How Successful were the Nazis in Creating a Volksgemeinschaft?
To simply answer the question, the answer would be that they had very little success in creating their ‘National Community’. Between the years 1933-39 the Nazi party set upon an idea of creating their own race of racially pure Germans, an Aryan race. And to do this they had to remove all the people they had thought of as unfit and against what they saw as the Aryan race, and create a Volksgemeinschaft. Volksgemeinschaft was a people’s community, where everybody was equal in race. The Nazi party was prepared to go to extreme lengths to ensure that they got this racially pure race, killing unfit Germans was a solution.
Hitler wanted a community joined only by blood and race,
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Hitler wanted his race to have no weaknesses. If women didn’t work, there would be increased family allowance and the honour Cross of German Mother Hood. Woman would be offered extra payments from the Nazi’s if they were to stay at home and create these Aryan race children, mothers were rewarded with money for the work they did. This was all introduced in order to entice Women from the work place back to there home’s and to have babies. Increasing the population was a well thought out plan for the future made by Hitler; he did have long term plans for himself and Volksgemeinschaft.
Then the Nazis had to prepare for the future and the future of Germany was the youth. Many organisations like the Hitler youth and the league for German Maidens were set up to teach the youth to follow the Nazis. In the Hitler youth they were taught like the military, neat, tidy and organised. The youth saw Hitler as a father figure in the fatherland and obeyed him. Then Hitler used indoctrination in the education system to recruit them into the army as loyal Nazis. There were subtle Nazi views added into all school work to brainwash the youth, as they were naive and didn’t see the wrong side of the Nazis true nature. The future of the people’s community was successfully secure and the Nazis would keep control for years to come.
During Hitler's efforts to create the Volksgemeinschaft he encountered several problems, regarding the people resisting
One way in which the Hitler Youth pushed the Nazification of Germany was through the brainwashing of the youth in schools (Featherman, 1932). Hitler was smart and realized it would be very hard to convince adults to change their ways immediately, so he targeted the youth because they were young and easily manipulated. According to
From 1933 to 1939 Hitler aimed to achieve a "social revolution" in Germany. He aimed to achieve such social policies within the Youth and Women but particularly through his concept of volksgemeinschaft, meaning 'people's community,' he hoped to transform Germany into a strong country based on traditional peasant values." David Schoenbaum has argued that Hitler's "social revolution" was a fake, and perceived as being real, due to the influence of Hitler's propaganda. Hitler effectively aimed to unify the people into a united classless racial community and introduce a degree of loyalty to Hitler and the Nazi Party. In addition to this, Hitler, through domestic social policy and propaganda, aimed to change the role of women in society such
The policies towards women suffered because they tended to contradict other policies. For example, the Hitler Youth took away the children from the family environment and to challenge any non Nazi opinions from their parents. This somewhat differs from the image of a healthy, happy Aryan family that the state desired to be commonplace throughout the country. During the Second World War procreation outside marriage was seen as acceptable, and the Lebensborn programme opened what were essentially state run brothels. The policies also failed to keep women in the home, as a result of the economic recovery. As the need for workers grew, a conflict between ideology and economic
Naziism had a huge impact on German youth during Hitler’s reign of power over the state. The life of a German child changed dramatically during the 1920’s and 30’s, especially for
The Nazi Party considered the youth of Germany as an important component for the future. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi Party) wrote in his autobiography Mein Kamp (My Struggle), “whoever has the youth has the future” . Hitler considered the Germany’s youth and the treatment of the youth to be an imperative aspect to guarantee a secure future for Germany and Nazi party and he aimed to create a nation dedicated to the Nationalist Socialist view. In order to achieve this, Hitler exploited the education system and took control of the Youth movement. The Reich Ministry of Education took power of the schooling system permeated it with propaganda to indoctrinate the youth. The majority of the young people in Germany participated in youth groups such as the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls which trained them for military service and motherhood.
In the years from 1929 to 1933 economic hardship, a faltering political regime and generational tensions left many young people with no place to turn. The Nazis used this situation to their advantage, pointing out to the youths the way the Weimar republic government were
Firstly, the Nazi’s used Germany’s defeat during the First World War (which began in the summer of 1914 and ended in November 1918) to their advantage. WWI claimed many lives and of course changed the lives of those in Germany forever. The years after the First World War were to see the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, the most notorious character of the twentieth century. Hitler offered to the Germans that one day he would Germany great again. Hitler also provided a scapegoat to the people of Germany, saying that the reason why Germany was in great debt and had such high unemployment was because of the Jewish people. This appealed to the German’s because it meant that they’d have an easy way out rather than taking the blame upon themselves. After Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany the basic democratic structure of the Germany was weakened then abolished. This then created a sense of fear the German population, and they were too scared to fight back. The lives of many millions of people across Europe would be devastated as a result of the beliefs, policies and actions of the Nazis led by Hitler.
