Video: How far did the lives of German workers improve after 1933?

﻿Hi, and welcome to today's history lesson studying Weimar and Nazi Germany. I'm Miss Shanks, and today we're going to be looking at how far did the lives of German workers improve after 1933? For today's lesson, you'll need a pen, a piece of paper or something to write on, a pencil, and a ruler. Please try and find a quiet space to work with no distractions, and turn off any notifications if you know how to do so. I highly recommend that you keep all your notes together for Weimar and Nazi Germany, somewhere in a safe place so you can return to them later. To begin with, please pause the video now and copy down today's lesson title, which is the question you can see on your screen. The first thing we're going to do in today's lesson is to recap the methods used by the Nazis to reduce unemployment. Then we'll look at organisations which were created to improve the lives of German workers, and then we'll evaluate, well, did life actually improve for the German workers under the Nazis, followed by the comprehension questions and the final exit quiz to check your learning from today. So let's start with a recap of the methods used to reduce unemployment. On your screen, you can see there's five images, and there are five statements or areas about unemployment in Nazi Germany, Key terms some of them are. What I'd like you to do is to match up the image with the key term or aspects about unemployment that you think the image is representing. So for example, if I think image 1 is rearmament, I'd write down 1A. And then next to that, what I'd like you to do is to write a fact about the statements or a fact about rearmament, a fact about the RAD, autobahns, invisible unemployment, reduced unemployment. So pause the video now and please write down your answers to this task and then resume when you're ready to go through the answers. Okay, so our first image is an image of a shovel digging a hole. So this image was to represent the Reich Labour Service, or the RAD, and the RAD was set up in 1933 and gave paid work for the unemployed. Work included draining marshes to be used for farm land and planting trees. And remember, they were often or sometimes referred to as soldiers with spades rather than guns. And it's that image we had from last lesson, if you joined us last lesson, where you had the RAD members in their uniforms, which, again, matched military gear with the shovels. Our second image was a bit of a tough one. So the arrow was pointed inside, and it's invisible unemployment. There's something there, but you just can't see it. So my fact for invisible employment is to define what it is. People who were not included in official statistics or classed as unemployed, such as women and Jews. Then we have a toy soldier, and that links to rearmament. All men aged between 18 and 35 are conscripted to complete two years of military service. As a result, the army grew from 100,000 men in 1933 to 1.4 million by 1939. Number four is autobahns, which is the German motorway system. And 125,000 men were employed to build autobahns, the motorways. The Nazis intended to build 700,000 kilometres of autobahns. However, by 1938, they'd only managed to build approximately 3,000 kilometres. And finally, number five, reduced unemployment. In 1933, roughly 5 million people were unemployed. This was reduced to just under half a million by 1939. That's extremely impressive statistics by the Nazis. But remember, we have got invisible unemployment to consider as well, and the accuracy of these statistics not really being truthful to the full extent. We in today's lesson, we're going to look at some organisations which were created within Nazi Germany to try and improve life for workers. We're going to look at the German Labour Front, and then a section of the German Labour Front is called Strength through Joy. And a section of Strength through Joy is called the Beauty of Labour. So all the organisations come under the umbrella of the German Labour Front, but they are divisions within this. So today, the main three we're going to look at, German Labour Front, or commonly called DAF, Strength through Joy, KdF, Beauty of Labour, SdA. Now, the reason they've got these abbreviations is because German Labour Front is obviously the English translation for what it means in German. So in German, the initial, the abbreviations would be DAF, and same with Strength through Joy, KdF, and Beauty of Labour, SdA. So we're going to be looking at did life improve for German workers? So the first thing I'd like you to do is pause the video here and just copy down these two columns on your piece of paper. Yes on one side, and no on the other. When you've done that, please resume the lesson. Okay, so what I want us to do next is to read the information about the German Labour Front, the DAF. You'll find that information in the worksheet for the lesson. And then I'm going to model to you how we would use that information to complete our two columns. So read the information, and then please resume the video once you've done that. So imagine this is my table from the screen. Imagine this on my piece of paper in front of me. Did life improve for the German workers? I'm going to start by including the information I found about the DAF. So to some extent, yes it did. The work of the DAF shows that life did improve in some way. Wages did increase between 1932 and 1939. They went from 86 marks a week, and marks are the German currency, they went from 86 marks a week to 109 marks a week. Alternatively, you could argue that the work of the DAF did not improve life for the German workers. Workers lost their right to negotiate improvements in pay and conditions. The working week increased on average by six hours. The DAF usually agreed with the employers rather than the workers. And workers could be punished by the DAF for leaving their job without permission or striking to argue against their working conditions. What I'd like you to do is to pause the video now, and on your column, copy down the information I've got on the screen in front of you and use this as an example for how to structure the remainder of your worksheet in a moment when I give you the next instruction. So to begin with, stop the video now and copy down this information, please. So what I'd like you to do now is to pause the video, go to the worksheet, and complete each column yes and no. So for the yes column, you're collecting evidence from the information sheets that lives of German workers did improve, that things were better. Whereas in the no column, you're collecting evidence that shows the lives of German workers did not improve. Look back to the model we did earlier and look at the way that I put the heading of the organisation first before I made my bullet points. I highly recommend that if you're going to refer to an organisation, you specify which organisation you're referring to in your columns. When you've done this, please resume the video. So let's see what we can remember so far about the life of German workers. A high number of German workers had received a Volkswagen by 1939. Is that true, or is that false? Excellent. That's false. Zero workers had received a Volkswagen by 1939, and they didn't get their money back either that they'd already put into the programme. The average weekly wage increased between 1932 and 1939. True or false? Excellent. That one is true. The purpose of Beauty of Labour, SdA, was to give German workers benefits to make them happier and to see work as more enjoyable. True or false? This is actually false. Can you remember which organisation was created to give German workers the benefits to make them happier and see work as enjoyable? That should have been Strength through Joy, or the KdF. Between 1933 and '39, 11 million people had been on a foreign holiday or cruise as part of the KdF. True or false? This is actually false. 11 million attended theatre performances. Only 7,000 had been on a foreign holiday or cruise. Workers were expected to improve their own facilities in the workplace, like showers, toilets, and canteens. True or false? Brilliant. This was true. This was one of the main problems that the workers had with this scheme and this programme, was that they had to do the work themselves outside of work hours, and they weren't paid extra for doing this. It was an expectation. Some employers actually threatened to sack their employees if they didn't volunteer to do this in their own time. We've come to a really good place in the lesson now to consolidate our learning and to check our understanding. So what I'd like you to do in a moment is to pause the video and to complete these comprehension questions. The challenge question for question five, how far do you agree that lives of German workers did improve after 1933? I've included some sentence stems to help you on the bottom of this page. So please pause the video. Read the slides on the resource worksheet to help you and to answer these comprehension questions. Resume the video when you're ready to go through some responses. So question one said, what was the role of the German Labour Front? The improvement between these two responses comes by mentioning the banning of trade unions. It's that link to previous learning that shows your understanding of this part of the unit as a whole, and being specific about how the DAF protected the rights of German workers. For example, by including mentioning setting maximum weekly working hours and minimum pay for workers. Our second question was, what happened to the average weekly wage for workers between 1932 and '39? The improvement in this response comes by being really specific and using specific data and knowledge to support your answer, including the example of increasing from 86 marks a week to 109 marks a week. Question three, how did Strength through Joy, or KdF, try to improve the lives of German workers? Here, the improvement comes by using an example of the benefits that workers received as part of KdF. For example, talking about them receiving cheaper holidays, cheap tickets to events such as theatre performances. And you could go even further and include the number of people who did attend theatre performances as part of the Strength through Joy scheme. Question four, why were some workers unhappy with the Beauty of Labour scheme? So the improvement here comes by using your knowledge of the idea that the workers had to do the work themselves, but additionally that they would be threatened and could potentially be fired from their jobs if they didn't volunteer to make those improvements. And our final question was, how far do you agree that the lives of German workers did improve after 1933? Now, to agree with the statement, you could have mentioned how the wage increased under the German Labour Front. You could mention Strength through Joy and the cheaper activities that people may not ordinarily have been able to afford. You could also include that there was 35 million members and a high number of those did receive benefits, include the 11 million Germans that attended theatre performances. You could also talk about the Beauty of Labour and that workplace facilities did improve, like toilets, canteens, and showers. However, on the alternative side, you could argue that actually the life of a German worker didn't improve after 1933. So to disagree with it, we would include the German Labour Front, talk about how the working week increase by six hours, how workers lost the right to negotiate their pay and conditions. They couldn't leave their job without permission. And we're talking about the KdF. You could also talk about that yeah, these activities are cheap, but equally weren't free. Some people still couldn't afford the more luxurious activities, which links to the point that only 700,000 people managed to go on the holidays and cruises as part of the KdF. You could also talk about the Beauty of Labour and that workers were expected to improve facilities for themselves without pay in their own time. So again, their conditions and their lives aren't improving in 1933. So within this answer, you could use the DAF, the KdF, and the SdA to argue that both lives did improve and did not improve. It's which knowledge you've picked to support your argument and your viewpoint that's really important for this challenge question for question five. Thank you for joining me for today's lesson. I'd love to see some of your thoughts about whether the lives of German workers did improve after 1933 or whether they didn't. So if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. Well done for completing the lesson today. You should be really proud of yourselves. Please remember to take the exit quiz to check your learning from today's lesson, and I hope you can join me again next time.

Worksheet: How far did the lives of German workers improve after 1933?

Exit Quiz: How far did the lives of German workers improve after 1933?

Completed: How far did the lives of German workers improve after 1933?

In this lesson we will be evaluating the extent to which German workers saw improvements to their lives after 1933. This will include looking at organisations such the German Labour Front (DAF), Strength through Joy (KdF) and Beauty of Labour (SdA).

History

Y11 History

Key Stage 4

Year 11

Miss

How far did the lives of German workers improve after 1933?

Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1919-1939

UNIT

The German Reich, 1871-1918

The Russian Revolution, 1917

How democratic was the Weimar Constitution?

Why did the German people feel stabbed in the back?

Why was there a rise in political extremism in Germany after WW1?

Why was 1923 known as a year of crisis?

How did Germany recover its economy in the years 1924-29?

How did Germany improve their international relations, 1924-29?

Were the 1920s a golden age for all Germans?

How far had the Weimar Republic recovered by 1929?

Why was the year 1929 a significant turning point for Germany?

The early development of the Nazi Party: what did Hitler believe in?

Who were the SA and what was their role?

What was the Munich Putsch?

What were the consequences of the Munich Putsch?

What were the Nazi Party strategies during the lean years?

Why were the Nazi Party so successful after 1929?

How did political developments in 1932 result in Hitler becoming Chancellor in January 1933?

History

How far did the lives of German workers improve after 1933?

Video

Worksheet

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete