Strength Through Joy : Nazi Germany
In May, 1933, Robert Ley was given the task of forming the Labour Front (DAF), the only union organization allowed in the Third Reich. Wages were now decided by the Labour Front and compulsory deductions made for income tax, and for its Strength through Joy programme.
Ley ordered the building of two new cruise-liners that were used to take German workers on foreign holidays. In 1938 an estimated 180,000 people went on cruises to places such as Maderia and the Norweigian fjords. Others were given free holidays in Germany.
The Strength through Joy programme also built sports facilities, paid for theatre visits and financially supported travelling cabaret groups. It also subsidized the development of the People's Car, the Volkswagen.
Although the German worker paid for these benefits through compulsory deductions, the image of people being given holidays and subsidized entertainment was of great propaganda value to the Nazi government.
Primary Sources
(1) Strength Through Joy statement (2nd August, 1938)
As of August 1 (1938), the great savings programme for the People's Car 'Strength-Through-Joy' will begin. I herewith proclaim the conditions under which every working person, can acquire an automobile.
(1) Each German, without distinction of class, profession, or property can become the purchaser of a Volkswagen.
(2) The minimum weekly payment, insurance included, will be 5 marks. Regular payment of this amount will guarantee, after a period which is yet to be determined, the acquisition of a Volkswagen. The precise period will be determined upon the beginning of production.
(3) Application for the Volkswagen savings programme can be made at any office of the German Labour Front and of 'Strength Through Joy', where further details can also be obtained. Factories and shops can submit collective orders.
A Volkswagen for every German - let that be our aim. That is what we want to achieve. Will all of you help in that; it shall be our way of saying 'thank you' to the Fuhrer.