In order to successfully address this question, one must first consider the definition of the very nebulous term Volksgemeinschaft. It was an expression used to depict the harmonious, classless national community ideal made up of the Herrenvolk, or master race. As a term used polemically by the Nazis to engender a form of "identity politics" and therefore oppose any notion of politics based on universal and objective class interests that it aimed to transcend, it helped them gain collective support from an already economically, psychologically and politically distraught post-war nation. The Volksgemeinschaft ideal was one of the key elements of Nazi ideology and was used to legitimate much of the regime's social policy whilst also
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party rose to power during the period of time right before and during World War II. Although Hitler caused many injustices and deaths, the Germans still looked up to and admired him. German citizens saw him as a leader who brought nothing but positive changes to their country. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were appealing to the Germans due to Hitler’s potential of stabilizing Germany’s economy, Hitler’s favorable ideas, and the nationalism Hitler was able to bring about.
As time went on the people of Germany were more oppressed and more and more Nazis began collecting men, women, and children for “The Final Answer” to the Jew problem (along with anyone Hitler saw fit to die) the extermination of Jews in any and all ways most painful. The Germans were obsessed with the Aryan Race and how to create it. A blonde haired-blue eyed society, even though most pure blooded Germans weren’t. Marriages were declined if they were declared “racially impure” Dr. Sigmund Raschers wife was sterile, they weren’t illegally married and they adopted two children before being hunted by the Gestapo and executed.
Without a designated union to fight for them, working classes could not bargain for higher wages or shorter hours. Fest does not pretend that this was for the benefit of the people and suggest that this sort of contempt for the working classes was typical of Hitler. The source highlights the “considerable deprivation of political rights” which is a key theme within this question, the overall feeling from source z is that the system which Hitler installed was not successful, however, it can be strongly argued that is was, as seen in source y, his manipulation of the lower classes provided Hitler with what can only be described as a mass following.
The Nazis very much aimed to control young people. They did this because young people seemed naturally drawn Hitler and the emphasis on which he placed upon sport, the military, family and the community. Nazis changed very much about education and the school system. They geared school to only teach Nazi views. They burned the textbooks they had before Nazi’s came to power, replacing them with Nazi textbooks.
Hitler was able to persuade many children by saying that they would be apart of something special if they joined Hitler. In other words, these children would be given the idea that each of them would have a special place in Hitler’s army, he made them feel welcomed and special, the Hitler Youth it was called. “You will be apart of something special, you matter,” Hitler easily used this to persuade over the young and it worked tremendously. By brainwashing the young children, the “Hitler Youth” would belong to Hitler mind, body, and
Have you ever heard of kids getting killed because of their beliefs? Or kids fighting in a war at the age of 12? The Nazi Youth was millions of children and teenagers that followed Hitler. The children proudly followed Hitler. The Hitler Youth was formed in 1926. This allowed the children and teenagers to have hope, power, and the chance to have their voice heard, For some, it allowed them to rebel against their parents, teachers clergy, and other figures. When parents signed their children up for the Hitler Youth, their parents had to sign a waiver to make sure they knew their children were training for war.
Like we saw in the Hitler Youth video we watched, for the boys he organized strict routines for them, they would fight and weren’t aloud to cry when they got hurt, showing no weakness and proving how strong Germany really was. They would be made fun of in front of all the other boys, and punished for any signs of behavior they did not like. While at first most thought the youth group seemed appealing, with their camp trips and sports games, they soon came to realize the truth behind Hitler’s real plans. A lot of the children didn’t want to be part of the group, but they would be teased and ridiculed, and later on they were forced to enter, looked down upon by their peers. Some kids were forced to take place in activities they didn’t want to be part of, like in one instance, throwing rocks at Jewish businesses. An example of this would be one of the paragraphs we read yesterday, Andre (he was part of the Hitler Youth) didn’t want to go and do that. He said he had nothing against the Jewish people, and saw no reason to do so. Of course like he said, they would make fun of him and call his father ‘weak’ or a ‘traitor’ and they could have been punished. Because of this his family moved away so their son wouldn’t have to be part of the violent marches and training methods of this youth group. Others decided to do this, but for some it was too late. Hitler had gained total control over the entire country, and would do