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The National Socialist People's Welfare (german: Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, NSV) was a
social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
organization during the
Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. The NSV was originally established in 1931 as a small Nazi Party-affiliated charity active locally in the city of
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. On 3 May 1933, shortly after the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
took power in
Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is als ...
,
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
turned it into a party organization that was to be active throughout the country. The structure of the NSV was based on the Nazi Party model, with local, county (''Kreis'') and district (''Gau'') administrations.


Nazi Opposition to Social Welfare

While the Nazi Party had existed since 1920, it did not initially set up its own social welfare department as several other German political parties had done. Nazi ideology was in principle unfavourable to the idea of social welfare.
Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
(2005). ''The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939''. New York City, New York: The Penguin Press. p. 483.
Writing in Mein Kampf about his time spent among the poor in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
, Hitler expressed indignation against social welfare for helping the degenerate and the feeble.
Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
(2005). ''The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939''. New York City, New York: The Penguin Press. p. 484.
The Nazis believed that the German race had to be strengthened through a process of natural selection, which required weeding out its weakest elements, so they condemned the goals of charity and philanthropy. They opposed the extensive welfare system of the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
for being wasteful, bureaucratic, and helping the wrong people, since it distributed welfare benefits indiscriminately without regard for
race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
and often assisted people that the Nazis considered inferior.


Foundation in Berlin

By the 1930s, however, the Great Depression had caused mass unemployment in Germany, and it had become politically untenable for the Nazis to write off the destitute as not worth helping. In 1931, Joseph Goebbels, the
Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a '' Gau'' or '' Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest rank in the Nazi political leadership, subordinate only to '' Reichsleiter'' and to ...
(regional Nazi Party leader) of Berlin, realized the propaganda potential of a small Nazi People's Welfare Association founded by one of the Berlin party branches, and sought to expand it.
Michael Burleigh Michael Burleigh (born 3 April 1955) is an English author and historian whose primary focus is on Nazi Germany and related subjects. He has also been active in bringing history to television. Early life Michael Burleigh was born on 3 April 1955. ...
(2000). ''The Third Reich: A New History''. New York City, New York: Hill and Wang. p. 219. .
Goebbels placed
Erich Hilgenfeldt Georg Paul Erich Hilgenfeldt (born 2 July 1897 in Heinitz/ Ottweiler; likely died in April/May 1945 in Berlin) was a high Nazi Party government official. Life Early life and education Hilgenfeldt was born on 2 July 1897 in Heinitz.Grill ''Nazi ...
in charge of this association, after Hilgenfeldt had organized a successful charity drive to celebrate
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's birthday on 20 April 1931.


Expansion of NSV and disbanding of other welfare organisations

Two years later, after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, the NSV became established as the single Nazi Party welfare organ on 3 May 1933. On 21 September in the same year, Hilgenfeldt was appointed as Reich Commissioner for the '' Winterhilfswerk'' (Winter Support Programme). Hitler directed Hilgenfeldt to "see to the disbanding of all private welfare institutions" and to "take charge of the Caritas organisation and the Inner Mission," so as to exclude Jews, non-Germans, opponents of the Nazi regime, and other "racially inferior" persons from receiving aid. Before the Nazi seizure of power, there had been seven main charitable networks in Germany: two socialist welfare organizations (one run by the
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...
and the other by the KPD), the Christian workers' welfare association, the national Jewish charitable agency, the Roman Catholic Caritas, the Protestant
Inner Mission The Inner Mission (german: Innere Mission, also translated as Home Mission) was and is a movement of German evangelists, set up by Johann Hinrich Wichern in Wittenberg in 1848 based on a model of Theodor Fliedner. It quickly spread from Germany t ...
, and the
German Red Cross The German Red Cross (german: Deutsches Rotes Kreuz ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. With 4 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services withi ...
. The Nazis disbanded the socialist and Christian workers' associations and seized their assets, restricted the activities of the Jewish agency to helping ethnic Jews, and sought to "coordinate" the remaining three agencies under the control of the NSV. The non-Nazi charities were forced to accept the principles of
eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...
and refrain from helping those deemed biologically unfit, while the German Red Cross was compelled to appoint Nazis to prominent positions. The NSV was the second largest Nazi group organization by 1935, second only to the
German Labour Front The German Labour Front (german: Deutsche Arbeitsfront, ; DAF) was the labour organisation under the Nazi Party which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. History As early as March 1933, ...
. It had 4.7 million members and 520,000 volunteer workers. Nazi Party members who were active in communal welfare professionally or as volunteers had to be NSV members.


