Life in Wartime Germany: Home Front and Opposition

September 1939: reluctance rather than universal enthusiasm

Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, beginning the Second World War in Europe. German civilians did not greet the outbreak with universal enthusiasm. Many supported regaining territory they regarded as German, but wanted this to happen peacefully. Approval of territorial expansion was therefore not necessarily approval of a prolonged war.

Reports collected in September–October 1939 by SOPADE, the exiled leadership of the German Social Democratic Party, described widespread reluctance towards war. Many people hoped that the campaign against Poland would end quickly without a wider conflict with Britain and France. Previous German expansion into Czechoslovakia without war against the Western powers encouraged the mistaken belief that another territorial victory could be achieved without a major European war. Reports from Bavaria described continuing hopes that France would not fight, while some politically aware Germans expected Britain and France eventually to defeat Germany.

Wartime restrictions also provoked resentment from the outset. SOPADE recorded complaints about repeated blackouts, which required lights to be hidden to make places harder for enemy aircraft to identify. Some civilians resisted instructions to enter air-raid shelters, and officials threatened to report them to the police. Such behaviour reveals irritation with wartime disruption, although it was not necessarily an attempt to overthrow Nazi rule.

SOPADE gathered information through underground contacts inside Germany. Its reports provide valuable evidence of attitudes that public Nazi propaganda concealed. However, as an organisation opposed to the Nazis, it tended to emphasise discontent and resistance. The reports support a picture of considerable reluctance and hopes for a short war, rather than proving that all Germans shared one reaction.

Military success and the expansion of Nazi rule

The early years brought a series of German military victories. Rapid attacks became known as blitzkrieg, or ‘lightning war’. The Netherlands was invaded in May 1940, and by 1942 German occupation stretched from France’s Atlantic coast to territory near Moscow.

These successes extended Nazi power over millions of people. However, conquering territory was not the same as winning the war. Britain remained undefeated, Germany failed to defeat the Soviet Union, and the entry of the United States added another powerful enemy. Germany increasingly faced a prolonged struggle rather than a succession of quick victories.

Colonisation in the East: conquest for ‘living space’

The Nazis intended eastern conquests to provide Lebensraum, or ‘living space’, for Germans. Their racist beliefs placed Polish and other Slavic people below Germans. Occupation therefore involved more than military control: it meant changing who lived on the land and who benefited from it.

After the invasion of Poland, Germany annexed western areas, while the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland under the arrangement associated with the August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The central area under Nazi rule became the General Government, governed by Hans Frank.

Polish people were expelled from areas annexed by Germany, many being moved into the General Government. Around 500,000 ethnic Germans took over homes and land in the west. This was colonisation in practice: the displacement of existing inhabitants and settlement of a population favoured by the occupiers.

Nazi rule also attacked Polish independence and culture. Frank closed schools and universities, and around 30,000 prominent Polish people were arrested. Over 1.5 million Polish people were sent to Germany for forced labour. Their exploitation connected conquest abroad to the German war effort: occupied populations supplied labour, while Germans gained land and property. These policies were imposed through coercion, not voluntary agreement.

Defeats and the turn towards total war

By 1943, serious defeats at Stalingrad against the Soviet Union and in North Africa against the Allies showed that Germany’s fortunes had changed. The regime responded by demanding greater mobilisation of German society.

Total war meant directing labour, production and resources towards military victory. Civilian needs and leisure became less important than producing weapons and maintaining the armed forces. Activities considered unnecessary to the war effort, including professional sport and many leisure activities, were curtailed. Production of civilian clothing and furniture was stopped, food rations were reduced further, and millions of women were told that factory work was their duty.

For civilians, these changes linked the battlefield to everyday life. Military losses meant more work and fewer goods at home. Reduced rations restricted what families could eat, while the removal of leisure opportunities left fewer escapes from wartime pressures.

Joseph Goebbels promoted total war through speeches broadcast on the radio and shown in cinemas, alongside widespread posters. The message was that greater sacrifice would bring victory. This was an attempt to preserve commitment at precisely the point when defeats and hardship might weaken it.

Bombing and the defence of Germany

British and American bombing brought the war directly into German towns and cities. Large raids destroyed buildings and reduced many urban areas to rubble. Civilians faced death, injury and the destruction of their homes, as well as the shortages and demands created by total war.

