Big business, the middle classes, Volksgemeinschaft Flashcards Preview

History IGCSE (CIE) Germany, 1918-45 > Big business, the middle classes, Volksgemeinschaft > Flashcards

Flashcards in Big business, the middle classes, Volksgemeinschaft Deck (15)
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1
Q

What were middle class people primarily grateful to the Nazis for?

A

For eliminating the Communist threat to their businesses and properties

2
Q

What else did many middle classes thank the Nazis for restoring?

A

A sense of order to Germany

3
Q

How much did the Nazis benefit the middle classes?

A

Depends - they had had a mixed record

4
Q

What sort of small businessmen would have benefitted from Nazi rule?

A

An engineering firm which could have benefitted from rearmament

5
Q

Who would not have benefitted under the Nazis?

A

A small local shop - the big department stores (much like Tesco etc. today) took a lot of their business

6
Q

Who definitely benefitted from Nazi rule?

A

Big businesses

7
Q

Why did big businesses benefit in terms of trade unions?

A

Trade unions were shut down to workers could not longer strike/campaign for better wages

8
Q

How did chemical giant IG Farben benefit from Nazi rule?

A

They received enormous government contracts to make explosives, fertilisers and even artificial oil

9
Q

What happened to the wages of managers at big businesses?

A

They rose by 50% between 1933 and 1939

10
Q

What percentage of small businesses shut by 1939?

A

20% (or one fifth)

11
Q

Which steel company profited a great deal from rearmament?

A

Krupp Steel

12
Q

What was meant by ‘Volksgemeinschaft’?

A

National community

13
Q

What was the idea behind Volksgemeinschaft?

A

That people would not see themselves as workers or farmers, but as pure Aryan Germans, belonging to the national community

14
Q

Why did Hitler push the idea of Volksgemeinschaft?

A

To encourage loyalty to him and to encourage Germans to put their country first (rather than their own self interest)

15
Q

Did Volksgemeinschaft succeed?

A

Not completely. Although Germans did have a strong sense of national pride in the 1930s, they did not just abandon their own self-interest.

However, at least on the surface, most Germans seemed to accept the Nazis