What was the Strength Through Joy organization?

Answer 1

Strength through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) was a state-controlled, all-embracing recreational leisure organization in Germany's Third Reich, a part of the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront), the only union allowed. Set up in 1933 as a tool to promote the advantages of National Socialism (the Nazi Party), it was the largest of the many organizations established by the Nazis with some 25 million members, and became the world's largest tourism operator of the 1930s. Its self-declared goal was to create 'a National Socialist Volksgemeinschaft (people's community) and the perfection and refinement of the German people' by organizing thoroughly structured recreational programs, to create and mold a controllable work force and eliminate individualism. KdF events were directed to the working class, to bridge the class divide by making middle-class leisure activities available to the masses, and to provide organized 'relaxation for the collection of strength for more work.' One aspect of the KdF was the right to vacation and paid holidays, a concept unique to the period in nearly all nations of the world. KdF provided affordable leisure activities such as cultural activities, concerts, libraries, day trips, cruises, and holidays. All private clubs, whether for woodworking, Chess, or football, were brought under KdF control and, in turn, the Nazi Party. KdF also subsidized the development of an affordable car, the Kdf-Wagen, (later known as the Volkswagen Beetle). Buyers made payments and posted stamps in a savings book, which when full would be redeemed for the car; because of the shift to wartime production, no consumer ever received a Kdf-Wagen. The movement more or less collapsed in 1939 with the outbreak of WWII.