[Boatanchors] WW II German Volks empfanger

[William L Howard]

For those who collect old radios especially WW II German radios, this
pertains to the many "Volksemfangers" that appear from time to time.
Bill Howard

Thursday, June 23, 2005 5:12 AM
To: H-GERMAN at H-NET.MSU.EDU
Subject:      Fraunholz on Koenig, _Volkswagen, Volksempfaenger,
Volksgemeinschaft_

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-German at h-net.msu.edu (June, 2005)

Wolfgang König. _Volkswagen, Volksempfänger, Volksgemeinschaft:
"Volksprodukte" im Dritten Reich: Vom Scheitern einer
nationalsozialistischen Konsumgesellschaft_. Paderborn: Ferdinand
Schöningh Verlag, 2004. 310 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, index. EUR
36.00 (cloth), ISBN 3-506-71733-2.

Reviewed for H-German by Uwe Fraunholz, Institute for the History of
Technology and Engineering Sciences, Technische Universität Dresden

Propaganda and Illusion

In his study of so-called "people's products" in the Third Reich,
historian
of technology Wolfgang König impressively deconstructs die-hard myths
concerning pretended mass consumption under Nazi rule.  "People's
products" were defined as inexpensive goods and services of high quality
for the broad masses.  Presenting, for the first time, a consistent
history
of these products, which were initiated by NS politics and jointly
produced
by industry or party- and state-owned companies, König does pioneering
work. He not only covers technical consumer durables like radio
receivers,
television sets, refrigerators, and motorcars, but includes social
housing
construction and mass tourism as well.  The stated purpose of the book
is to evaluate the function of "people's products" in the context of
national
socialist policy.  The author understands the promotion of these goods
as
an attempt to establish a particular Nazi version of consumer society.
But
the effort was complicated by conflicting goals:  armament and an
orientation
towards autarchy actually limited the possibilities for consumption.
Since it
proved impossible to advance both massive armament and mass consumption,
the vision of a consuming _Volksgemeinschaft_ could not be realized.

In addition to drawing material from several archives, König relies
extensively on the discussion in party and trade journals.  Thus, his
well-researched study is distinguished by an impressive command of
different sources.  But, above all, König's argumentation really makes
sense:  he succeeds in convincing the reader of his interpretation of
Nazi politics of consumption as "propagandistischer Fremdbetrug und
illusionistischer Selbstbetrug" (p. 260).  The conception of "people's
products" had been established long before the 1930s, and was adapted
by the Nazi government to the ideology of _Volksgemeinschaft_,
_Lebensraum_, and autarchy.  Its main proponents were the ministry
of propaganda and the German Labour Front, institutions that represented
the different goals of the conception:  on the one hand, "people's
products"
were designed to win the German people for the regime.  On the other
hand, they had to secure an appropriate standard of living for the
_Volk_.
Industry partly co-operated in production and marketing of "people's
products" to avoid a loss of control in the consumer goods market.
However, in several cases the low prices and large series prescribed
by politics threatened central business goals.  According to König,
the Nazis tried to realize their version of consumer society not by
augmenting incomes but by promoting extreme production efficiency.
As the author underlines, the strategy was unsuccessful because
main obstacles to the diffusion of consumer goods were not the
acquisition
costs but the running costs.  Taking this failed approach into account,
König understands the Nazi misconception of "people's products" as
a combination of propaganda and illusion.

The book's concise introduction gives an overview of the goals,
organization and sources of the study.  Unfortunately, important
secondary literature is only named, but not discussed.  The
framework of consumption under national socialist rule is analyzed
in the second chapter, which could be identified as a weaker part of
the work.  At first König deals with ideology and politics of National
Socialism and clarifies how the Nazis conceptualized
_Volksgemeinschaft_ as a community of consumption.  It would have
been useful for König to make more balanced use of the rich
secondary literature on National Socialist ideology.  After that, König
briefly explores the development of purchasing power in Germany
and refers to a slightly positive tendency until 1939, which was
exceeded in the United Kingdom and the United States.  He does
not mention new approaches that have explored the negative effects
of autarchic politics on the standard of living, as early as the 1930s,
by emphasizing alternative indicators.[1]  Altogether, one could
imagine a more comprehensive analysis of the framework of
consumption, but brevity in this part of the study might be caused
by the fact that König has already done this job in another book.[2]

