AN ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS REGARDING“MODERNIZATION”

In Hitler’s Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany 1933-1939 (New York, 1966),DAVID SCHOENBAUM argues that we must distinguish between the “revolution of ends” and the “revolution of means” in the Third Reich.Although their goals reflected “utopian anti-modernism,” to achieve them the Nazis were compelled to build the world’s most efficient industrial economy, promote urbanization, promote industrial concentration, and increase the participation rate of women in the industrial economy.They also deliberately sought to break down all barriers to social mobility.

World War II in Europe

Germany restored universal conscription in March 1935

New draftees report in

NovemberHow they looked

after a few months

September 16, 1935:New

Luftwaffe bombers and army tanks on display at

the Nurember

gParty Congress

of Freedom

German troops reoccupy the Rhineland in March 1936,

in defiance of the Versailles Treaty

“This is Adolf Hitler’sAchievement for German

Construction Workers”

“The Führer promised to motorize Germany”

“All Germany listens to the Fuehrer” (1936)

“Strength Through Joy Housing Settlement”

(1936)

GENESIS OF THE FOUR-YEAR PLAN:Hermann Göring addresses the Reich Cabinet, September

4, 1936

“Certain persons have been asked for memoranda on the basic conduct of the economy. So far only one has been presented, by Dr. Goerdeler, and it is absolutely useless. In addition to many other erroneous ideas it contains the proposal for a considerable limitation of armaments.” [Göring explains that Hitler has just given him a detailed memo on economic policy.] “It starts from the basic premise that the showdown with Russia is inevitable. What Russia has done in the field of reconstruction, we also can do.….“We must strive with the greatest energy for autarky in all those spheres in which it is technically possible; the yearly amount of foreign exchange savings must still surpass… 600 million Reichsmarks.“We have to tide over with foreign exchange all cases where it seems necessary for armaments and food. In order to provide for foreign exchange, its flow abroad must be prevented by every means; on the other hand, whatever is abroad must be collected….“Through the genius of the Führer things which were apparently impossible have very quickly become reality.”

“TRASH RECYCLING SAVES RAW MATERIALS!” (Oct. 1936)

Depository for empty tubes of toothpaste

“Fight Waste!”

Blast furnaces of the “Hermann Göring Works,” Salzgitter, 1938(to utilize low-grade domestic iron ore)

An “aryanized” rubber goods

store, Frankfurt a.M., 1938

POSTERS FROM 1937

THE HOSSBACH PROTOCOLL:Minutes of a secret conference on November 10,

1937

Hitler told his top national security advisors that he was resolved “to solve the question of Lebensraum” by 1943/45 at latest. He hoped that a solution might come sooner, if France fell into civil war or a war with Italy in the Mediterranean. Arms spending and the quest for autarchy must be accelerated. Foreign Minister Neurath, War Minister Blomberg, and Army Commander-in-Chief General Fritsch all protested that Germany must not risk war with France and Great Britain. Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht, not present, had long been protesting that arms spending must be decreased to avoid inflation.Within four months the protesters were all removed from office.

Hitler greeted by cheering throngs as he enters Vienna

on March 14, 1938,and a poster urging voters to

approve the Anschluss

“One People, One Reich,One Leader!” (Anschluss referendum campaign, April 1938)

THE SUDETEN CRISIS, SEPTEMBER 1938

• May 1935: Konrad Henlein’s Sudeten German “Home Front” wins majority of votes in the Czech Sudetenland. • November 1937: Neville Chamberlain sends Lord Halifax to Hitler to discuss Austria, Danzig, & the Sudetenland. • May 1938: War scare caused by false rumors.• August 1938: Runciman Mission studies Sudeten German grievances.• September 15, 1938: Chamberlain in Berchtesgaden, agrees with Hitler on a plebiscite for the Sudeteland.• September 22/23, 1938: Chamberlain in Bad Godesberg; Hitler ups his demands.• September 29/30, 1938: Mussolini offers a “compromise” at the Munich Conference.

The heads of government in Munich, 29 September 1938:Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier, Hitler, & Mussolini

The Implementation of the Munich Pact

MILITARY EXPENDITURE AS PERCENTAGE OF GNP

YEAR Germany USA Britain

1932 1 1 2

1934 6 1 3

1935 8 1 2

1936 13 1 5

1937 13 1 7

1938 17 1 8

1939 23 1 22

1940 38 2 53

1941 47 11 60

1942 55 31 64

GERMAN TROOPS OCCUPY PRAGUE,

MARCH 15, 1939

The German press did not conceal the rage and despair of

the Czech spectators

“Comrade of Labor, You are

Fighting with Us: Preserve Your

Strength!”

“As we fight, so should you

work for victory!”

(ca. 1942)

“You are the Front”

“Woman as Air Raid

Warren!”

“Get Rid of your old Cloth and

Shoes!”(recycling

poster, May/June 1943)

“VICTORYor

BOLSHEVISM”(ca. 1944)

“Mothers, Fight for Your

Children!”(ca. 1944)

Residents of Hamburg spend the night in an air raid shelter

Where is Frau Brylla?

“The Jewish Conspiracy” (ca. 1942)

“DO YOU WANT TOTAL WAR?”(Goebbels at the Berlin Sports Palace, February 18,

1943)

Hitler and Martin Bormann greet the Nazi Gauleiter

at the “Wolf’s Lair” in East Prussia, February 7, 1943.

They have all just been appointed “National Defense

Commissars” as part of the “Total War” campaign

Hitler has traveled to Essen to

congratulate Gustav Krupp on his 70th birthday, August 7, 1940:

Krupp received the DAF’s “Pioneer of

Labor” medal

Albert Speer and Robert Ley hand out the “Knight’s Cross” to businessmen who have boosted arms

output, June 1943

Albert Speer’s plan from 1942 to grant industrialists more voice in planning. Carl Krauch was the “General Plenipotentiary for Chemistry,

“Ready to strive for victory, women do their manly duty in Germany’s arms

factories”(published in the

Hamburg Illustrated,

16 March 1940)

The wheat harvest in downtown Berlin, August 1943

A German farmwife must plow the field and tend her small child, spring 1940

Young, unmarried women report for labor conscription, summer 1940

Robert Ley addresses some of the 7 million “foreign work comrades” laboring in German

factories in August 1944

Russian women conscripted for labor, fall 1941,

and their barracks in

eastern Germany

Conscripted workers from

many countries, deployed for

labor on the big agricultural

estates of East Elbia, 1942