How popular was the Nazi regime in the years 1933-39?

1. How popular was the Nazi regime in the years 1933-39? Who liked the Nazi regimes, or just did not out rightly oppose it. The extent to which consent based on terror and repression.

2. Removal of the Communist threat • In the 2 elections of 1932, the Communist party the KPD, had seen its share of the vote rise from 14.3% in July to 16.9% in November. • Red Front Fighters league fighting with the SA. • Hitler in speeches said he would crush the Communists. After the Reichstag fire in 1934, he did this.

3. Passed Laws to stop freedoms. Emergency law Feb 1933 -Suspended Civil rights - Gave secret police power to hold people in protective custody. • Repress the KPD Enabling Act March 1933 - Hitler could pass decrees without parliament or the President.

4. Gleichschaltung- - Allowed Hitler control under a cloak of respectability. Political and cultural- the Nazification of Germany. Institutions disbanded and reformed under the Nazi banner. Many want to be identified with the new regime, others were fearful. -Civil Servants/Women’s groups. Reich corporation of German industry Nazi lawyers association in 1933 May 1933 Burning of books

5. Propaganda - Used to denigrate opponents, to indoctrinate and enforce conformity. • March 1933 Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment, with Goebbels at the head. • Posters/Cinema/Radio/Music. • Editors Law of October 1933- limited what editors could print, and all communist, Jewish, journalists sacked. Fuhrer Cult • Loyalty to the regime and Hitler. • To link Hitler to the success of the regime, economy, reduction of unemployment, restoration of law and order, end o0f the Versailles Treaty.

6. Opposition from the Left - Divisions between the Communists and the Socialists. • Communists thought the Hitler would soon fall from power, a mistake as crushed after the Reichstag fire. • Difficult to oppose the Nazi as many arrested, and denounced. Many left in Germany kept their heads down. • Often compliance of workers, and trade unions destroyed so difficult to organise opposition.

7. Operation Hummingbird (Night of Long Knives June 1934) - Leader of SA Rohm a potential opponent killed, and some other leading members of the SA. • Other leading conservatives Von Schleicher killed, and Papen was put under house arrest. • About 200 people killed. • Law concentrating Measures for the defence of the state, this made legal any action by the state as long as in ‘self defence’.

8. The army -Removal of the SA took away a threat from the army. • August 1934 Defence Minister Blomberg and advisor Colonel Von Reichenau, ordered every member of the army to take an oath of loyalty to the Fuhrer., rather than to the constitution. • August 89.9% of Germans voted Yes to Hitler becoming Fuhrer. • By 1937 Hitler clear about his Lebenraum plans. Some in the army sceptical of his plans. • Jan- War minister Von Blomberg attended his wedding then sacked him as his new wife had been a prostitute. • Head of the army Colonel General Fritsch had been rumoured to have been involved with a rent boy, he was sent for a military trial. • 27th Jan1938 Hitler took over leadership of the army. • Feb removed from their posts those not totally supportive, including 12 generals.

9. Terror State • Gestapo secret state police to try to find opponents or Jewish people. • Gestapo law 1936- could arrest anyone and execute them with no trial. • Over 100 crimes- punishment was death. • SS were Hitler’s protection squad and ran the concentration and death camps. • Denunciations • All Culture had to be German-music/literature other forms banned. 1933- book burning.

10. Resistance • Opposition-Active resistance to the regime • Wearing make up/listening to Jazz/grumbling. • Indifferent to the regime- ‘Resistenz’ by Martin Brozat an historian, he thinks this limited the authority and impact of the regime. It shows the Nazi regime unable to control peoples lives totally. • ‘Loyal reluctance’- by historians Gerhard Paul and Klaus Michael-Mallmann, people unhappy but this did not cause rebellions. People interested in day to day economic issues.

11. Economic recovery • June 1933 Law tor educe unemployment- Work schemes- new roads • Reich Entailed Farm Land. • 1935 Conscription-unemployment declined. • More training schemes for school leavers in apprenticeships. • Created 6 million jobs • Schacht- President of the Reichsbank 1933 and in 1934 Economics minister. He increased state control of foreign trade

12. State Paternalism • Nov 1933 Beauty of Labour-to improve working conditions in factories. • Strength through Joy-to reward loyal workers with theatre tickets, holidays. By 1938 180,000workers been on a cruise through this. • Cheap housing and mass producing consumer goods, peoples radio and car.

13. Church -Protestant and Catholics alienated from the Weimar Republic by secular liberalism, feared Communism so some saw him as a saviour. -Saw accommodating Hitler would secure more benefits than open confrontation. The Concodat signed in June 1933. - Confessional Church led by Pastor Martin Niemoller and Karl Barth, shows there was opposition.

14. Young & Women • Hitler Youth, it became compulsory to join in 1936. • 1937 Elite system of schools • Nazi organisations for teachers. By 1937 97% of teachers had joined. • Opponents- Edelweiss pirates/White Rosé groups/Swing Movement • Many of the young remained loyal • -Women should be confined to a domestic role- Kinde/Kirche/Kuche.. By 1939 7% 0f all doctors women. By 1936 5.63 million women were employed and by 1939 7.41 million. • Medals for having over children- gold cross for having 8 or more children. • Marriage loan , newly weds a loan of 1000 marks. • Banned from marrying Jews- 1935