Paul, In what ways did Hitler use education to support his regime?

Hitler and the Nazi party used propaganda to gain support from the people of Germany. Much of the propaganda that was used manipulated the people’s way of thinking much like he did in his means of education. Hitler manipulated the subject areas of education in order to make them fit the ideologies of the Nazi party.


When Hitler came to power he said that his empire would outlast any other and thrive for many, many years (2). He also knew the children that were in his country, at the time of his election into power, would grow up and be the future of the German people. Because of this he had to teach them the ways of life and ideologies of the Nazi party. The main goal was for Germany to go back to the traditional ways of life (2). In order to keep the dictatorship in the hands of Hitler and the Nazi’s, Hitler removed all of the current teachers from the schools. The Nazi’s sponsored a league of teachers that now had complete control over the education of the youth (4). This gave the Nazi’s complete control over everything that would be taught to the children, and they would have say in anything they learned. This was a very smart move by Hitler because he know could push his ideologies onto the youth without them even knowing. They would not have any prior knowledge to any other type of Germany and would accept what they were told.


Hitler wanted a more militaristic based school with all subjects surrounding a militaristic way of life. The German literature that was taught was “to cultivate a militaristic mentality” (4). The biology classes were now focused on race and ethnic classification. This was to ensue that the students knew the Jewish people of Germany were different and wrong and deserved everything that was given to them. Physical education was also a more prominent subject (4). This was probably to make sure the children were physically able to fight for the German military. Hitler even created elite schools and youth movements (4). The boys’ youth schools were so military based that the education of the youths declined dramatically (4). The boys’ focus was not on intelligence education but instead on physical education and military intelligence. The girls were more focused on domestic duties, which were there jobs at the current time.

Hitler basically just wanted to get his ideas out to the people by any means possible. He knew the youth would be grown up soon into the new Germany and he wanted to make sure they would be following him. They basically did not have a choice though, all they learned were the Nazi ideologies so of course they would be following Hitler in what he did because they would think it was right. This is how Hitler kept gaining popularity.