Figure 1.--German workers were not well housed before World War I, but the situation was made worse by the SDP rent control policies. This severly reduced the construction of new units. The NAZIs as part of their Volksgemeinschaft (national community) philosophy launched several poorly funded efforts, but had little impact on thhe shortage. The NAZI Volksgemeinschaft efforts faced a major problem. The wages of German workers meant that the workers could not afford even subsidized housing. The workers' living standards could only be improved by decent wages. And this was something Hitler adametly refused to address as increasing wages would have meant reducing the funds allocated for rearmament. All that was left was propaganda. The French-language propaganda reads, "The beginning of a new condition of life for the German worker: for millions of workers National Socialism created healthy and sunny homes." The symbol on the caption is theNationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt/People's Welfare Organization (NSV). Click on the image for an enlargement.
Housing as one historian explains it was at the heart of Volksgemeinschaft (national community) that the NAZIs aspired to create. Popular items like the Volksempfänger (Peopple's Radio) and Volkswagen (People's Car) were popular, but discretionary items. Housing was a necesity. The poor state of worker housing and the rise of the Socilaist (SDP) as Germany's major party meant that the issue began to become highly politicized. German workers were not well-housed before World War I. American history text books give students the misleading idea that American workers lived in crowded hovels. Hosing did not meet 21st century standards, but American workers were not only the best fed and clothed workers in the world, but they were the best housed. German workers endured houseing that was far below American standards. An increasingly severe housing shortage developed during the inter-War era. German politicans claimed that there was a housing shortage of 1-2 million apartment units. This shortage developed because of expanding regulation promulgated by the SDP after World War I--most importantly rent control regulation. This began in a major way with the Hyper Inflation (1922-23) and was intended to prevet mass evictions. Rent control became an important element of the SDP Weimar welfare state. Rents were set at pre-War levels and given the substantial price increases during and after the War, constructin of new units ceased. The rent controls meant that buiding apartments was a money losing proposition. Weimar authorities attempted to subsidize consruction, but even with the subsidies, builders could not produce units that workers could afford. And many workers who had apartments were living in crowded, sub-standard units. The Depression made a bad system worse. Unemployed workers could not even afford rent-controlled rents. And the Government with its revenue falling could not aford to continue massive subsidies for new construction. There are reports of fmilies living in attics and basements and squarter camps. There were no German Oakies--German workers did not have cars or California where they could look for jobs. This was the sitution when Hitler and the NAZIs seized power. Hitler ended direct subsidies for hosing. Hitler's priority for available funds was remilitarization, not building apartments. The housing crisis could not be ignored, although the deflation that came with the Depression helped somewhat. NAZI housing policy was basically to shift back to the private sector. The NAZIs did come up with an ideological program, although it was not well funded. It was a settlement effort began before Hitler seized power. It was an effort at population resistribution to small towns. Names like Hitlerburg and Göringen were invisioned. And the program included a back to the land narative. Not only was little money allocated, but few people we intersted in moving to areas with shoddy construction and few ammenities. The DAF came up wih its own housing program -- Volkswohnungen (Pople's Apartments). The units projected were so small, however, that Goebbels refused to use then in his propaganda. The NAZI Volksgemeinschaft efforts like the housing efforts faced a major problem. The wages of German workers meant that they could not afford even subsidized housing. The workers' living standards could only be improved by decent wages. [Tootze, pp. 157-161.] And this was something Hitler adametly refused to address as increasing wages would have meant reduceing the funds allocated for rearmament. And higher wages would have increased the cost of the weapons and equipment that needed to be purcased. NAZI propaganda trumpeted the small-scale projects launched, but like the Volkswagen, very few German workers actually got new apartments or homes.
Sources
Tooze, Adam. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of th Nazi Economy (Penguin Group: New York, 2007), 800p.