The following six case studies of important "people's products" are
accurately researched and fluently written.  Much of the space is
dedicated to the _Volksempfänger_, since radio receivers, in fact,
were produced in quantities worth mentioning.  At first glance the
enhancement looks impressive:  whereas in 1933 only 25 percent
of German households had radio receivers at their disposal, this
number increased to almost 75 percent in 1941.  But an international
comparison reveals that this increase was not such a great success:
Denmark and Sweden had substantially higher rates of radio
ownership, and Norway and France achieved higher growth rates with
less investment.  Moreover, the sale of name-brand receivers was
undermined by the _Volksempfänger_.  Firms participating in the
project made only small profits and some faced bankruptcy.  In spite
of the low prices for collaboratively produced receivers, private radio
ownership still was a middle-class phenomenon in the 1930s.
König reveals that the main hindrance to wider diffusion were the high
broadcasting fees that financed the ministry of propaganda.
Nevertheless, the _Volksempfänger_ and its little brother, the _Deutsche
Kleinempfänger_ were proclaimed to be "Flaggschiffe im Verband der
politischen Gemeinschaftsgeräte" (p. 70), since they were dedicated
to transforming Germany into a "gigantisches Parteitagsgelände"
(p. 94).  Such effectiveness was not expected in case of the
"Einheits-Fernseher E-1" (pp. 100-114), so that the honorable
epithet "Volk-" was not used to denote the television set.  Daily
television broadcasting started in 1936 on the occasion of the
Olympic Games; reception took place in public television rooms.
Prototypes of devices for the home viewer were presented in 1939,
but prohibitively high initial costs and World War II impeded any
appreciable diffusion.

Even in social housing construction, Nazi politics built on traditions
of the Weimar Republic, but in the first instance reduced public
support.  In this case study the author particularly explains the
inconsistencies of ideological input and impossible realization. The
labor ministry preferred the rationalized construction of small
apartments, but this housing policy clashed with the national
socialist ideal of rural settlement, which was promoted especially
by the German Labor Front.  Austere furnishing and smallness of
the planned flats aroused the indignation of Goebbels, the "Hüter
der nationalsozialistischen Volksprodukte" (p. 117).  Since small
dwellings lacked the requirements for the national socialist ideal
of a family with four or more children, grand scale
"Führerwohnungen" were planned during the war years.  Actually,
housing construction had to be postponed and the left-over shells
ended up as shanty-towns.  "Volkswohnungen" were meant to be
equipped with a "Volkskühlschrank."  Unlike the United States,
diffusion of refrigerators was in its early stages in Europe in the
1930s.
Not more than one percent of German households were furnished
with iceboxes in 1939. Scientists and industry took the initiative in
development of the people's fridge and the project harmonized
effectively with the campaign "Kampf dem Verderb" which was
started as part of the "Vierjahresplan" in order to achieve autarchy.

The _Volkswagen_, however, was the people's product most related
to the person of Hitler.  In speeches regularly given at the Berlin
automobile exhibitions, Hitler usurped the project and announced in
February, 1933, as one of the first administrative measures of his
regime, a tax exemption for new car licenses. Motorways became
"pyramids of the Third Reich" and the tripling of automobiles between
1933 and 1939 looked like a breakthrough towards mass motorization.
An economic boom was emerging as early as 1932, as König
underlines.  The idea of a people's car had been popular in Germany
since the _Kaiserreich_ but increases in motorization remained small.
Plans for the _Volkswagen_, which had belonged to the competence
of the German Labor Front since 1937, included a small three-wheeler
for a while.  Changes in planning were not followed by a necessary
adjustment of prices.  As a result, it would have been impossible to
produce the complete vehicle for the price proposed by the regime:
990 RM.  Mass motorization, even at this low price, was hardly a
practical scheme, since the monthly running costs of about 70 RM
were only reasonable for the middle classes.  Megalomaniac
production plans for 1.5 million units annually was contrasted with the
rather small number of 340,000 customer orders between 1938 and 1945.
Autarchy projects financed by high petroleum taxes undermined mass
motorization.  Whereas the civilian version of the Volkswagen only
existed as a prototype, it was declared fit for military service.  In
contrast, publicity frequently presented the "Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagen"
as a means to foster tourism. However, Nazi promotion of tourism
initially
concentrated on all expense tours and group excursions in order to put
travelling _Volksgemeinschaft_ on stage. Even the mental barriers of
laborers were opposed to classless cruises.  Because journeys were
financed by membership fees of "Kraft durch Freude," the typical
dominance of the middle-class meant redistribution at the expense
of the lower classes.

