The Weimar Government had faced opposition from the Trade Unions in its day, and Hitler wanted more than anything to crush any possibility of opposition to his own Nazi rule, including the people. The German Labour Front was formed May 10th 1933 as a result of the reform of the Independent Trade Unions and immediately took over the function of organizing workers in Germany to create, in the words of its leader Dr. Robert Ley, a "social and productive society". In theory, the DAF was a medium through which workers and employers could represent their individual interests, similar to Trade Unions. While the regime did provide stability and work, it effectively did opposite to this theory: instead of giving workers a voice, it took any chance of a voice away. Strikes were outlawed, as were protests and industrial action. If a worker wished to leave a job, he had to get permission from the government and the consent of the previous employer to do so, and only government labour exchanges could secure him with a new job. Each worker was expected to work 72 hours a week, despite real wages dropping by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938 mainly due to a pay freeze introduced in 1933 and compulsory deductions made for income tax, and for the “Strength through Joy” programme. Employers were restricted too: companies could not use certain types of machinery that did the work men were capable of doing, work contracts were more likely given to those companies that relied on manual labour rather than machines, and they could not sack workers on the spot.
In spite of all this, the Germany workers viewed the GLF as a success and a great improvement on the Trade Unions of Weimar (and those who didn't were silenced). This support of the regime, demonstrated by its 22 million members by 1939, is understandable when the benefits of the GLF are taken into account: the employees were given relatively high set wages, security of work, dismissal was increasingly made difficult, social security and leisure programmes were started and canteens, pauses and regular working times were established. Generally, most German workers were satisfied with these modest rewards for their absolute loyalty and obedience.
One of the key rewards given to the workers by the GLF was the 'Strength Through Joy' programme, or the KdF (short for “Kraft durch Freud”). It was basically a state-controlled tourist operator concerned with the organization of leisure of the population, in accordance with ideology of the Nazi regime. This allowed Hitler the absolute control he wanted over every aspect of the lives of the German people.
Ley and the KdF worked out that each worker had 3,740 hours per year free for pursuing leisure activities - which the state would provide. The activities provided by the state were carefully and systematically recorded, and were all 'pure' events or, in other words, events that Hitler deemed to be suitable in his new Germany, such as theatre performances, cruises, hikes and sports events (physical activity was heavily encouraged for all German citizens).
Cheap holidays and the offer of them was an ideal way to win the support of the average worker, especially one whose hours have risen and whose pay has fallen. A cruise to the Canary Islands cost 62 marks. Walking and skiing holidays in the Bavarian Alps cost 28 marks. A two-week tour of Italy cost 155 marks. The affordability took a little of the string out of the wage cuts, as, although the workers knew they were being paid less, there was a 'light at the end of the tunnel', so to speak – or at least one that lasted for 3,740 hours.
The low prices also facilitated Hitler's other aim: to bridge the class divide by making middle-class leisure activities available to the masses. This was underscored by having cruises with passengers of mixed classes and having them, regardless of social status, draw lots for allocation of cabins. Another less ideological goal was to boost the German economy by stimulating the tourist industry out of its slump from the 1920s, which it did right up until the start of WWII, although by this time Hitler had reached this ultimate goal of war and was not interested in the German people doing anything other than assisting the war effort.
Right from the get-go, Hitler had this ultimate goal in mind. Just a month after he was elected, Hitler spoke of "conquest for Lebensraum in the East" as his central objective. At the first meeting of his Cabinet in 1933, Hitler prioritised military spending over unemployment relief. The following years would prove his devotion to this decision: In 1936, military spending in Germany exceeded 10% of GNP, higher than any other European country at the time. Military investment also exceeded civilian investment from 1936 onwards.
Although Hitler is credited with beginning the re-armament of Germany, Hermann Müller, Chancellor of the late Weimar Republic, passed cabinet laws that allowed secret and illegal re-armament efforts. However, it was only after the Nazi takeover of power that re-armament became the topmost priority of the German government. During Hitler's rule, the German people would be witness to one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement that had ever occurred in Germany.
