„Kraft durch Freude“. (Strength through Joy in the Third Reich)
Dr. Fritz Stenzel
Nation & Europe, 58. year, Magazine11/12, November/December 2008, Page 78. Publisher Nation Europa Verlag GmbH, Po. Box 2554, D-96414 Coburg, Germany
„Kraft durch Freude“.
(Strength through Joy in the Third Reich)
Tourism and cultural “events” for a broad public are common place nowadays. In the first third of the 20th century these things were not so. Workers and low-paid employees did not have the means for a lengthy holiday nor the finances for frequent visits to concerts, or least of all, an ocean-cruise. People were fully occupied to secure their daily existence. First World War 1, then mass un-employment and economic distress left little room for such diversions outside their narrow circle. There certainly was no such thing as a “leisure-industry”.
All this changed dramatically some 75 years ago: on the 25th of November 1933 the Organisation “Kraft durch Freude” (KdF) was called into existence in Berlin. Its purpose was to give less endowed Germans the means of the enjoyment of leisure time and cultural edification, which had only been the prerogative of their financial betters till then. This led toward a new moral outlook about work, a better quality of life and to overcome the class barriers. At the same time the amount of holidays were doubled.
The beginning of Mass Tourism.
"Kraft durch Freude,“ under the auspices of of the German Workers Front (DAF), was divided into several departments, whereby the one for travel, hiking and holidays rose to become the greatest German tour organiser. Forty-three Million KdF- Tours were sold in 1939, mainly day tours. Among the 7 Million holiday trips were 690,000 Ocean cruises to Norway, Madeira and Italy. The prices were something that sound nowadays fabulous to our ears: A seven day tour through the Thuringian Forest complete with accommodation and all meals supplied cost 25 RM (Reichs Mark). Less than 60 RM was the cost of a cruise to Norway for one week. For 150 RM (the average monthly income of a working man) would see you skippering around the Mediterranean for 12 days-fully fed and cared for, as only rich people had known it hitherto.
“Spiegel” Historian Heinz Höhne speaks of the “beginning of mass tourism, as had never been experienced in the history of the world”. It was for the KdF- traveler a “fantastic adventure”. Traveling had been most uncommon for workers: A questionnaire handed out to 42,000 employees of the Berlin Siemens factory in winter 1933/34 found that about 68% had never traveled anywhere. Even the “bargain trips” offered by the Unions, among which were five journeys abroad at the cost of 350 RM, were well above the financial reach of the average worker. Höhne calls it the staircase- joke of history, that it was exactly the anti-democratic movement that had basically introduced the idea of democracy and equality in the tourist industry
New and modern Cruise Ships were built especially for the purpose of the KdF tours. One was named “Robert Ley”, after the leader of the German Workers Front. While another, the “Wilhelm Gustloff,” commenced service in 1937, came to terrible fame at the end of the war through the torpedoes of a Soviet Submarine. The ship had taken thousands of refugees from East Prussia to their death. The “white fleet of peace”, as it was called, found its untimely conclusion with the end of the Third Reich.
Infrastructure from Nothing.
The KdF- Sea resort Prora, on the island of Rügen, was built in 1936, the imposing 20,000 bed Hotel establishment could not be completed because of the start of the war, but had already in its planning stage stirred up an international sensation. The Prora Modell received the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. Nowadays the oft times ridiculed “NS Gigantomania”, was in those days admired abroad as an attempt to create an infrastructure from nothing for the benefit of large scale tourism. For the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 a “KdF-City” was built specifically to accommodate the many visitors who had come to see the Games.
The most well-known architects took part in these projects. In regards to the less spectacular KdF activities, yet reaching the broadest public were factory concerts, singing lessons, entertainment evenings, chess championships, Gymnastics- and swimming courses. Another endeavour of activity was adult education. Even the still common “competition for the most beautiful town” was initiated by the KdF. The department “Beauty of work” cared for the establishment of factory accommodation, canteens, green belts and sports fields. What had been promised by the Marxist parties for decades, but never eventuated, actually came into being with "Kraft durch Freude“ and secured the affection of even those who were skeptical or refusing of the regime hitherto. The historian Götz Aly coined a phrase only recently, as the feel-good dictatorship.”
The KdF becomes VW.
A special pilot-project was the KdF vehicle, for the production of which the “City of the KdF -car near Fallersleben” was founded in 1938 (after the war the town was re-named “Wolfsburg” at the behest of the British). The car would be affordable for everyone at the purchase price of 990 RM. The potential buyer bought stamps week after week to the value of 5 RM each, for which he received delivery of the car, called also the “Volkswagen” (VW) after about 4 years.
The German defeat of course put an end to that plan. In August 1945 the Soviet Military regime dissolved the “Bank of the German workers”, where the savings for the cars had been deposited. Other sections of ownership of the German Workers Front went to the once more established Union movement. As late as 1961, the VW -Company, of their own free will, gave a discount payment of 600 Mark to these depositors for the purchase of a new vehicle, (While 100 DM compensation received those, who had deposited, but no longer wanted the VW car or could not afford it)
In any case, the KdF-car became one of the most successful car models in the world, on which the efforts to “de-Nazify” all things German in a way had been deflected. “The Volkswagen Factory is an example of the problem of historical continuation between the Third Reich and the BDR (Bundes Republic), says the Historian Prof. Dr. Hans Mommsen. In other words: in every VW rides a piece of KdF tradition on the roads of this world – of late with unique claim to be not just a vehicle among many, but to be “The Car.”
Even for the Communists, Kraft durch Freude“ was an example, but one, which quality they could never attain to. The National Socialist's Regime's minister for culture and the KdF department manager, Horst Dressler-Andress, who was also a high functionary in Goebbel's Ministry of Propaganda had a successful political career in the DDR as the founder and committee member of the (Block) Party of National Democrats. But the leftist-socialist holiday and leisure planning efforts were too forced and primitive to continue at the high KdF Standard. It stayed, as it were, like in the car manufacture, at the quality level of the Trabant car. Traveling was almost only permitted into “Socialist Brother-countries”, where the danger of flight was low. KdF tourists usually did not abscond abroad, as they were obviously content with the state of the prevailing domestic situation
Reflections in the later BDR
Professor Götz Aly sees in the “National Socialism” of the Third Reich certain refections shining through in the later BDR.” That of course is not only revealed in the most eye-catching way in the beetle outline of the KdF-car, but also most of the progressive social political ideas introduced in 1933 were not touched despite “anti-fascist” indignation after the war. What began 75 years ago with “Kraft durch Freude”, continued in the existing social conditions of the present day Market economy. But its origins and continuation is these days only discussed unwillingly. But do taboos serve historical enlightenment? Aly: “Whoever does not want to speak of the great advantages gained by millions of common Germans , should keep quiet altogether about National Socialism and the Holocaust”.