v Primary Sources v

Robert Ley, the son of poor peasants, was born in Niederbreidenbach, on 15th February, 1890. He was a military aviator during the First World War but was shot down over France in 1917 and spent over two years as a prisoner of war.

After the war Ley worked as a chemist but was sacked because of his serious drink problem. He joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) in 1925 and later that year became Gauleiter for Rhineland South.

In 1932 Ley replaced the murdered Gregor Strasser as leader of the Reich Organization. He also began publishing the Nazi journal Westdeutscher Beobachter.

On 2nd May, 1933, Adolf Hitler ordered the arrest of Germany's trade union leaders. He then gave Ley the task of forming the German Labour Front (DAF) to replace the now outlawed trade unions. Ley confiscated union funds and used the money to fund the Strength through Joy programme.

After the war Ley was charged with war crimes. While awaiting trial in Nuremberg Ley wrote a statement denouncing Anti-Semitism and then hanged himself in his cell on 25th October, 1945.

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(1) Robert Ley, Social Policy in the New Germany (1938)

The trade unions that were swayed by Marxist teaching did not want social peace. They calculated that their chances of acquiring political power would improve with the growing dissatisfaction of the workers. One of the first necessities with which the Hitler Government found itself faced was that of dissolving the organizations that kept alive the antagonism between employers and employees. They were replaced by the Labour Front.

(2) Albert Speer had a meeting with Robert Ley in the autumn of 1944.

Robert Ley, by profession a chemist, took me along in his special railroad car to a meeting in Sonthofen held in the autumn of 1944. As usual, our conversation took place over glasses of strong wine. His increased stammering betrayed his agitation. "You know we have this new poison gas - I've heard about it. The Fuehrer must do it. He must use it. Now he has to do it!"

Hitler, to be sure, had always rejected gas warfare; but now he hinted at a situation conference in headquarters that the use of gas might stop the advance of Soviet troops. He went on with vague speculations that the West would accept gas warfare against the East because at this stage of the war the British and American governments had an interest in stopping the Russian advance. When no one at the situation conference spoke up in agreement, Hitler did not return to the subject.

(3) Fritz Thyssen, I Paid Hitler (1941)

In order to allay discontent, Hitler conceived of a new idea. Every German shall own his car. He asked industry to devise a popular car model to be built at such a low price that millions could buy it. The Volkswagen (People's Car) has been talked of for the past five years and has never been seen on the market. "These cars will be built for the new highways," said the party propagandists; "an entire family will be able to ride in one of them at 100 kilometers (60 miles) an hour." The party leaders say that the highways were built for the People's Car. But the People's Car is one of the most bizarre ideas the Nazis ever had. Germany is not the United states. Wages are low. Gasoline is expensive. German workers never dreamed of buying a car. They cannot afford the upkeep; to them it is a luxury.

Dr. Ley, the stammering drunkard who is the chief of the German Labor Front. He controls the four to five hundred million marks paid in every year by the German workers as dues to the Labor Front. I do not say that he puts all this money into his own pocket. But the figure has certainly turned his head.

He had an automobile factory built for the production of the People's Car. On this occasion he invented a brand new form of knavery. The future buyers of the People's Car were invited to buy it in advance, by making predelivery installments. This is the reverse of the credit installment system. The system shows genius. Ley pocketed about a hundred million marks when the war came because the People's Car factory now had to produce tanks and motorcycles for the army.