9. Education and Culture

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about education and culture in Nazi Germany, focusing in particular on: (i) the importance of the school system in inculcating Nazi ideology from the earliest age; (ii) the importance of the organisations such as the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls; (iii) the use of festivals, rituals and events to reinforce Nazi ideology, including the monumental Nuremberg Rallies and Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festivals; (iv) the reinforcement of Nazi imagery and ideology in both high culture (e.g. classical music) and everyday culture (e.g. images on banknotes, postage stamps, etc.); (v) the extent to which trends in female fashion reflected Nazi political ideology; (vi) the Nazis’ censorship of ‘degenerate’ art; and (vii) the use of film to push Nazi ideology, especially the notoriously anti-Semitic film, ‘The Eternal Jew’, released in 1940.

Course

In this course, Professor Neil Gregor (University of Southampton) explores several aspects of Nazi Germany, 1933-45. In the first module, we think about the ideology of the Nazi Party, before turning in the second module to consider Hitler’s rise to power. In the third module, we think about the nature of the Nazi government, before moving on in the fourth module to consider Nazi foreign policy in the period 1933-41. In the fifth module, we think about German opposition to the Nazi regime, while in the sixth module we consider the role of terror in overcoming this opposition. In the seventh module, we think about the extent to which ordinary Germans supported Hitler and the Nazi regime, before turning in the eighth module to consider the role of treatment of women in Nazi Germany. In the ninth module, we think about Nazi education and culture and its importance in promoting Nazi ideology, before turning in the tenth module to the Holocaust.

Lecturer

Neil Gregor is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Southampton. His research interests range widely across twentieth-century German history, and have encompassed, at various points, aspects of business history, social history, cultural history and literary studies, along with historiography. His recent publications include (as editor) Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor. (2019) and How to Read Hitler (2014).