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How Nazism Changed German Society Between 1933 & 1939 Essay Example

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How Nazism Changed German Society Between 1933 & 1939 Essay Example
How Nazism Changed German Society Between 1933 & 1939
When Hitler became the Führer of Germany in 1934, he wanted to achieve a strong Germany, and a racial Germany in which all the German-speaking people would worship him. During the period between 1933 and 1939, the Nazis greatly influenced German society and managed to change them to their own liking. There was little effective opposition to the Nazis. Most people would try and explain this by saying that they brought prosperity and political stability to Germany.

One of the main classes that changed was the youth. This was because Hitler thought that the Third Reich would last for 100 years, however in fact only three separate age groups passed through adolescence during the time of the rule (the years between the fourteenth and eighteenth birthdays). The way in which the Nazis influenced the youths was by using the simple technique of organising a youth group, in which any youngster could join and it would give them a sense of belonging. For boys this was called the ‘Hitler Youth’, whereas for girls it was the ‘League of German Maidens’. By the year of 1936, these two youth groups where the only ones in Germany as all of the rest had been banned. The adolescents who fell in the years of 1933-1936 had already had important, formative experiences before the Nazi seizure of power. They were in the front line for incorporation into the youth organisations and the so-called ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ (racial community) of the Third Reich. They had also experienced the economic crisis of the early 1030s and were therefore quite receptive to the benefits that were offered by the rearmament programme as well as the ideas of the ‘Führer-staat’. The innocence of hiking, making fires and camps, wearing uniform, eating porridge and other “scout-like’ activities, were managed to be overwritten with political propaganda. A good example of this is Henry Metalmann, he joined for one of the above reasons and sooner than

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