Marital Loans

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The marriage loans was a family and labor market policies of the German Empire in the era of National Socialism , in the newlyweds a loan was granted for the purchase of household items. Several goals were connected with this. Increased domestic demand indirectly increased job creation and at the same time relieved the pressure on the labor market because the wife had to retire from gainful employment. In addition, as a population policy measure, the birth rate should be increased.

conditions

The granting of a “marriage loan to promote marriages” only applied to women who had previously been employed and gave up their work as an employee when they got married. They were prohibited from taking up employment for the duration of the loan and as long as the employed spouse received a minimum wage.

A First Implementation Ordinance (1933, RGBl. I, p. 377) excluded people who were not in possession of their civil rights or who had doubts about their political stance that they would “support the national state without reservation at any time”. A loan was also refused if a marriage was allegedly not "in the interest of the national community" for genetic reasons. A second implementing ordinance (RGBl. I, S, 540) stipulated a medical assessment for this. “ Non-Aryans ” were - without this being published in the Reichsgesetzblatt - excluded by “explanations” for administrative practice from March 1934. According to reports from the Reich in 1940 ethnic Germans were not eligible to apply.

financing

A marriage loan could be applied for up to a maximum amount of 1000 Reichsmarks (from the end of 1939 up to 600 RM), it was interest-free and was repaid monthly at 1.0 percent of the sum. It was granted in the form of “requirement coverage certificates” that could only be used for household items from German production. For the "furnishing of the home" the purchase of curtains, beds, carpets, kitchen utensils, stoves, dishes, sewing machines, radios and even musical instruments for house music was permitted, but not clothing.

25.0 percent of the loan amount was waived for each live-born child. The population spoke of the possibility of “reducing” the loan.

By the end of 1937, 878,016 marriage loans had been granted averaging 641 Reichsmarks. The necessary financial resources should be raised through a special levy, the " marriage assistance ", which was levied on all single income taxpayers up to the age of fifty-five. In fact, the revenue from marriage assistance remained well below the loan amount granted.

Lifting of the work ban

In 1935 the conditions were changed (RGBl. I, p. 47), in that a minimum of nine months of employment had to be proven. In July 1936 the employment ban was relaxed (RGBl. I, p. 576) and retrospectively to October 1937 it was repealed with the “Third Act to Change the Law on Promotion of Marriage” (RGBl. I, p. 1158). The applicant could now choose. If the woman was not in employment, the repayment rate remained at 1.0 percent per month, otherwise the rate rose to 3.0 percent.

The Reich Ministry of Finance justified the amendment to the law by stating that the work ban would have to lapse in order to ensure the implementation of the four-year plan . The labor shortage that was felt by the armament should be alleviated through women's work.

Economic policy effects

The economic policy effect of the measure was weakened because at the same time part of the purchasing power was deducted elsewhere as a result of the special levy. Until 1937, however, loans to the value of 563 million Reichsmarks had been paid out, while the income from “marriage support” was much lower, so that one can speak of an “expansive measure” for indirect job creation.

The displacement of wives from gainful employment relieved the labor market by around half a million women by the end of 1935. At the end of 1937 full employment had been achieved due to the armament , so that this objective was dropped.

The impact of the marriage loan on the number of marriages cannot be directly deduced. The increase from 510,000 marriages in 1932 to 631,000 marriages in 1933 and 731,000 marriages in 1934 is largely attributed to the general economic improvement by Humann . The utilization of the loan fell in the same period from 37.0 percent to 31.0 percent of the newlyweds and in 1935 was only 24.0 percent. The marriage loan only had an "accompanying effect" here.

Comparable regulations

In the GDR there was a similar regulation known as the marriage loan . In 1962, a “family start-up loan” was offered in West Berlin to encourage young families to move there. The (re-) introduction of such a regulation was discussed intensively in Saxony-Anhalt. In Thuringia there is a so-called family loan , which, however, is not interest-free.

literature

  • Detlev Humann: Labor battle - job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933-1939. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2011 (Diss.), ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On rejection due to "antisociality" cf. Wolfgang Ayaß (arrangement): "Community strangers". Sources on the persecution of "anti-social" 1933–1945 , Koblenz 1998, no. 84 and no. 101.
  2. ^ Detlev Humann: Labor battle - job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933-1939. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2011 (Diss.), ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 , p. 125 with note 10.
  3. ↑ Heinz Boberach (Ed.): Messages from the Reich. The secret situation reports of the SS Security Service 1939-1945. Herrsching 1984, ISBN 3-88199-158-1, Vol. 4, p. 1315.
  4. ↑ Heinz Boberach (Ed.): Messages from the Reich. The secret situation reports of the SS Security Service 1939-1945. Herrsching 1984, ISBN 3-88199-158-1, Vol. 3, p. 512.
  5. ↑ § 8 of the First Implementing Ordinance for the ED of June 20, 1933 (RGBl. I, p. 377)
  6. ^ Detlev Humann: Labor battle - job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933-1939. Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 , p. 120.
  7. ^ Detlev Humann: Labor battle - job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933-1939. Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 , p. 119.
  8. ^ Detlev Humann: Labor battle - job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933-1939. Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 , p. 122.
  9. ^ Detlev Humann: Labor battle - job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933-1939. Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 , p. 119.
  10. ^ Detlev Humann: Labor battle - job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933-1939. Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 , p. 120.
  11. ↑ Fritz Emil Bünger: Family Policy in Germany, Berlin 1970, p. 102 with note 43.