Leonard- In what ways did Hitler use education to support his regime?

Hitler had many methods for gaining support for his Nazis regime. The education of young people was one of those ways. Hitler put educational focus on particular subject area in order to build a support base for his regime and build the Germany he wanted.

While the Weimar government was in power they received help from the United States, as a result the United States influenced the Germany culture. German culture began to change, and people began to change the ways, women wore shorter skirts and were doing thinks that the typical German women would not do, and people were participating in things just for the fun of them. This type of Germany did not fit into Hitler’s ideology, he believed in the old Germany, and that everything in the country should be focused on the greater good of the country, all for Germany. This attitude can be seen in The 25 Points of Hitler’s Nazi Party where it says, “The first duty of every citizen must be to work mentally or physically. No individual shall do any work that offends against the interest of the community to the benefit of all.”(5) This shows that Hitler believed that if a person’s action weren’t for the greater good of Germany they should not be allowed. This belief of Hitler can be seen in how many of his youth clubs were set up. The boys groups focused mostly on sporting and military activities, while the girls “were given domestic and maternal activities.”(4) Through learning these things it was believed that they could better service Germany. This educational focus support Hitler and his regimes drive to build the Germany they wanted and spelled out in their 25 points. Hitler was able to attach young people to these clubs and educate them on the Nazi ideals, by making the clubs social. Young people like to be part of clubs because it allows them to be social. Hitler used this fact about young people as a method of educating them, so they would grow up and support his party.

Outside of Nazi clubs for young people, Hitler influenced the education of young people in German schools. First of all he replaced the teaching infrastructure already in place by getting rid of all the teachers who were thought to disagree with Hitler.. Instead the teachers were now those who were members of the Nazi NSLB, the National Socialist Teachers’ League.(4) These teachers were teachers who bought in to the ideals of Hitler and his party, and would teach those to students. They made up 97% of all the teachers by 1937.(4) Hitler also effected the educational curriculum. School now devoted 15% of their time to physical education. This supported his regime because by building strong citizens he would eventually have strong soldiers and being physically fit would help build peoples moral.

The most important academic in German schools were now History and Biology. In history the young people in the school were too young to know the facts of what caused WWI and what happened during the war. Because to this Hitler could educate then on a version of history where Germany was forced into WWI and then wronged after the war by the other countries involved through the Treaty of Versailles.(6) The school children were too young to fully analysis the situation on their own and they only really knew what they were taught.(6) Because of the German bias history Hitler was able to drum up support. Through the eyes of the students it looked like Germany had been wronged when they were actually in the right, and because of this they should support their country and the Nazi party. In Biology classes the emphasis was now put on “ethnic classification and racial genetics.” (4) Hitler was teaching another one of his 25 points, others were superior to the Jewish (5); students were learning anti-semitics. Hitler and his party actually showed supposed “scientific proof” that they were superior to Jews. Again because this information was being taught to such young students they did not know whether it was true or not they simply believed what they were being taught. This new Hitler form of biology helped build the feeling of anti-semitics and caused children to by into the Nazi’s party 25 points/ ideology. Hitler was building a basses of young people to grow up to be his vision of the perfect Germany.

Hitler was successful able to build a support base for his regime and build the Germany he wanted, by changing the education of young Germans. He used the fact the young were easy to mold because of their lack of knowledge and was easily able to convince them to buy into the vision of German he saw. He used the educational system to his advantage and taught what he viewed as important, and what was important to the success of his regime, therefore gaining support for his party.

(4)- Nazi Rule in Germany, 1934 - 39
(5)- The 25 Points of Hitler’s Nazi Party
(6)- Belk talking in class