Economic Impact of Hitler’s Ruling (Organising Workers’ Leisure Time)

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Organising workers’ leisure time

• The Nazis realised that workers’ support was vital and offered them some benefits to placate them.
• Nazi propaganda praised workers for playing an important role in Germany’s efforts
• The DAF set up schemes such as ‘Strength Through Joy’ or ‘Kraft durch Freude’ (KdF), which provided cheap theatre and cinema tickets, organised courses and cultural and sports events.

• The main aim was to control peoples’ leisure time; these activities & holidays had a lot of appeal.
• The state scheme by which workers could save five Marks a week towards a cheap car, the KdF-Wagen, was also extremely popular.

• Another DAF scheme, the ‘Beauty of Labour’, also aimed to improve working conditions for workers.

• Conditions in factories were improved; washing facilities and low-cost canteens were set up.

• While Germany’s economy seemed to improve, it was at the expense of workers’ wages & benefits.