Robert LeyNovember 1933
As a means of preventing labour disaffection, the DAF established Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude, KdF), to provide a range of benefits and amenities to the German working class and their families.
Germany · Politics / NSDAP. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
As a means of preventing labour disaffection, the DAF established Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude, KdF), to provide a range of benefits and amenities to the German working class and their families.
Some of the world's first purpose built cruise-liners, the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Robert Ley, were built to take KdF members on Mediterranean cruises.
These included subsidised holidays both at resorts across Germany and in "safe" countries abroad (particularly Italy).
Appointed Head of the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF)
Formed after all independent German labour unions were made illegal in May 1933
The DAF take over the existing Nazi trade union formation, the National Socialist Factory Cell Organisation (Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation, NSBO) as well as the main trade union federation
The DAF, the German Labour Front, is the amalgamation of all German unions into one Reich union
There was no wage bargaining, no industrial action or strikes and no protests. Established "for the good of the fatherland"
The DAF became little more than an arm of the state for the more efficient deployment and disciplining of labour to serve the needs of the regime, particularly its massive expansion of the arms industry
Now working for the DAF, Porsche built a new Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben, at a huge cost which was partly met by raiding the DAF's accumulated assets and misappropriating the dues paid by DAF members.
The DAF and KdF's most ambitious program was the "people's car," the Volkswagen, originally a project undertaken at Hitler's request by the car-maker Ferdinand Porsche.
The Volkswagen was sold to German workers on an installment plan, and the first models appeared in February 1939
The party, he said, had taken over where private industry had failed, because of the "short-sightedness, malevolence, profiteering and stupidity" of the business class.
When the German car industry was unable to meet Hitler's demand that the Volkswagen be sold at 1,000 Reichsmarks or less, the project was taken over by the DAF. This brought Ley's old socialist tendencies back into prominence.
Working for the DAF, Porsche built a new Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben, at a huge cost partly met by raiding the DAF's accumulated assets and misappropriating the dues paid by DAF members
This factsheet is generated from stored World History Database records matching the country, broad category, detailed category and exact Event value shown above. Duplicate display records are collapsed; database wording is otherwise preserved. Source provenance varies by record, so formal academic citation should be checked against the relevant primary source, archive or specialist historical reference.