Nazi Propaganda and the Volksgemeinschaft: Constructing a People’s Community

Abstract

This article argues that the concept of a ‘national’ or ‘people’s’ community (Volksgemeinschaft) was a key element in the ‘revolutionary’ aims of the nazi regime, and illustrates the remarkably ambitious nature of its propaganda. Propaganda presented an image of society that had successfully manufactured a ‘national community’ by transcending social and class divisiveness through a new ethnic unity based on ‘true’ German values. But was there a gap between the claims trumpeted in nazi propaganda and social reality? The intention of this article is to reappraise the effectiveness (or otherwise) of Volksgemeinschaft by analysing the response from two sections of the community — the industrial working class and German youth.