Many saw the wall street crash as a disaster, with 6 million unemployed by 1933

Many saw the wall street crash as a disaster, with 6 million unemployed by 1933. Despite this Hitler and his Nazi party saw this as an opportunity to gain support. They believed that if they could solve the issue with unemployment they could win the votes and secure their place at the top in the Reichstag. The only question was, could Hitler achieve this? Adolf set about providing job creation schemes which would have a knock on effect. He did this by spending government money on public projects.

Hitler knew that if he provided Germany with autobahns and the like he would need workers to construct such developments, they would need supplies and so the ‘domino effect’ went on. The program had such a positive feedback that by the end of 1933 the Nazis had fed 5,000 million Reich marks directly into construction. Thousands that were once without work were now employed and the economy began to pick up, if people had money they were more likely to buy consumer items.

To target peoples new found income Hitler reduced motor vehicle tax to encourage investment in the automobile, therefore boosting car production which doubled from 1932-33. Once a work force had been assembled the Nazis wanted organisation. Millions found themselves in the RAD (Reich Labour Service) and were put to work. By 1935 it become compulsory for both women and men aged 18-25 to do 6 months work in the RAD an extremely well disciplined workforce. In an addition to this The German Labour Front was set up to replace the free trade unions banned previously in 1933.

The pay and working times were regulated and compared to many occupations workers did a lot of work for a small amount of pay. Despite this there was no alternative except a poverty that nobody wanted to endure once again, so on went Hitler’s firm hold on those that worked within the union. To prevent any outbreaks of protest or a revolt, Adolf created two organisations to help support the workers, to boost mood and productivity. The first of these was the ‘Beauty Of Labour’ which aimed to improve conditions at work, the theory was that if the workplace was a pleasant place, the employees would not mind working hard.

The second initiative was called ‘Strength through Joy’ a reward scheme that provided cheap holidays and leisure facilities to reward those that earned it. The most popular offer was a where workers could put a bit away each time they received wages to buy a car. Despite the innocence behind such an idea, nobody ever received an automobile. The money was infact fed into the Re-armament of Germany. Many of the organised rewards that were offered to employed Germans had the sinister aim to re arm the country for war.

When the Nazis were elected into power Germany had no air force, tanks or basic military equipment. Secretly the Military registration had a register of 2800 companies with whom they placed orders with. Yet again jobs were produced from a sudden surge of requests of components for war. In 1935 72,000 workers were employed in air craft production more as apposed to the meagre 4000 that were in work in 1933. Slowly Hitler slowly began to gather soldiers by introducing conscription for males between 18 and 25 and by 1939 there were over 1. 4 million men in the armed forces.