Cambridge International A Level 9489
Paper 4: Hitler’s Germany (1929-1941)
Question: “Nazi policies transformed German society to a large extent between 1933 and 1939.”
Assess this view. [30]
Nazi policies transformed German society to a large extent between 1933 and 1939 through the
LY
Volksgemeinschaft, the regimentation of youth and labour, and increasingly radical racial policies.
However, this transformation remained uneven as traditional values and institutions often persisted.
Youth provides one of the clearest examples of genuine transformation. The Nazis sought to monopolise the
socialisation of the young, weakening the influence of parents, churches and rival associations. Under
R
Baldur von Schirach, Hitler Youth membership expanded from roughly 100,000 in 1932 to around 6
million in 1936 and 8.7 million by 1939. The Youth Law of 1 December 1936 made membership
compulsory in principle, while youth service became compulsory in practice on 25 March 1939. The Hitler
TA
Youth and the BDM therefore became a third major influence alongside school and family. The
significance is considerable because the Nazis were not merely changing what children learned. They were
attempting to change whom children obeyed and what kind of adult they would become. Military discipline,
physical training and racial ideology were intended to produce a generation loyal to Hitler and suited to
the demands of a militarised Volksgemeinschaft.
AS
The apparent success of youth policy, however, should not be equated with ideological conversion. The
Deutsches Jungvolk, Hitler Youth and BDM offered camps, sport, hiking, cycling and even opportunities
such as gliding, which made membership attractive as well as compulsory. This is important because the
regime's success rested partly on attraction rather than terror. At the same time, the very need to
suppress rival youth organisations by 1935 and to impose compulsory membership in 1936–39 suggests
that voluntary enthusiasm was insufficient. Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth demonstrate that some
adolescents rejected the increasing regimentation. The transformation was therefore strongest in the
sphere of organisation and behaviour. It was less complete in the sphere of personal belief.
Women reveal an even sharper contradiction between ideological ambition and social reality. Hitler
proclaimed in September 1934 that “in my state, the mother is the most important citizen”, revealing
, that motherhood had been redefined as a public service to the racial state. Marriage loans of up to 1,000
Reichsmarks were introduced in 1933, while the Honour Cross of the German Mother, introduced in
1938, rewarded women with large families. The SS also developed Lebensborn from 1936, reflecting the
increasingly eugenic and racial character of population policy. Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Reich Women’s
Leader from 1934, promoted female duty through marriage and motherhood. Thus, the Nazis transformed
the ideological meaning of womanhood. A wife and mother was no longer simply fulfilling a private family
role. She was contributing to racial reproduction and the future of the Volksgemeinschaft.
Yet the transformation of women was far less complete in practice. Rearmament and the Four Year Plan
created labour shortages after 1936, forcing the regime to reconsider its earlier efforts to reduce female
LY
employment. The state increasingly needed women as workers as well as mothers, and by 1939 single
women were subject to compulsory labour service in war-related industries. This reveals an important limit
to Nazi social engineering. Where ideological objectives conflicted with the material demands of
rearmament, economic necessity prevailed. Nazi policy therefore transformed the status and rhetoric
surrounding women more successfully than it transformed their actual economic role.
R
Workers experienced a much more decisive institutional transformation. On 2 May 1933 the Nazis
destroyed the independent trade unions and created the Deutsche Arbeitsfront under Robert Ley. By
1938 the DAF had around 23 million members, making it the largest mass organisation in the Third
TA
Reich. It controlled employment, wages and aspects of social insurance, while Strength Through Joy
provided organised holidays, leisure and cultural activities. Ley claimed that the new organisation would
create a “people’s and performance community” in which the class struggle had disappeared. In reality, the
destruction of independent unions meant that workers had lost the right to strike and independent
collective bargaining. The significance therefore lies less in improved welfare than in the destruction of
AS
autonomous working-class organisation. The Nazis transformed the worker from an independent
industrial actor into a member of a state-controlled Volksgemeinschaft.
This distinction between welfare and control is essential when assessing the social impact of the regime.
Strength Through Joy attempted to make dictatorship attractive by providing leisure that many workers
had previously been unable to afford, while Beauty of Labour promoted cleaner and more modern
workplaces. These schemes helped create a sense that National Socialism was reducing class division. Yet
working hours increased and independent bargaining disappeared. Robert Ley's rhetoric about class
harmony therefore concealed a fundamental asymmetry. Workers received organised benefits, but the
power to determine the conditions of work had moved decisively to the state. Nazi policy consequently
Paper 4: Hitler’s Germany (1929-1941)
Question: “Nazi policies transformed German society to a large extent between 1933 and 1939.”
Assess this view. [30]
Nazi policies transformed German society to a large extent between 1933 and 1939 through the
LY
Volksgemeinschaft, the regimentation of youth and labour, and increasingly radical racial policies.
However, this transformation remained uneven as traditional values and institutions often persisted.
Youth provides one of the clearest examples of genuine transformation. The Nazis sought to monopolise the
socialisation of the young, weakening the influence of parents, churches and rival associations. Under
R
Baldur von Schirach, Hitler Youth membership expanded from roughly 100,000 in 1932 to around 6
million in 1936 and 8.7 million by 1939. The Youth Law of 1 December 1936 made membership
compulsory in principle, while youth service became compulsory in practice on 25 March 1939. The Hitler
TA
Youth and the BDM therefore became a third major influence alongside school and family. The
significance is considerable because the Nazis were not merely changing what children learned. They were
attempting to change whom children obeyed and what kind of adult they would become. Military discipline,
physical training and racial ideology were intended to produce a generation loyal to Hitler and suited to
the demands of a militarised Volksgemeinschaft.
AS
The apparent success of youth policy, however, should not be equated with ideological conversion. The
Deutsches Jungvolk, Hitler Youth and BDM offered camps, sport, hiking, cycling and even opportunities
such as gliding, which made membership attractive as well as compulsory. This is important because the
regime's success rested partly on attraction rather than terror. At the same time, the very need to
suppress rival youth organisations by 1935 and to impose compulsory membership in 1936–39 suggests
that voluntary enthusiasm was insufficient. Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth demonstrate that some
adolescents rejected the increasing regimentation. The transformation was therefore strongest in the
sphere of organisation and behaviour. It was less complete in the sphere of personal belief.
Women reveal an even sharper contradiction between ideological ambition and social reality. Hitler
proclaimed in September 1934 that “in my state, the mother is the most important citizen”, revealing
, that motherhood had been redefined as a public service to the racial state. Marriage loans of up to 1,000
Reichsmarks were introduced in 1933, while the Honour Cross of the German Mother, introduced in
1938, rewarded women with large families. The SS also developed Lebensborn from 1936, reflecting the
increasingly eugenic and racial character of population policy. Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Reich Women’s
Leader from 1934, promoted female duty through marriage and motherhood. Thus, the Nazis transformed
the ideological meaning of womanhood. A wife and mother was no longer simply fulfilling a private family
role. She was contributing to racial reproduction and the future of the Volksgemeinschaft.
Yet the transformation of women was far less complete in practice. Rearmament and the Four Year Plan
created labour shortages after 1936, forcing the regime to reconsider its earlier efforts to reduce female
LY
employment. The state increasingly needed women as workers as well as mothers, and by 1939 single
women were subject to compulsory labour service in war-related industries. This reveals an important limit
to Nazi social engineering. Where ideological objectives conflicted with the material demands of
rearmament, economic necessity prevailed. Nazi policy therefore transformed the status and rhetoric
surrounding women more successfully than it transformed their actual economic role.
R
Workers experienced a much more decisive institutional transformation. On 2 May 1933 the Nazis
destroyed the independent trade unions and created the Deutsche Arbeitsfront under Robert Ley. By
1938 the DAF had around 23 million members, making it the largest mass organisation in the Third
TA
Reich. It controlled employment, wages and aspects of social insurance, while Strength Through Joy
provided organised holidays, leisure and cultural activities. Ley claimed that the new organisation would
create a “people’s and performance community” in which the class struggle had disappeared. In reality, the
destruction of independent unions meant that workers had lost the right to strike and independent
collective bargaining. The significance therefore lies less in improved welfare than in the destruction of
AS
autonomous working-class organisation. The Nazis transformed the worker from an independent
industrial actor into a member of a state-controlled Volksgemeinschaft.
This distinction between welfare and control is essential when assessing the social impact of the regime.
Strength Through Joy attempted to make dictatorship attractive by providing leisure that many workers
had previously been unable to afford, while Beauty of Labour promoted cleaner and more modern
workplaces. These schemes helped create a sense that National Socialism was reducing class division. Yet
working hours increased and independent bargaining disappeared. Robert Ley's rhetoric about class
harmony therefore concealed a fundamental asymmetry. Workers received organised benefits, but the
power to determine the conditions of work had moved decisively to the state. Nazi policy consequently
