The Volksgemeinschaft: Social And Cultural Life In Germany

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The Volksgemeinschaft

The volksgemeinschaft or people’s community was the concept that the Nazis preached it was to be a new society, that was free from class division and social conflict. It was a community where all pure Germans were equal and one in which all displayed their loyalty to the nation, to its leader, and to each other. All pure Germans were to have a sense of belonging.

the Nazi party impacted on nearly all aspects of the social and cultural life in Germany from the period of 1933 to 1939. When Hitler became the chancellor in 1933 he began to influence and change aspects of the German social and cultural life that did not fit his vision of a national socialist Germany

and his plans for a master race the true Aryans.
He achieved this change through the implementation of many policy’s and regulations. Like the Nurembery laws and one of the most important policies was the policy of coordination or Gleichschltung. This policy allowed for him to control the political parties, state government and cultural and professional organizations and he conformed them to fit his perfect ideal.
There were many things that changed in both social and cultural life and these were the social aspect of religion, children, education, race, propaganda and women. The cultural aspect were art, music, architecture, literature and film.
Women were effect majorly by the Nazi state they had many of the rights taken away. The women who were considered ‘racially undesirable’ were sterilized. By the end of 1934 almost 28000 such women had been sterilized. Women were not allowed to have a job they had to focus on the three k’s. Children being the main one there were many incentives for women to have children like money and awards, the gold cross of honour of the German mother was bestowed on women who had more than four children and they would be publicly honoured.
The three k’s were a slogan it stood for children, church and kitchen it was used to clarify where a woman should spend their time. During the war, the Nazi established ‘lebensborn’ this was a place where an unmarried woman could go to meet a racially pure ss man to become pregnant.
The Nazi party was very youth oriented, this was because they believed that if the third Reich was to endure, it had to have the support and loyalty of the next generation so they placed great importance on controlling the youth of Germany.

They did by providing activities for the young boys and made the young boys and girls feel special which made them the perfect spies. They would report their parents if they were criticizing the Nazi party or Hitler but even though the Nazi regime was youth-oriented there was some aspect that the youth were not happy with like the not wanting to engage in the strenuous physical activities and not having time to pursuit private activities and pastimes. Hitler was focused on producing the perfect Aryan race if a girl deemed a true Aryan girl they were bred with the perfect ‘ayran’ Boy like farm animals. Also, some girls were unhappy when the concept of the three C’s – church. children and

Kitchen.
Hitler youth was made in 1933 when hitler came to power and all youth groups were forcibly merged into the Hitler youth. By the end of 1933 the membership was just over 2 million. There were separate hitler youth groups for boys and girls, for boys aged 6 to 10 they were apart of the Little fellows or Pimpf in this group they outdoors sport activities. Boys aged 10 to 13 were a part of the German young people or deutsche jungvolk they still did outdoors sporting activities but there were more of military emphasis like parading and marching as well as map reading. They were also taught about Nazi views on racial purity and anti-Semitism. Boys aged 14 to 18 joined Hitler Youth or hitler jugend where they were prepared to be soldiers by doing military activities.
Girls aged 10 to 14 joined the Young Maidens or Jungmadel in this they were taught how to become good mothers and housewives and good health practices. They were also taught about the Nazi views on racial purity and anti-Semitism. Girls aged 14-21 joined the league of German Maidens or Deutscher Madel in this they further prepared for their roles as the mother of future Germans.
The Nazi youth groups became mandatory for all boys and girls between the ages of ten and eighteen.
Religion at first did not change, the catholic church and the Nazi or new government had made an agreement that each side would respect the other one role.

As the anti-Jewish Nazi ideology was very similar to antisemitism which was widely spread throughout Christian church history there was no dispute against the Nazi for their ideology. The protestant churches or more commonly known as deutsche christen or ‘German Christians’ they embrace many of the aspects of the Nazi ideology and once the Nazis came to power they create a national ‘Reich Church’ and they supported a Nazified version of Christianity. But there was a church that adverse to the Reich church it was known as the Bekennende Kirche or the ‘Confessing Church’ and its founding document the Barrmen Confession of faith and their allegiance was to god and scripture not

Hitler.
Propaganda was important part of how the Nazi controlled the public. All forms of cultural was change in ways to reinforce the propaganda. Joseph Goebbels was the minister of public enlightenment and propaganda. He was charged with Hitler’s imaged and regulating the content of all German media and promote anti-Semitism. He did this through the control of radio, newspaper, music, art, literature, architecture and film.
He created the volksempfänger or people’s radio they were sold so cheap that nearly by 1938 ownership of radios had increase from one million to one nine million with 56 million people listening to Hitler’s speeches and rallies. Censorship of the press this meant that the government control what newspaper printed they were only allowed to print stories favourable to the Nazi regime. Many newspapers were shut down and people kill if they print un-favourable articles about the Nazi or Hitler.
When Hitler came to power as chancellery in 1933 all modern, abstract and expressionist artworks were deemed degenerate and were replaced with simpler artwork that represented nature, family, and fatherland. In 1936 4 artists who were Nazi approved were tasked with removing the degenerate art. All up they removed 12 890 pieces including sculptures. Hitler loves art and to keep artist painting and producing more artwork he created several hundred art competitions with money for the winner.
Music was a major change that happened when Hitler came to power, many kinds of music were banned like Jazz as it was of Black origin and any music that had Jewish composers. Hitler believe that music had a unique significance and power as German had a long tradition of musical success. Music was the greatest crowd pleaser when it came to propaganda. On 7 April 1933 the law of re-establishment of civil services which allowed for a wide dismissal of Jewish conductors, singer, music teachers and administrators
The architecture changed majorly because Hitler believed that it could be used to project the power of the Nazi regime. Albert Speer was the most important architect of the time he redesigned Berlin.
Books like music and art had to be approved by Nazi it was not allowed to have any reference to anything that would disfigure the Nazi regime. This also includes any books written by non-German people. In 1933 all books that were written by non-German people were burned
The film industry was gradually taken over by the Nazi party the purpose of the film industry was to serve the goals of propaganda. It was as a way promote the popularity of party through using film stars. All actors and film-makers were made to be members of Reichsfilmkammer. This allowed for the Nazi party to control what was seen by the German people.
In conclusion the Nazi State impact social and cultural life in Germany, they did this to create their ‘Master Race’, to make sure the third Reich endure and to control the population of Germany. They also influenced the German population to their point of view by using propaganda and the cultural aspects of Germany.