“Nazi Economic Policies were the main reason for the popularity of Hitler’s regime in the
years 1933-40” How valid is this assessment of the popularity of Hitler’s regime?
Hitler’s popularity helped him rise to power throughout the years 1933-40. However, was this purely
down to economic policies, which were enforced by the Nazi regime, these policies were popular
with German citizens, because of their economic situation, or was this due to other factors? Such as
the collapse of the Weimar Republic, the fact Germany was already incapacitated after World War 1
or the omnipresent propaganda of Hitler’s ideology and the enforcement of the Hitler myth.
Economic policies certainly provided Hitler’s regime with more appeal, which enabled Hitler’s
personal views to expand to the German nation, but was it really the most important contributing
factor?
Many historians have debated to what extent economic policies played a part in the uprising of
history’s most famous dictators, such as Ian Kershaw and Allan Bullock. Propaganda stunts were a
huge signifier on how the Nazi party became so popular. The next source demonstrates clearly just
how much the Nazi’s intensive propaganda rose Hitler’s popularity, and his economic policies
throughout Germany.
The source shows one possible way of combating unemployment, namely manual labour, and
providing work (Arbeit) and bread (Brot) for the German people. This poster depicts a variety of
arms reaching upwards, in desperation for the tools, a visual metaphor for work. The arms providing
the tools or the means for work are reaching down to the German people. There is a visible swastika
on the shirt, thus indicating they belong to the Nazi party. The Nazi’s hands, are offering a selection
of work tools to the German public, represented by four pairs of hands. The hands reaching upwards
subliminally represent the desperation for work for the entire German nation. The slogan on the
poster reads “Work and Bread”, meaning if the German public support the Nazi party, they will not
only gain employment, but also be able to provide for and feed themselves and their families, as this
has previously been an issue throughout Germany. Many German men would have also felt
persuaded to have a certain type of employment, as this poster along with a variety of other Nazi
propaganda material suggests, men are to have stereotypical manual labour roles in the workforce.
In addition, many new jobs in Germany were in this field, such as railway building and the German
Autobahn construction, these jobs would have required a variety of tools, just as is depicted in the
poster. Posters like this would of rose both the Nazi Party and Hitler’s popularity immensely, as
many Germans would have been influenced by this propaganda, and been persuaded by the
possibility of gaining employment.
Many Germans felt they had no other choice but to support the Nazi party and by association Hitler,
during the depression, as they felt other Weimar politicians had no better solution. The Nazi party
was something they were constantly reminded of daily through propaganda and social interactions.
As in most nations, the economic factors of the time play a significant role in determining how
society will behave. Hitler was an opportunist, due to economic circumstances, such as Germany’s
economic devastation after a horrendous defeat following World War 1. Due to the Treaty of
Versailles, Germany was forced to pay sizeable reparations (first reparation demands were 266
gold marks, although this was later reduced to $33 billion), to France and Great Britain, which
led to more devastation and inflation in the economy. Other factors which broke down the economy
were the Wall St. Crash of the 1920s in America, which lead to significance as Germany and America
traded new consumer goods. Millions of Germans were left unemployed during the depression as
trading and profiting from America now ceased.
The trading between Germany and America had stopped immensely after the Wall Street Crash,
which left 1.5 million Germans out of work; within a year this figure had more than doubled. The
Nazi party promised adapted ideologies that although were not new ideas, were portrayed that way,
, in order to build the Nazi party and show a huge amount of patronage e.g. German pride. Nazi party
economic schemes, including the building scheme programmes, for instance the building of the
Autobahn were promising Germans work that they would otherwise not have. This links to the
poster previously mentioned, as the tools represent physical labour, such as building. The striking
yet simple images and slogans are to be found on a variety of Nazi propaganda, and were advertised
throughout the 1930s election, which would have influenced the Nazi party’s popularity greatly, as it
was so wide spread throughout Germany. However, even though the Nazi party would have grown
in popularity, it would have been the entirety of the party and not just Hitler, thus relating to the
question that it was mainly Hitler’s economic policies that raised him to power. You could argue
Hitler only rose to power on behalf of his ministers of propaganda and economic policies, such as
Joseph Goebbels.
In addition, with regard to the poster, it can be seen in the top left hand corner: the words ‘Durch
Liste 1’, meaning option 1 on ballot paper. This information would have been positioned
everywhere, therefore many Germans would of felt pressured to vote in this box and therefore vote
for the Nazi Party and by association vote for Hitler. Therefore, the argument remains was it Hitler’s
economic policies which raised his power or his and his minister influence over propaganda and the
German people?
Nazi economic policies did boost Hitler’s popularity in regards to unemployment, in the early days of
his dictatorship. An example of Nazi economic success would be the significant decrease of
unemployment, as represented via the table detailed below. The impact of the Great Depression in
Germany left an estimated 6 million people unemployed by February 1932, as quoted by Alpha
History. Unemployment had a psychological and physical impact on the German public, which Hitler
addressed in his 1933 elections campaign. Hitler used this as a massive advantage and promised that
if he gained power he would diminish unemployment. Hitler was lucky in the sense that the German
economy was just beginning to recover as his power rose. He was an opportunist, and the downfall
of Weimar Republic would have made it fairly easy to bring in a new extremist party. However,
although he was lucky under circumstances, Hitler’s policies did reduce unemployment too.
The Law to Reduce Unemployment in June 1933 could be considered the most effective tactic on
unemployment in the industrialised world, e.g. compared with England, France etc., as quoted from
Ian Kershaw. Money was filtered rapidly into public work schemes, which created an extensive
amount of employment opportunities, such as the Kdf, Autobahns and the new deal. The most
successful of these was the construction of autobahns (motorways), but there was also a huge
investment in house building and other construction rates, as represented on the source above
showing the decline of unemployment, with 5.57 million unemployed in 1932 to just 1.6 million in
1936. These construction schemes could explain the rapid rise of employment between the years
1933-34, as construction building would have allowed many citizens to gain jobs, thus decreasing
unemployment rapidly. However, throughout new job schemes many Jews and women were fired
which causes a criticism of this source in that many women and Jewish individuals would have not
been included in the statistics after 1935. This therefore leaves out a percentage of the population
who were unemployed. Nethertheless, the decline in unemployment is real and won much
admiration from home and other countries such as England. However, we cannot overestimate
figures which leave out a large percentage of the population. Another issue is some of the schemes,
such as autobahns, were only used for short term use to cover unemployment, thus the issue
remains that the men will end up unemployed in the long term.
Even though this source is a contemporary source, meaning from the time, the validity of it must be
questioned. As previously discussed, vagrants, the persistent unemployed, such as physically and
mentally disabled and criminals, were not included in the statistics as they would have been placed
