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Essay about success of Nazis in creating a Volksgemeinschaft
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MARIATo what extent did the NSDAP create a Volksgemeinschaft in the years 1933-45?
The policy of the NSDAP’s ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ vision was to create a “racially homogenous, focused,
national community” 1 that would unite Germans from all tiers of society. This was not achieved for the
most part in the working class and sections of the middle class who remained resistant to the party and its
ideals itself, whilst it can be argued that Gleichschaltung was partially achieved within the upper class.
Therefore the Nazis failed to create a total Volksgemeinschaft.
The NSDAP arguably made some progress in creating their Volksgemeinschaft vision, through their
employment initiatives such as the Reichsautobahn project. This particular project alone employed 80,000
men. This would have, to an extent, endeared the working class to the Nazis and their ideals as they were
portrayed to be helping the workers. The NSDAP built on their vision of a united workforce by banning
all trade unions in 1933 and replacing it with the DAF. The DAF encompassed 22 million workers which
gave the party a great command of the working class and therefore contributed to their effort to
homogenise this section of society. The NSDAP achieved a partial Volksgemeinschaft in the working
class due to their active initiatives to provide them with opportunities for work which in turn would
improve their standard of living. On the other hand, the working class were negatively impacted by some
of the changes to employment which decreased their unity and support for the NSDAP. The leader of the
organisation KdF (Strength Through Joy) which was supervised by Dr Robert Ley encouraged workers to
pay installments towards buying a Volkswagen. However as the war started in 1939, they had to cease
production therefore many workers lost money. Their resentment was clear as it led to protests against
him as workers were infuriated at being misled. The SdA (Beauty of Work) aimed to improve working
conditions but this was done at the expense of the workers themselves who had their working hours
increased from 60 to 72 hours. They also experienced a fall in wages and injuries at work rose by 150%.
For these reasons the majority of the workers remained disillusioned with the NSDAP’s
Volksgemeinschaft and above all, disunited. Their opposition was made particularly clear during the
Berlin Olympics in 1936 when workers went on strike over high food prices in 1935. Thus, a
Volksgemeinschaft wasn’t created in this class.
One could say that there was more progress made in the NSDAP’s effort to create a Volksgemeinschaft in
the middle class, due to legislation passed that aimed to benefit them. One such example of this is the
1933 Law for the Protection of Retail Trade, which banned the creation of new large department stores.
This, in turn, increased business for smaller companies and meant that the industrial middle class
benefited financially. They were also fortunate to benefit from the Nazi’s persecution of Jewish
businesses as they were offered lower interest rates due to the wealth they confiscated from these
businesses. The NSDAP succeeded somewhat in creating a power base in the lower middle class as
people longed for a strong authoritative government to protect their interests. However not all of the
NSDAP’s attempts to liaise with the middle class were successful. Some small businesses still failed due
to Social Darwinism and this created a variance in support for the party as some of the middle class
benefited from their measures whilst others were merely given causes for grievance. Not only did the
NSDAP manage to alienate some business owners, but their measures on landowners were also
unpopular. The NSDAP prevented the landowners from mechanising and therefore they were not able to
1 The Holocaust: 2.3 The significance of Volksgemeinschaft in Nazi ideology -
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