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During the Depression, Germans were overcome with strife and filled with the need for change. They were eager to be led and desperately wanted positive direction for Germany. The conditions in Germany were perfect for Hitler’s ideology to be planted and grow in the minds and lives of Germans. In some way or another the Nazi ideology permeated in aspects of everyday life, family relationships, social relationships, and economic circumstances in German village communities.
In order to understand the extent of the Nazis’ influence in village communities, you have to first understand the circumstances present in Germany before the Nazi integration. Traditionally, villages in Germany relied on agriculture as their main source of income. As the population in the villages continued to grow and economic circumstances were declining, many Germans had no choice but to seek another source of income for their household. Many men went to urban areas to find work during the industrialization. The women and children stayed in the village and became responsible for not only the household, but also the land. This one thing paved the way for the transformation from the traditional way of life. The instability created from this was present in many aspects of the German village community.
Family life was very much changed by the men going to work in urban areas. The roles of every member of the family were different. The traditional German family had the women and girls taking care of the household and the boys and men were responsible for the land. The men were the breadwinners of the family, while the women had no roles with any responsibility. When the men went to the cities, the women became responsible for the household and the land also. The women now became an integral part of family survival.
The social structure in Germany had been the same way for years and years. The elite were deeply entrenched in their position in society. Land ownership was the deciding factor in social status - the elite having the most land. The elite would hire people with less land to tend to theirs. Many men in the village depended on the elite for part of their income. Once the men went to work in the urban areas, the elite began to feel threatened. Their status had never been threatened before, and when they began losing their men to industry, they didn’t know what to do. The village began to organize activities to keep the people happy. With the elite feeling pressure to maintain their status, and poor feeling pressure to merely survive, there was constant tension between villagers. The social activities succeeded in keeping the tension down on the surface, but underneath, deep rifts were forming between the social classes.
Economics were also a rocky spot for the villagers. the traditional agricultural economy began to suffer when the men went to work for industry. The households in the village now only produced enough to feed the family. The men were brining in the income for the family from industry. In the last years of the Weimar Republic when the bottom fell out of industry, the men had no choice but to go back to the village and once again depend solely on agriculture for income. This back and forth was not good for any involved. The men were used to depending on agriculture, it had been bred into them, but the women and children had had a taste of something different. It wasn’t so easy for them to go back to their old ways. The unstable economy had also struck a chord that would have a hand in the transformation of everyday life in German villages.
All of this unrest in German village societies paved the way for Nazi integration. Everyone was eager for change. Things were happening that were turning everything they had known for so long completely upside down.
When the rifts between social classes began to form in the villages, branches of Social Democrats (SPD) and Communists (KPD) were created. The existing clubs in the village split into socialist and nationalistic groups. The working class group make up the SPD and KPD. The elite, who were the political power in the villages, made up the conservatives and nationalists. The working class made a kind of counter part to the elites. The elites maintained their power in the villages, but there were now noticeable splits within the community.
This system of social hierarchy worked well for the older generation. This was all they knew. The younger generation saw the impact that Nazism was having in other parts of Germany. The sons of the ruling elite just couldn’t picture themselves automatically over for their fathers one day. The sons of the elite were the first to bring Nazism into a village like Korle. They wanted protection and real solutions tot he problems that were becoming more and more evident. Their fathers were feeling pressure but were more or less stable in their positions in the community for the time being. The sons were the ones who could see a real threat for their future. The Nazis had a very activist stance and these German boys saw the Nazi ideology as a possible solution to three of their main worries: the survival of their generation as independent farmers, the preservation of their political stance, and the suppression of their enemies (the Jews and the working class). (Bessel, p.20)
The Nazi party started out slowly in Korle. They eventually began gaining seats on the council. The Nazis began to take control of the village by force. They removed the mayor, banned Social Democrats, Communists, and recreational clubs having to do with the left. Up until this point, all of the law enforcement had been local, but now the Nazis brought in storm troopers from other villages. The villagers of Korle didn’t like this at all. The Nazis continued to expand social relationships for citizens in Korle. The villagers began to get very upset and surprisingly, their reaction was not directed at the Nazis, but at the newcomers to the village.
One reason why the people were reluctant to openly defy the Nazis was because of the promises the Nazis had made about improving the economy. The Nazis were pretty successful in convincing the villagers that they were going to fix their economic troubles. They were going to increase employment and decrease poverty. Many people in the village were opposed to the Nazi power, but kept quiet, part out of fear, but also out of hope for an improved economy.
The changes in the household kept on coming. Women and children had a much bigger role than ever before. The Nazis created clubs for women, boys, and girls. The younger generation was generally much more supportive of the Nazis that the older generation. Many young people were involved in Nazi youth organizations and bought into the ideology when their parents id not. This caused problems in the household,
As the Nazis gained more and more power, parents lost power over raising their children. The Nazis wanted to get to the younger generations because they weren’t as set in the traditional beliefs as their parents were. Boys went into the Hitler Youth. The youngest boys began getting brainwashed there at such a young age that they knew nothing but the Nazi racial propaganda. They learned the Nazi ideology in the Hitler Youth and also learned fighting and preparations for war. There were clubs set up for girls and women also.
Nazism kind of liberated women in Germany. The organizations created gave them an opportunity to travel to other villages. They net other women and had many new experiences outside of the traditional village life. As women were allowed to have more freedom, they had more demands put on them. women now ere taking full control of agriculture. They were running farms completely by themselves. In some cases girls would go into industrial labor to bring in more money. This was all part of the Nazi’s plan for full employment.
The villagers in Korle had been a close community that had closed themselves off to outsiders. Once the war began, the Nazis totally invaded the privacy of the household, forcing villagers to take in refugees and evacuees. The households were force to take in these strangers and with that their independence was completely taken away. This was the final straw for many, but they suffered in silent anger and defiance.
The Nazis made significant transformations in all aspects of village life in Germany. By the time it was all said and done, everything was basically turned upside down. Nothing of the traditional life remained. For the most part, though, there was no open defiance against the Nazis, but at the same time, there wasn’t exactly compliance. The peoples’ voices were oppressed and that is one reason why the Nazis never got full support from the villagers. The Nazis preached about traditional values, saying the Weimar Republic was a threat to them, when in reality the Nazis were the ones who destroyed the simple, traditional life of the villagers. Local community life in the village would never be the same.
The villagers had to accept outsiders, they had new roles in their households, and their economy had shifted from agricultural to industrial. There were none of the familiar old ways of the village life.
The main reason that the Nazis were so successful was right. The conditions in the village of Korle were perfect for them - kind of like a storm, when the conditions are just right, a tornado can come and turn everything upside down and change things forever. That is what happened in Korle, only the tornado was the Nazis and conditions were just right for them to take control.
Anti - Semitism was present in the village before the Nazis came. When the villagers started having strife in their community, the blamed it all on the Jews. The younger generation bought in to activist stance of the Nazis. They thought they were really going to get something accomplished. The economy was failing in the village. With the population rising, there were fewer jobs. Unemployment was going up. Everything that happened in the small villages in Germany was just fuel to the growing fire of social and economic unrest.
There was also political unrest. The communities were split between Social Democrats, Communists, and Nationalists. There was also a huge and growing gap between the ruling elite and the working class. This just caused the tensions between the villagers to keep building. This also opened up the door to Nazism.
The Nazis manipulated everyone. They used the poor condition of the village against the villagers in order to take control. They took advantage of the youth in the village to work their way into the household. Once the youth in the villages bought into the Nazi ideology, it would spread into all of the households. The Nazis knew that they would have a better chance at reaching the younger generation that the older. They knew the younger generation would make more faithful followers and future soldiers that the older generation because they were too young for their loyalties to lie elsewhere. The children would take the ideology home to their parents. If their parents opposed, the children would begin to act in defiance of their parents. The Nazis defended themselves by saying it was like parents making the kids work on the land - they have to do whatever it takes to help the family survive, the Nazis said the youth had to do what was in the best interests of Germany in order for Germany to survive.
The people of Germany may not have totally bought into the Nazi ideology, but they saw changes right from the start. That is what they needed and wanted and the Nazis knew that. Germans were ready to be led and the Nazi ideology offered them something to follow. This is how they started, but not how they held their stronghold. After things started changing, it seemed like there was no end. The conditions because of the war make it impossible for anything new to start up in the village. Many young men had died during the war. With the refugees and evacuees continuing to come into the village, the population of the village had about doubled, the housing had not, and the social composition had greatly changed. The old hierarchy in the village had also changed. The ruling elite no longer ruled, and there was no one else trying to run things besides the Nazis.
The Nazis worked their way into the everyday life in Korle, broke down the existing way of life and constructed an entirely new existence for the villagers. They used force, coercion, and manipulation to get the hold that they had. Once they had hold, the people saw that they had no other choice but to follow.
The conditions in Germany during the depression laid the foundation for Nazi integration into everyday village life. Once the Nazis got their foot in the door, it was inevitable that there would be followers. The Nazis were a noisy bunch and their presence was heard all over Germany. The Nazi ideology was part of towns and villages. Once they made their presence known in Germany, the affected all aspects of everyday life, social relationships, household relationships, and economic relationships.
Word Count: 2243
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