Racially and socially restrictive criteria

The NSV restricted its assistance from the very beginning to individuals of "Aryan descent" who met a range of conditions to be deemed worthy of support, officially stating that its aim was to promote "the living, healthy forces of the German people."
Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
(2005). ''The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939''. New York City, New York: The Penguin Press. p. 489.
The list of those excluded from NSV benefits was composed of "alcoholics, tramps, homosexuals, prostitutes, the 'work-shy' or the 'asocial', habitual criminals, the hereditarily ill (a widely defined category) and members of races other than the Aryan." Within these limitations, 17 million Germans received assistance under the auspices of NSV by 1939, and the agency operated 8,000 day-nurseries, funded holiday homes for mothers, distributed additional food for large families and was involved with a wide variety of other facilities. It "projected a powerful image of caring and support" for those who were seen as full members of the German racial community, while also inspiring fear through its intrusive questioning and the threat of opening a
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
investigation on those who did not fulfill the criteria for support. Under the NSV, German social welfare and voluntary charity were thoroughly restructured to follow the racial and ideological goals of the Nazi state. The Nazi government declared that in the future, welfare and charitable aid would be granted only to individuals who were "racially superior" and could prove their value to the ''
Volksgemeinschaft ''Volksgemeinschaft'' () is a German expression meaning "people's community", "folk community", Richard Grunberger, ''A Social History of the Third Reich'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971, p. 44. "national community", or "racial community", ...
''.Martina Steber; Bernhard Gotto (2014). ''Visions of Community in Nazi Germany: Social Engineering and Private Lives''. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 93. The criteria for receiving aid were both racial and political, as individuals could be denied assistance for being Jewish and also for being Communists, Social Democrats, or other political opponents of the regime. The NSV sought to apply these principles to all areas of public and private assistance and charitable work, by extending its competence and control as broadly as possible. Thus, for example, one of the NSV branches, the Office of Institutional and Special Welfare, asserted its authority over all activities related to "travellers' aid at railway stations; relief for ex-convicts; support for re-migrants from abroad; assistance for the physically disabled, hard-of-hearing, deaf, mute, and blind; relief for the elderly, homeless and alcoholics; and the fight against illicit drugs and epidemics." Another branch, the Office of Youth Relief, which had 30,000 offices by 1941, took the job of supervising "social workers, corrective training, mediation assistance" and dealing with judicial authorities to prevent juvenile delinquency.


Activities

One of the NSV's main activities was the Winter Relief of the German People, which coordinated an annual drive to collect charity for the poor to provide them with heating and food over the winter months. Goebbels claimed that this was neither state welfare nor charity, but rather a new type of "racial self-help run by the German people for the German people."
Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
(2005). ''The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939''. New York City, New York: The Penguin Press. p. 485-487.
The Winter Relief program officially relied on voluntary donations, but in practice those donations were often collected by armed members of the Nazi Party going door to door in uniform, or by
Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
members who were keeping lists of who had or had not contributed. A law was passed in 1934 that allowed the Interior Minister and the Nazi Party Treasurer to suspend any charities that competed with the ''Winterhilfswerk''; this was used to force the other charities to limit their collection drives to the summer months. In 1939, the NSV was also involved in the distribution of soup to the citizens of Warsaw after the city's surrender. Jews were excluded from the effort, which focused on the propaganda value.


Funding

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the NSV took over more and more governmental responsibilities, especially in the fields of child and youth labor. The NSV budget routinely ran a deficit and had to be subsidized with funds from the central government, and these subsidies increased significantly just before and after the outbreak of war, more than doubling in three budgetary years from 640.4 million Reichsmarks in 1938 to 1.395 billion Reichsmarks by 1941. The Nazi government did not wish to increase taxes on German citizens to pay for the NSV's expenses, so an alternative solution was found: theft of benefits and wages from forced laborers and the populations of conquered territories. The forced labor of non-Germans and the confiscation of Jewish assets were used to provide the necessary subsidies for the NSV during the war, especially after 1941. Götz Aly (2007). ''Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State''. New York City, New York: Metropolitan Books. p. 161-164.


Disbandment

After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the
Allied Military Government The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (originally abbreviated AMGOT, later AMG) was the form of military rule administered by Allied forces during and after World War II within European territories they occupied. Notable AMGOT ...
issued a special law outlawing the Nazi Party and all of its branches. Known as Law number five, this denazification decree disbanded the NSV, like all organizations linked to the Nazi Party. New social welfare organizations were established during the
postwar reconstruction The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
of both
West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
and
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
.


See also

* National Socialist War Victim's Care * '' Winterhilfswerk''


References

{{Authority control Social welfare charities Nazi Party organizations 1933 establishments in Germany 1945 disestablishments in Germany Organizations established in 1933 Organizations disestablished in 1945