Life for workers in Nazi Germany

In Nazi Germany, workers’ rights were significantly eroded with the abolition of labour unions in 1933.
Nazi labour organisation, the German Labour Front (DAF), replaced all unions, but it existed to uphold the interests of the Nazi Party, not the workers.
Strikes were outlawed and workers couldn’t negotiate for better wages or working conditions.
Many worksites were strictly controlled, with ‘Labour Booklets’ introduced for workers, documenting their work history and performance, making it hard to change occupations.
The “Beauty of Labour” campaign sought to improve the living and working conditions of workers, but it often failed to have any meaningful effect.

The Nazis pursued policies to tackle unemployment, notably through the Four Year Plan and Autarky, aimed at preparing Germany for war.
The public works schemes, such as building autobahns and houses, reduced unemployment levels drastically.
The conscription of men into the army also helped reduce the unemployment rate.
Services like the Kraft durch Freude (KdF) or Strength through Joy offered workers leisure activities and holidays. However, these services were often not as beneficial as they appeared, with leisure activities tightly controlled and propagandistic.
The introduction of the Volkswagen, a car that workers could save up for, was another part of Nazi effort to win workers’ loyalties but the onset of the war meant that they were never delivered.

Nazi ideology saw a woman’s place as being in the home, creating an idealistic image of a housewife and mother as the “Aryan woman”.
While in power, the Nazis enacted a policy of encouraging women out of the workplace, offering incentives for them to stay at home and have children.
The Lebensborn programme encouraged Aryan women to produce racially pure offspring swiftly.
Despite this, due to the war, many women were required to join the workforce, contradicting the Nazis’ policies of encouraging women out of work.