The enormous
expansion of the German high system, particularly the Reich Autobahn
system, which like the growth in automobile manufacturing came from the
Führer’s orders, looked far into the future. Both projects go along with each
other, and today hardly anyone does not cheerfully support Adolf Hitler’s work
in these areas. The Führer’s will that the entire people should benefit from
their common labors has repeatedly shown itself in recent years. It was only
natural that it was always close to Hitler’s heart that this also includes
those with limited incomes. At the automobile exhibitions during the first
years after the takeover of power, he so clearly expressed his wish for a
Volkswagen that the automobile industry had to consider it an order or a
commission. As is known, in recent years the German automobile industry was
barely able to produce enough of its own models in a reasonably timely fashion,
even when fully using all its labor, plants, and machines.
It was thus no surprise that
early in 1937 the Führer gave the leader of the German Labor Front the order to
use all the means of his organization of millions of workers, along with the NS
Community “Kraft durch Freude,” to realize his dream. As early as 1934, he had
talked with the most famous German automotive engineer Dr. Porsche about
carrying out his thinking, and given him the commission to undertake the
construction of the German Volkswagen.
Early in May 1937, Dr. Ley
carried out the Führer's commission to found the “Society for the Preparation
of the German Volkswagen.” The manufacturer Dr. Porsche, the automotive expert J.
Werlin, and the Reichsamtsleiter “Kraft durch Freude” Dr. Lafferentz
were appointed the leaders of this organization.
The three party comrades
worked hand in hand to determine the immediate tasks, and then to take up the
factories, methods, and distribution of this new car. Dr. Lafferentz was
responsible for a large part of the plan to construct a large factory to build
the Volkswagen in Fallersleben, near Braunschweig. After long efforts, the
whole plan took final form. The whole project had been organized. For years,
one had heard little about the project until the Führer’s speech at the
Automobile Exhibition in 1938 revealed the happy secret. Among other things,
Adolf Hitler said: “Over the past four years, and with continual improvements,
we have developed the Volkswagen, which we are convinced not only can be sold
at the price we want, but also can be manufactured in ways that use a minimum
of workers to produce the maximum amount. The model that has resulted from
years of work by Dr. Porsche will undergo testing this year. It will enable
millions of new customers with limited incomes to afford a car. We owe the best
cars in the world to our directors, engineers, craftsmen, workers, and
salesmen. Today, I am convinced that in a short time we will also build the
least expensive cars.”
In a small miracle, an
attractive car made of steel, powered by a 25 horsepower engine, and with
enough room for four, even five, people, underwent hard testing. In 150,000
kilometers of test drives, it proved that it could easily maintain a speed of
100 kilometers per hour on the Autobahn. The test cars performed so well
that it even astonished those who built them. Hardly any repairs were needed.
In the mountains, the Volkswagen left larger cars behind, and also handled poor
roads well. The right model had been developed. Now it was a matter of mass
producing the car so that those with limited incomes could buy it, and of
developing a means of financing it for them. One condition had already been
met: it needed only seven liters of fuel for 100 kilometers. The significance
of that figure is clear from this example: An adult pays 4 pfenning per
kilometer for normal rail travel, which means a fare of 12 marks for three
hundred kilometers, approximately the distance between Berlin and Hannover or
Berlin and Hamburg. The new Volkswagen costs only 7 times 40 pfennig times 3,
or 8.40 marks. If, for example, four workers share the fuel cost, each pays
only 2.10 marks. Each saves 9.90 marks, or 39.60 marks in all.
The new factory is being built
on a 1.5 by 2 kilometer piece of land on the Mittelland Canal. It is also near
the intersection of two of the Autobahn.The Führer laid the cornerstone
on 26 May 1938. Construction had begun several months earlier. The realization
of his dream seemed certain, and so everyone understood it when the Führer
recognized the achievements of the German free time organization by naming the
car in his speech the “KdF Wagen,” a people’s car in the truest sense of the
word. A storm of applause erupted as Adolf Hitler took a seat in a test car.
The son of the designer took his seat behind the wheel and drove the Führer
through the enthusiastic crowd of people.
