Hitler’s Domestic Policy
by Deirdre Deniz
When Hitler took gained power in 1933, he disliked, among other things, capitalism, unearned incomes, war profits, land speculations, and unfair taxes. All of this influenced the National Socialist Party’s policies for Germany, which turned out to be a good thing for the non-Jewish Germans, yet Jewish Germans suffered.
All the policies Hitler enacted on the German people were of a totalitarian government. The secret police force, called the Gestapo, enforced everything. One of the first things he did was to remove other political policies from the running, leaving only his National Socialist Party in existence. All aspects of the country had to have agreements with Hitler’s Reich, including the church. Nazi ideology stated that having ties to an international religion was bad, and it was strongly suggested that children were removed from religious schools. The anti-church stance even went as far to encourage German Teutonic (pagan) gods as an appropriate religion for Germans.
One of the most integral parts of Hitler’s domestic policy was his hand in the labor world. All labor unions were disbanded, and laborers were now organized into the National Labor Front, and strikes were now forbidden. Employers still had control and owned land privately, but were under close watch by the government to run their factories a certain way. All Germans had to be put to work, and many public works programs began, including reforestation and swamp drainage projects, housing and superhighways were built. This actually created a stable work environment for the German people, as there was no longer any unemployment. Overall, the labor’s share in the German national income was reduced, but everyone worked and earned a living.
When Hitler’s Third Reich took power, his anti-Semitism became clear, and eventually manifested itself into a horrid thing that hurt millions of Jewish citizens. Beginning in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws went into effect. These laws forbade marriage or sexual intercourse between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans, Jewish citizens could not employ young German women or display the Reich flag, and any person who acted contrary to the laws would be punished. During Hitler’s rule, this created a very uncomfortable living situation for German-Jews, but they still lived free lives. The trigger for major anti-Semitic policy in Nazi Germany was Kristallnahct, meaning the Night of Broken Glass. This was a series of attacks on Jewish citizens done by the SA, a military force run by the German government. After this, no Jewish citizen was safe, and many were victims of what later came to be known as the Holocaust.
Hitler’s goal was to have one, big, happy Germany, dependent on no foreign countries. In 1936, the Four-Year Economic Plan was instated, whose goal was to gain independence from foreign trade. The government also had a program called Strength through Joy, which gave people with small incomes forms of entertainment, and paid for vacations and travel they would otherwise be unable to afford. Overall, the German masses were happy, a common motto becoming “Today Germany, tomorrow the whole world”.