A History of Germany 1918 - 2020. Mary Fulbrook
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Название: A History of Germany 1918 - 2020

Автор: Mary Fulbrook

Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited

Жанр: Историческая литература

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isbn: 9781119574248

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СКАЧАТЬ in the future of Nazi Germany, so, too, were the progenitors of future generations: women. In this area, Nazi ideology was clear in principle but less than consistent in practice. As is well-known, the Nazis promoted the view of women’s role being confined to ‘children, kitchen, church’ (Kinder, Küche, Kirche). The birth rate had been declining in early twentieth-century Germany, and the Nazis wanted to reverse this trend and replenish the ‘racial stock’. A variety of means were attempted, many of which were not specifically Nazi but represented more widespread attitudes at the time. In the depression of the late Weimar years there had been much criticism of ‘double earners’, and the effective expulsion of women from sections of the labour force was underway before the Nazis came to power. After 1933 the pattern of female participation in the labour force was a partially contradictory one. While Nazi prejudices had a deep impact in some areas – the exclusion of women from practising law or becoming judges is an example – in other areas, such as the caring professions and primary school teaching, female participation increased slightly. By the later 1930s the pressures of rearmament and labour shortage encouraged a higher female employment rate. There is some dispute among historians as to whether, during the war years, ideology or economic necessity took precedence in policies on female employment.

      In the sphere of work, similar attempts were made to foster a sense of community. Programmes such as ‘Strength through Joy’ (Kraft durch Freude) and ‘The Beauty of Work’ (Schönheit der Arbeit) made a pretence at fostering the health and well-being of workers. Although a few benefited from well-publicized holidays, such as pleasure cruises, many were not taken in by the propaganda about the ‘factory community’ in which individual effort served the good of the whole community. On the other hand, with the demise of independent trade unions the experience of collective solidarity was lost, and with the introduction of individual wage negotiations for individual advancement, working-class collective identities and bonds began to be eroded. Nazi policies may not always have had the effects intended, but they were not without impact altogether.

      Clearly there was a wide range of opinions among Christians of different confessions, political perspectives and social backgrounds, and different issues took precedence at various times. For many laypeople, the ‘pastors’ squabbling’ (Pfarrergezänk) must have seemed at best an irrelevance to the pressing concerns of everyday life. For some members of the laity, the singing of hymns with deeper meanings may have helped them to retain a sense of the transience of contemporary oppression, while not galvanizing them against the regime, and may hence have aided regime stability.11 On the other hand, it was also possible to hold what would otherwise have been forbidden political gatherings under the guise of church meetings or Bible study groups. But insofar as it is possible to generalize on a complex issue, it must be said that, whatever the diversity of opinion and action, the record of most Christians (Protestant and Catholic) was at best a rather patchy and uneven one. With the notable exception of those religious individuals and groups who stood out for their principled resistance to the regime – of whom more in the next chapter – it seems that, for many Germans, adherence to the Christian faith proved compatible with at least passive acquiescence in, compliance with, or even active support for, the Nazi dictatorship.

      Economy and Society

      Undoubtedly of major impact on most people’s attitudes and perceptions was their economic experience. Weimar democracy had been associated, for millions of Germans, not only with national defeat and a humiliating peace treaty but also with economic disaster. Many had survived the inflation of 1923 only to be buffeted by the slump that started in 1929. Despite the increasing political repression, for a large number of Germans the Third Reich appeared to give new hope of prosperity and stability. Small retailers looked forward to the suppression of their rivals, the big department stores; peasants looked forward to a rightful place in a country proclaiming the importance and glory of ‘blood and soil’; industrialists welcomed the suppression of trade union rights in the hope of regaining power for the employers, eroded under the Weimar system. While socialists and communists, Jews and other committed opponents of the regime viewed it with foreboding, for many apolitical Germans the ‘national awakening’ appeared to offer hopes of a brighter future.