Next to the factory, a modern
city is springing up, which will initially have population of 30,000, rising
eventually to 60,000. The core population will be workers and managers at the
KdF car factory. This city, which will the Führer will later give its final
name, will be a National Socialist model city. The city planning takes account
of modern city construction, and also of Reich planning. From its beginning, it
is a model of the desires of the German Labor Front and above all the NS
Community “Kraft durch Freude.”
It is laid out so that workers
have a short trip from their homes to the factory. It will also include every
possible opportunity for recreation: swimming pools, showers, new cafeterias,
Beauty of Labor, sports facilities, walking paths, educational facilities,
theaters — for the first time, everything will be incorporated in both factory
and city. And the workers, who will themselves be able to buy a Volkswagen,
will explore the beautiful, forested, and hilly region that surrounds their
model city
At present, 4,000 people are
building the factory. Given the shortage of labor in Germany, 2,500 of them are
Italian. They have quickly adjusted to the new conditions and win praise from
all sides for their work. The number of workers will rise to 6,000. The workers
are housed in barracks belonging to the Reich Labor Service. Married men receive
a bonus of 1 mark per day. The food is excellent, and costs 1.16 mark per day.
The men get .16 mark a day back when they leave, so that practically all their
pay, or at least most of it, is available to their families. Housing, of
course, is free, as is entrance to the community building, which can hold about
5,000 people. In this large room, there are daily movie, theater, and
entertainment offerings.
In October 1938, Dr. Ley
honored the president of the Italian Federation of Industry, who was visiting
his countrymen in Germany, by naming the large community hall the “Ciantetti
Hall Kraft durch Freude.”
The KdF Wagen factory is being
built in stages. Production began late in the summer of 1938. By the beginning
of the last quarter of 1938, 150,000 people had already ordered the car and are
waiting eagerly for delivery. They will begin receiving their cars early in
1940. After the first stage of construction is completed, two shifts will build
450,000 cars a year. That will rise to 1,350,000 KdF cars a year when the third
stage is completed. Even in its first stage, the factory exceeds anything seen
before in Europe. When its third stage is finished, it will significantly
surpass Ford as the largest car manufacturing plant in the world.
One thing about the project is
entirely new: for the first time, a quality car will sell for under one
thousand marks, and that almost everyone will be able to afford it. The entire
world listened when it was announced that one could purchase the new car, and
insurance, for 5 marks a week. In this world still ruled by liberal mercantile
thinking, people did not notice that many will not be in a position to purchase
the KdF car immediately will still be given preference through the installment
payment system.
At the beginning, it cannot be
avoided that “rapid savers,” those people’s comrades who can pay more than 5
marks a week, will receive their cars first to ensure smooth deliveries.
However, as soon as those saving 5 marks a week have paid the full price, they
will immediately receive their cars, and those “rapid savers” who begin later
will have to wait.
Transportation is a measure of
a rising standard of living. Long ago, many people could not afford railway
tickets. Today, rail travel is something everyone can afford, just as they can
afford streetcars and busses. Not long ago, millions with low pay could not
afford the high price of a bicycle. Later, even a low-paid worker could afford
a good bicycle.
Millions of people in Germany
still see a car as something only the rich can afford. Cars are no longer the
privilege of a particular class, or of well-paid people, as is proven by the
large number of vehicles in Germany today, above all those added since 1933.
Time moves quickly. But never
have things happened so quickly as in National Socialist Germany. In
Fallersleben, a huge factory is being built. In less than six months, a million
cubic meters of soil have been moved, and each day 500 tons of cement must be
delivered by a pipe system to the proper place. We are at the start of a new
era. In a few years, hundreds of thousands of workers and lower-level employees
will own their own car, and in the foreseeable future millions of KdF cars will
travel the best roads in the world, evidence of the accomplishments of a new
Germany.
Hundreds of thousands of
people’s comrades, above all those who live in big cities and in drab
industrial areas and who lead a joyless, colorless life, will now be able to
reach the beauties of nature on weekends or after work with their families.
They will find pleasure and relaxation. They will feel more like free and
independent people. To own a car means to live twice as much!
Following the will of the
Führer, the German Labor Front and our NS Community “Kraft durch Freude” are
accomplishing something only possible in Hitler’s Germany. It could never have
happened without the work of all laboring people, organized in “Kraft durch
Freude” reaching down to the last factory and to the last city block.
No comments:
Post a Comment