Kdf - Importance ?

Im doing some reasearch into this program but information is hard to come by. Could anybody give me any advice on how important and successful it was and the impact on the workers ? Political indoctrination the main point I need to know about. I'm not really very knowledgable:eek:.

Many Thanks
 
IIRC, the effects were rather more of a propagandistic nature than actually materializing. By making the spread of luxuries such as holidays (in the extreme case, maritime cruises) and cars into the middle- and working class a political aim, it helped to create acceptance of the regime, especially during the late 30s when actually few Germans were complaining. And, as these programmes were new, waiting for them to fulfiil their promises was still OK (Germans are patient).

Of course, even for the Nazis, it was impossible to maintain these promises without actual economic growth. The outbreak of the war was a good excuse to postpone all these aims until the Endsieg.

Without a war, the inherent problems would have shown rather soon:

a) the priority given to party members when it came to the goodies...
b) the costs. For example, the payment scheme for the KdF-Wagen (the later Volkswagen "Bug", yes) aimed at saving up to 995 RM. But - this was not a cost-effective prize. For real, the money was swallowed up for the war effort and very few of the cars reached customers. Without war, the price would have to rise (also for the planned 4-door-variation), destroying the promise for the working class, or the cost-difference would have to be paid by the Reich. And the Reich's finances under Hitler....you would have to search hard to find a nastier can of worms.
 
I believe the Strength thru Joy program also funded concerts and other entertainment in factories.

My understanding is that KdF was not used for active propaganda (ie the cruises or entertainment was not explicily national socialist themed), but the Nazis' no doubt expected that the program in general would increase the Party's popularity
 
There were some people who did indeed save money due to the announcement of the KdF-Wagen's (Beetle) MSRP of RM 995,--, those who bought from competitors who reduced the MSRPs for their compact cars to stay in business, e.g. Opel, GM's german division, reduced the MSRP of the Opel Kadett from RM 2.200,-- (USD 520,--) to RM 1.600,-- (USD 380,--) after the announcement of the Beetle.

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