The two main men behind the German rearmament policies were Schacht and Third Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, one of the most influential Nazi figures of the time. Schacht introduced the 'New Plan', Germany's attempt to achieve economic "autarky", in September 1934.Germany relied on overseas trade for vital raw materials and food supplies. Part of the reason Germany had lost the Great War was its inability to maintain these supplies, thus making self-sufficiency of great importance to Hitler. By negotiating trade agreements under which Germany would pay in Reichmarks for imports, Schacht allowed the government to deal with the budget deficit without it worsening. Mefo bills, a series of credit notes issued by the Nazi government, were also the brainchild of Schacht. Hitler realised that re-arming Germany would require funds that were not likely to be generated from taxes or public loans, plus the programme must remain secret; thus, Schacht created MEFO. MEFO was one of several dummy companies set-up to finance the re-armament, and enabled the government to obtain large loans from the Reichsbank despite such action being illegal.
However, in 1936, the German balance of payments went strongly negative. The decline in value of exports, increase of value in imports and the unavailability of foreign currency put Hitler in a difficult position: either stay with Schacht and reduce military spending and the level of involvement of the state in the economy, or side with Goering and his autarkic policies and increased military spending. Hitler chose the latter and Schacht, who had done so much for Hitler's government, resigned and was replaced by Hermann Goering. Unlike Schacht, Goering has no reservations about rapid rearmament He became Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan for German rearmament, where he effectively took control of the economy — Hitler wanted a self-sufficient Germany to be ready for war in four years, and Goering was the man to give it to him. He slashed imports, demanded the control of wages and prices lest the culprit go to a concentration camp, and declared the construction of synthetic rubber plants, steel plants and automatic textile factories.
With Goering at his side, Hitler announced that Germany would have the world's “first army” in terms of fighting power within four years and that "the extent of the military development of our resources cannot be too large, nor its pace too swift.” and the role of the economy was simply to support "Germany's self-assertion and the extension of her Lebensraum.”
But what did this rapid re-armament mean for the German people? With compulsory military conscription, all German men from the ages of 18 to 25 were called up for 2 years of military service, and those men too young, too old or unfit worked in the newly-stimulated industries that thrive in wartime. Between 1933 and 1936, employment in construction rose from only 666,000 to over 2,000,000, and factories encouraged by Goering or needed by the armed forced expanded enormously, creating new branches of production to cater for the new demand on services. And Hitler's ideal of a stay-at-home German housewife was all the more easy to achieve when war was on the horizon. It seemed that Hitler's plans for a war-ready Germany were advancing on schedule, and the Allies and the German people, were doing nothing to stop him.
There is no debate as to whether Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history. But whether this was to the detriment of the German people whose love (or at least obedience) he had so carefully cultivated is a different question. From within Germany, the most people were unable to see the bigger picture – they saw their friends and family going to work, they heard their Fuhrer proclaim how glorious and prosperous Germany was now, they felt secure and stable for once in a long time. Hitler himself was blinded by his own propaganda, in a sense. Everything would be fine once Germany was at war and could claim back what was rightfully hers. But what he ignored, and what the public weren't told, was that the government were in a lot of trouble finance-wise. Government income had been 10 billion Reichsmarks in 1928. In 1939, it stood at 15 billion. However, government spending had increased from 12 billion Reichsmarks in 1928 to over 30 billion in 1939 - a difference of 15 billion Reichsmarks. From 1933 to 1939, the Nazi government always spent more than it earned so that by 1939, government debt stood at over 40 billion Reichsmarks. So, despite the glittering unemployment statistics and celebrations of a New Germany, nothing was dramatically better: real wages were still the same as they were in 1928, living standards had been slashed by a quarter, men were working longer and harder and women weren't supposed to be working at all. The Allies were getting defensive, nobody got the cars they paid for, exports were losing value while imports were gaining. And Germany was about to not only enter, but start and lose, the biggest and most devastating war the world had ever seen.
The bigger picture was certainly a lot less attractive.