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The regime promised economic recovery, national renewal, and a Volksgemeinschaft transcending class divisions. How far were these promises fulfilled?
Key Definition: Volksgemeinschaft ('people's community') was the Nazi ideal of a racially unified, classless community. Membership was defined by race — Jews, Roma, and others were excluded.
| Year | Registered Unemployed |
|---|---|
| Jan 1933 | 6.0 million |
| Jan 1934 | 3.8 million |
| Jan 1936 | 1.6 million |
| Jan 1938 | 0.5 million |
| 1939 | Labour shortage |
Methods: public works (autobahns, RAD), rearmament (the single most important factor), conscription (1935), women encouraged out of workforce, Jews dismissed, statistical manipulation.
Exam Tip: The fall was real but needs critical analysis. Much was due to rearmament (unsustainable), conscription (not genuine employment), and statistical manipulation.
Trade unions were replaced by the DAF (German Labour Front). Strikes illegal; wages set by government. KdF (Strength Through Joy) provided subsidised holidays, cruises, sports. The Volkswagen was promised but never delivered before the war.
Schacht used MEFO bills to fund rearmament. Goring's Four-Year Plan (1936) prioritised autarky and armaments.
Key Definition: Autarky means economic self-sufficiency. Germany never achieved it — still importing one-third of raw materials by 1939.
| Historian | View on the Economy |
|---|---|
| Adam Tooze | Economy geared for war from the start; 'recovery' was a by-product of rearmament (Wages of Destruction, 2006) |
| Richard Overy | Only partially mobilised by 1939; Hitler planned for war in 1942–43 |
| Tim Mason | Regime under pressure to deliver material improvements for stability |
The ideal was Kinder, Kuche, Kirche (children, kitchen, church). Policies included marriage loans (one-quarter written off per child), Mother's Cross medals, Lebensborn maternity homes, and employment restrictions.
Reality: From 1937, labour shortages meant women were needed. By 1939, more women employed (12.7m) than in 1933 (11.5m). Tim Mason argues the regime never fully mobilised female labour, unlike Britain and the USSR.
Hitler Youth compulsory from 1936; 8.7 million members by 1939. Curriculum nazified: racial science, military glorification, emphasis on physical education. Napola and Adolf Hitler Schools trained the future elite.
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