862.00 P.R./148
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 14.]
Sir:
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3. Reorganization of the Labor Front. After the forcible seizure of the German trade unions by the Nazis, in May, it was not clear whether these unions would remain component parts of the German Labor Front. It now appears that these organizations, which at present comprise the Labor Front, are eventually to be dissolved and the Front is to consist of individual members only, employers as well as employees.
With this end in view, Dr. Ley, the head of the Labor Front, has issued an order prohibiting the admission of new members into the various organizations which were taken over by the Labor Front. Hereafter all new members are to be enrolled in the Labor Front direct. Thus, until the individual organizations are eventually dissolved, the Labor Front will consist of three kinds of membership: those belonging to the trade unions taken over by the Nazis; those belonging to organizations like the Chamber of Culture (see despatch No. 308 of December 478 transmitted in this pouch) which has now become a part of the Labor Front; and those who will be enrolled direct.
In anticipation of the final reorganization of the Labor Front, a drive has been launched through the Nazi Cells Organizations (the political groups of the National Socialist Party in shops and factories) for the enrollment of individual members in the Labor Front. While membership in the Labor Front is not obligatory, there can be little doubt that few individual workmen and employees will have the courage to stay out. In keeping with Nazi principles, Jews are of course barred from membership.
An appeal to all industrial employers to join the Labor Front was issued by Herr Krupp von Bohlen in his capacity as leader of the Reich “estate” of industry. (It appears to be the purpose of the National Socialist Party to separate the commercial, professional and other groups throughout the nation into so-called “estates.”) It is of interest that the Association of German Employers promptly responded to this appeal by dissolving itself. It is expected that 30 million wage and salary earners together with thousands of industrial employers will eventually be enrolled in the Labor Front. By putting the employers [Page 285] and employees into one organization, the Nazis have definitely done away with collective bargaining in industry.
Further details of the Government’s plans to organize the leisure hours of the German workers (see despatch No. 287 of November 24, 193379) have now been made known. “Naeh der Arbeit,” the name first proposed for this movement, has been dropped; it will hereafter be known officially as “Kraft durch Freude” (Strength through Happiness). At the first meeting of the new organization, Dr. Goebbels said that a “totalitarian” State, which was really bound up and identical with the people, could not leave the people to itself but must organize its leisure as well as its working hours. Dr. Ley declared on this occasion that not those who had money and property had a claim to the enjoyment of German culture, but only he who had an inward need for it, regardless of whether or not fate had endowed him with earthly possessions.
The centers of the “Kraft durch Freude” movement will be the Houses of Labor in every community, which will remain open to all who work “whether with hand or brain.” The recently constituted Chamber of Culture will look after the entertainment. There will be, in addition, a travel department, a vocational department, as well as several other departments for the recreation and training of the German workers. The physical training department will doubtless afford opportunity to drill the workers in the various kinds of Wehrsport which plays such an important part in the training of the S.A. and the German school children. As the Department is doubtless aware, this includes marching in military formation, field scouting, hiking with heavy knapsacks, the throwing of imitation hand grenades, and other forms of military training.
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Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy