Education in Nazi Germany

Education

In

Nazi Germany

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party heavily focused their attention and effort towards the German youth. It was Hitler's goal to create a super race of pure young, Aryan men so that the country would be ready for a long European war, where the Nazi's wished to expand their empire. They did this by changing what children learnt in school and creating certain youth groups for both girls and boys. These changes in the education and youth structures largely affected the mind set and life style of the young Germans. In order to promote and ensure the success of these education and youth movements, the Nazi government used propaganda and indoctrination in movements. Prior to the Nazi government coming to power, the education was similar to that of any other country, with unbiased information being taught to the young German students. Also young Germans, including Jews, were able to choose an out of school youth group and were not forced to participate in these school or the youth groups. The policies initiated by the Nazi's once they cam to power were working effectively in creating a strong, healthy and loyal future German race up until their defeat in 1945, when the Nazi's and their ideologies were destroyed and banished.

During the transition of power from the Social Democratic Party to the Nazi Party, Hitler introduced many changes to the Germany, especially in education. The Nazi's overall goal for the youth was to create an Aryan "super race" prepared for war in the future and to create loyal Nazi's by the time the young Germans reached adulthood. There were four main pillars of the national school and education system; these pillars were race, military training, leadership and religion. In the reorganised educational system, young boys were mainly taught German military history and physical fitness. PE took up about 15% of classes during the school week. The long term aim for these policies for the young German boys was to build them into strong, healthy leaders ready for combat. The main subjects that were affected by the changes included biology, which became the study of the superior Nazi race over different races as well as the problems of interracial marriages. Geography taught students about the land Germany had lost after the war and the need for Germany to have more living space for the increasing population. History became the study of Germany's glory, the German defeat in the Great War was explained as the work of Jewish spies, the Treaty of Versailles was the work of nations who were jealous of Germany's power and the hyperinflation was the work of Jewish saboteurs. In science students were required to understand the principles of shooting and military service.

Young girls were taught differently in some subject's science and eugenics. In these two subjects, women were taught the fundamentals of raising children as well as the characteristics to look for in a husband and father. As a whole, the young German's were taught anti semitic values and Jews were often embarrassed by the teachers in front of the class and were often beaten by their fellow class mates. Not only were Jews singled out but others including mentally ill and the disabled were ridiculed, even in exam papers. This is an example of a question in an exam paper. "To keep a mentally ill person costs

approximately 4 marks a day. There are 300,000 mentally ill people in care. How much do these people cost to keep in total? How many marriage loans of 1000 marks could be granted with this money?"(www.historylearningsite.co.uk). The teachers that taught in Nazi schools were required to swear their allegiance to Hitler by joining the Nazi Teacher's Association.

Another one of Hitler and the Nazi party's youth policies for the development of a future "super" army was the creation of Nazi youth groups and the abolishment of all other German youth groups. For boys their were 3 different youth groups for different age groups, The Little Fellows (6-10 years), The German Young People (10-14 years) and The Hitler Youth (14-18 years). These youth groups were created in 1922 and they grew as the Nazi party became more powerful, once the party came to power in 1933 there were 1 698 809 members involved.