By October 1944, Soviet forces were approaching from the east and British and American forces from the west. Germany had lost millions of soldiers and lacked enough men to defend itself. Hitler created the Volkssturm, conscripting males aged 16–60 who were not already in the armed forces.

Its members received little training and often had old weapons. They wore identifying armbands rather than proper uniforms. Mobilising teenagers and older men demonstrated the severity of Germany’s military crisis; it did not provide an effective answer to the advancing Allied armies.

By early 1945, Allied troops had crossed Germany’s borders. Yet fighting continued, extending civilian suffering even when victory was no longer realistic.

How far did Germans support the war effort?

Continued participation had several possible explanations. Some Germans believed Nazi propaganda and retained faith that Hitler would deliver victory. Others were too frightened of punishment to challenge the regime. The combination of persuasion and terror helped keep people working and fighting despite worsening conditions.

This makes the extent of genuine support difficult to judge. Obedience could express belief, but it could also reflect fear or a lack of alternatives. Equally, dissatisfaction did not always develop into organised opposition. People might resent shortages or military demands without attempting to overthrow the government.

Support was therefore neither universal nor simply absent. The regime maintained enough compliance to continue the war, but acts of resistance show that it never secured the agreement of everyone.

Opposition: from everyday refusal to assassination

Some people resisted through small, non-violent acts. These included listening to foreign radio broadcasts such as the BBC, telling anti-Nazi jokes, refusing the ‘Heil Hitler’ greeting, or pretending to be ill to avoid work. Such actions could reject Nazi authority or weaken participation in the war effort, but their hidden nature makes their scale difficult to establish.

The White Rose, a student resistance group associated with Munich University, used leaflets to encourage opposition to Nazi rule. Hans and Sophie Scholl were arrested and executed in 1943. Their fate illustrates both the courage required for public resistance and the regime’s determination to prevent it spreading. Some religious leaders, including the Catholic bishop Clemens August von Galen, also spoke out against the Nazis, although religious opposition did not become a united movement capable of removing the government.

A more direct threat came from army officers. On 20 July 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg placed a bomb in a briefcase at a meeting with Hitler. The conspirators intended to kill Hitler and use Operation Valkyrie, an emergency mobilisation plan, to bring the Reserve Army into action against Nazi organisations and seize control.

Hitler survived. A strong table support shielded him, while the meeting hut allowed the force of the explosion to escape more readily than a confined bunker would have done. The attempt to take power collapsed, and Stauffenberg and other conspirators were killed.

Wartime opposition thus ranged from private refusal to an attempted coup. Its overall impact remained limited because groups were small or divided, punishment was severe, and fear discouraged wider participation. The July plot showed that even people within the armed forces could turn against Hitler, but its failure allowed Nazi rule and the war to continue.

Initial reaction in 1939

• Many Germans wanted territorial gains peacefully and hoped for a short Polish campaign, not war with Britain and France.
• SOPADE, September–October 1939: reported reluctance towards war and resentment of blackouts and shelter regulations.
• Valuable underground reports, but their anti-Nazi origins could emphasise discontent.

Changing fortunes

• 1939: Germany invaded Poland.
• 1940–42: rapid victories and extensive occupation; by 1942, German-held territory stretched from France’s Atlantic coast towards Moscow.
• Britain remained undefeated; failure against the Soviet Union and American entry made the war harder to win.
• 1943: defeats at Stalingrad and in North Africa increased pressure for total war.

Colonisation in the East

• Lebensraum: conquest for German settlement and exploitation.
• Polish people expelled; about 500,000 ethnic Germans took over homes and land.
• Hans Frank governed the General Government; Polish cultural institutions were attacked.
• Over 1.5 million Poles were sent to Germany for forced labour.

Civilian impact

• Total war: greater labour demands, reduced rations, fewer civilian goods and curtailed leisure.
• Bombing: deaths, injuries and destruction of homes and cities.
• 1944 Volkssturm: males aged 16–60 not already serving; poorly prepared for defending Germany.

Support and opposition

• Propaganda and faith in Hitler sustained some support; fear also maintained obedience.
• Compliance does not necessarily prove enthusiasm.
• White Rose: leaflets; Hans and Sophie Scholl executed in 1943.
• 20 July 1944: Stauffenberg’s bomb failed to kill Hitler; the planned seizure of power collapsed.
• Passive resistance was difficult to measure. Opposition remained fragmented and was constrained by repression.