Employment and living standards Flashcards

All 9 cards in this deck

What was the National Labour Service (RAD)?

A scheme making young unemployed men do six months' manual work on public projects such as tree planting, living in camps for low pay; compulsory for men aged 18–25 from 1935.

How did building the autobahns help reduce unemployment?

The new motorways were a public works scheme that put about 80,000 people to work building them from 1933.

How did rearmament reduce unemployment after 1933?

Businesses took on more workers to make planes, weapons and uniforms; from 1935 conscription also took men aged 18–25 into military service.

What is meant by 'invisible unemployment' in Nazi Germany?

People left out of the official jobless figures – such as women, Jews (who lost citizenship in 1935) and men in the labour service – so unemployment looked lower than it was.

What was the German Labour Front (DAF)?

The Nazi organisation led by Robert Ley that replaced trade unions in 1933; it set wages and hours, and workers could not strike.

What was Strength Through Joy (KdF)?

A Labour Front scheme offering workers cheap leisure – holidays, cruises, concerts, sport and theatre trips – plus a savings scheme for a 'people's car'.

What was Beauty of Labour (SdA)?

A Labour Front scheme to improve workplaces – better lighting, safety, washrooms and canteens – though workers often had to make the improvements in their own time.

True or false? German workers worked fewer hours in 1939 than in 1933.

False. Average working hours rose, from about 43 hours a week in 1933 to around 49 by 1939.

Why did rising wages in Nazi Germany (1933–39) not leave most workers much better off?

Average wages rose by about a fifth, but food prices rose by a similar amount, cancelling out most of the gain.