In three concluding chapters König applies the findings of the case
studies to systematic questions and controversies about the Third
Reich.  A presentation of results organized in this way underlines the
analytic attitude of the study, but involves some redundancies.
Nevertheless the reader surely will profit from König's well-balanced
conclusions.  Reactions of private industry to "people's products"
hold the spotlight. König emphasizes the primacy of politics in the
command economy without neglecting the fact that companies had
wide latitude to act.  On the one hand, the consumer goods industry
faced competitive pressure from inexpensive "people's products" and
the prize freeze imposed in 1936: private enterprises lost substantial
market shares.  Highly subsidized large-scale enterprises, owned by
the state, substituted when prescribed prices could not be realized
by private industry.  On the other hand, some companies tried to
benefit from the popularity of "people's products":  they marketed
goods under this respected label against politicians' intentions.
Subsequently, the author stresses the polycratic nature of National
Socialism by depicting disputes among national and party officials
concerning "people's products". In alternating constellations,
several ministries and the German Labor Front fought each other,
each claiming to preserve the National Socialist utopia.  In the
end Goebbels won controlled access to the label _Volksprodukt_
via the Werberat der deutschen Wirtschaft, which inspected
quality and price standards.

Finally, König examines critically the rational elements of NS politics.
Because of failed strategies to spread "people's products", the
doubtfully
"rational" qualities of rationalization, and megalomaniac production
plans,
the author rejects interpretations that locate instrumental rationality
in
National Socialist economic policy.[3]  Although small successes in
symbolic fields like radio broadcasting and tourism were credited to
the regime, the desire for consumption aroused by NS propaganda
had destabilizing effects as its realization was impossible.
Additionally,
König rejects theses concerning the supposed dominion of technocrats
in the Third Reich.  Rather, he suggests, technophile promoters of
"people's products" interpreted technology as a means to reading their
ends. Inconvenient expert advice was refused in a virtually religious
manner.  The declared goal of consumption policy was a racially-defined
approach to consumer society.  Its realization required enlarged
_Lebensraum_ to be achieved by winning a war of aggression.

To the ongoing and intense discussion about the modernizing effects
of National Socialist economic policy, which has been dominated by
the definitive comments of Hans Mommsen, König contributes in a
restrained fashion.[4]  His way out of this morass is to declare the
whole concept of modernization unsuitable as an explanation for Nazi
politics of consumption.  In my opinion, however, the older literature
reveals that the concept has its heuristic value if released from
normative implications.[5]  Compatible with König's findings would be
an interpretation that accepts modernization on the mental level as an
unintended side-effect of Nazi politics of consumption.  Desires for
consumption aroused in the 1930s were actualized in post-war society.
Under National Socialist rule, Germans mentally prepared for mass
tourism and mass motorization.  This modernization was symbolized
later on by the Volkswagen Beetle.  Despite these marginal differences
of opinion, however, the reader must admit that Wolfgang König has
written a state-of-the-art book that sets important standards for future
research in national socialist politics of consumption.  Furthermore,
the study makes accessible numerous primary sources.  Since
König mainly concentrates on the social, economic and political
history of "people's products", numerous areas of research remain,
especially for investigators who focus on the cultural aspects of
consumption under Nazi rule.

Notes

[1].  Jörg Baten and Andrea Wagner, "Autarky, Market Disintegration,
and Health: The Mortality and Nutritional Crisis in Nazi Germany
1933-37," _Economics and Human Biology_ 1 (2003), pp. 1-28.

[2].  Wolfgang König, _Geschichte der Konsumgesellschaft_
(Stuttgart:  Steiner, 2000).

[3].  For example: Götz Aly, _Hitlers Volksstaat: Raub,
Rassenkrieg und nationaler Sozialismus_ (Frankfurt:  S. Fischer
Verlag, 2005).

[4].  Hans Mommsen, _Der Mythos von der Modernität.  Zur Entwicklung
der Rüstungsindustrie im Dritten Reich_ (Essen:  Klartext, 1999).

[5].  Horst Matzerath and Heinrich Volkmann, "Modernisierungstheorie
und Nationalsozialismus," in _Theorien in der Praxis des Historikers_,
ed. Jürgen Kocka (Göttingen:  Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977), pp. 86-116.



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