More people found work, but workers lost rights and the economy increasingly served preparations for war. Falling unemployment does not mean everyone benefited.
State spending created jobs through public works, such as road construction, and through rearmament: expanding the armed forces and producing weapons and military supplies. Rearmament became especially important. Conscription, compulsory military service introduced in 1935, also took men out of civilian unemployment. These were different reasons why the recorded unemployment figure fell.
For someone who had been unemployed, a job could bring income and greater security. This could win support for the regime or make someone tolerate policies they disliked. Nazi publicity used visible building projects and falling unemployment to claim that Hitler had restored Germany's strength. Those claims still need to be tested against working conditions and the experiences of different groups.
Workers lost independent trade unions and the right to strike. The Nazi-controlled German Labour Front replaced independent representation, so workers could not bargain freely with employers. Strength through Joy offered leisure activities, while Beauty of Labour promoted improvements to workplaces. Such benefits did not give workers back the right to organise or guarantee that everyone's pay and living conditions improved. Manufacturing workers' average weekly hours increased in the mid-1930s. Leisure benefits therefore need to be considered alongside longer working hours, as well as lost rights.
The Four Year Plan, launched in 1936, directed more resources towards preparing for war. Hitler wanted Germany to produce more of its own strategic materials and rely less on imports. This goal is called autarky, or economic self-sufficiency. His confidential memorandum called for the army and economy to be ready for war within four years. It tells us what he wanted to achieve, not that Germany actually became fully self-sufficient.
Judge the policy by asking who gained, what they gained and what they lost. More jobs mattered, but so did pay, hours, safety and freedom to defend workers' interests. Jewish Germans faced exclusion from livelihoods and wider persecution. An overall fall in unemployment cannot stand for every person's experience.
Worked example: A job is one part of a worker's life
A claim says, "Unemployment fell, so every worker was better off in every way."
- A previously unemployed person finding work is a real improvement in employment. It may provide income and greater security.
- If that worker cannot join an independent union or strike, their rights have nevertheless been reduced.
- The claim also ignores people excluded from work through persecution. You need evidence about rights, conditions and different groups before judging the wider effect on lives.
Watch out for this
Building the autobahns ended unemployment by itself, and all workers gained rights.
Road building was one source of work. Rearmament and conscription were also important. At the same time, the regime removed independent unions and the right to strike.
Check your understanding
Which evidence best shows that economic policy increasingly served war preparation?
- A worker had a holiday.
- Hitler's 1936 memorandum demanded an army and economy ready for war within four years.
- Unemployment figures alone.