign trends, viewing it as racially impure and morally corrupt. In this way, personal appearance was deeply politicised under Nazism.
Practice Questions
‘Nazi economic policies were successful in preparing Germany for war by 1939.’ Assess the validity of this view.
Nazi economic policies did achieve notable successes by 1939, particularly in reducing unemployment and reviving key industries through rearmament and public works. The Four-Year Plan aimed to achieve autarky and prioritised military production. However, Germany remained dependent on foreign imports for vital raw materials and was not fully mobilised for a prolonged conflict. While visible growth occurred, inefficiencies persisted and the economy lacked true self-sufficiency. Therefore, although the policies laid foundations for war, they fell short of fully preparing Germany for sustained military engagement, making the view only partially valid.
To what extent did Nazi social and cultural policies create a totalitarian state in Germany by 1939?
Nazi social and cultural policies significantly contributed to the creation of a totalitarian state. The regime controlled education, youth organisations, and the media to instil ideological conformity. Cultural expression was strictly censored, and propaganda glorified Nazi ideals while suppressing dissent. Social groups like Jews, Roma, and political opponents were excluded from the Volksgemeinschaft, consolidating state control. However, total compliance was not universal—pockets of resistance, especially among youth and religious groups, endured. While the regime approached totalitarianism through pervasive control mechanisms, opposition and administrative disorder limited its complete realisation, suggesting the state was near-totalitarian, but not absolute.
