Social Welfare in Germany

by Werner Reher

Berlin, 1938

„In the welfare services, just as in every other branch of national activity, our most important and at the same time most difficult task, is to re-educate the People in their attitude towards life. They must be brought to realize the truth that human beings have been sent into this world not to suffer but to struggle. God has placed them here to flourish and bear fruit, just as the tree does. Through pain and adversity, they must grow in strength. The fir tree that grows on the mountain has to struggle hard for its life. It must hold out against wind and storm. And the effect of the wind and storm is that the trunk of the tree gradually thickens layer by layer on the side that is assailed, until the little mountain fir can stand erect against the elements. We see the same thing happening in the history of nations. Periods of adversity which befall the nations and which the nations must overcome help to develop their strength. But everything that endures through periods of adversity represents the result of a selection from among the People, a result of the same process of selection that we see everywhere in life. Everything that lives has to go through a period of trial and will be cast aside if it is weak.“

- Hilgenfeldt

In all civilized countries there are organizations for social assistance which owe their origin and maintenance to private initiative. Some of these operate under the aegis of religious denominations and others are carried on by lay associations which have been established to meet some definite social need. The idea which inspires all these springs from the Christian principle of love for the neighbour, the idea of doing good to others. Then there are social welfare activities which are subsidized and directed by the State and these also are inspired by the Christian principle. The desire and purpose of all such undertakings is to foster a social policy whereby the economic distress of the individual will be made at least bearable. Thus the underlying presumption is that economic distress is a permanent condition in which a certain class of the community must live. Should temporary distress arise temporary measures are generally adopted to meet it. But the uniform postulate on which social welfare activities are generally based is the belief that the poor will be always with us. The preaching and practice of this principle weakens the moral resistance of those who find themselves in need of assistance.

In many countries the various forms which charitable assistance takes are determined by the definite ends that have to be served. Thus in England and in France there are thousands of institutions and associations which depend on voluntary support exclusively and are entirely independent of one another in their operations. Their purpose is generally the humanitarian one of helping the needy members of the community. The immense resources of these institutions and the consequent bountiful hand with which kindness to the poor is distributed place before the less conscientious members of the community a temptation to avail themselves of the possibility of getting double and treble the subsidies that they would get if there were a uniform control over the whole system. In every large city today there are hundreds of thousands who are in need of relief. These represent not only the unemployed but also those other members of the population who find themselves in economically adverse circumstances for one reason or another. But unemployment or only partial employment is always the chief cause of social distress among the masses. The only way therefore of definitely dealing with this situation is to find a place in the national economic system for those who are still capable of working. The number of unemployed has increased to such large proportions in our time that even the best social policy that could be devised would prove inadequate to the situation.

An American Commission which investigated the causes of the present world-wide distress came to the conclusion that the substitution of manual work by the machine is the ground because that has led to this serious disturbance in the whole economic system. Therefore, what is needed is to hasten a process of social transformation to meet the changed conditions or else slow down the tempo of mechanical inventions. The conditions prevalent in the labour market show how the social-economic situation is causally connected with the industrial situation and thus gives rise to a problem which concerns all civilized countries and must be solved by them in one way or another.

The post-War period has brought social distress into the foreground. It has become so widespread and so deep-rooted that any merely social policy of the traditional type will not prove adequate to solve the problem. When we review the economic developments that have taken place in the nineteenth century alone we see that the social question has steadily become more and more serious and more difficult of solution and that these difficulties have become world-wide. In our time the various religious denominations have made huge efforts to deal with the problem of social distress but they have been unable to bring about a satisfactory solution. The progress which has been made in mechanical methods of production has been accompanied by a steady and inexorable increase in social distress, to such an extent that the conviction now prevailing among men who have studied the matter carefully is that private enterprise alone can no longer hope to deal effectively with the situation. Present conditions point to the necessity of interference on the part of the State and the adoption of a systematic State policy in social matters.

Bismarck’s attitude towards the social problem is instructive and shows clearly the difference between his time and ours as regards the object of social legislation. When the various kinds of Government insurances were first introduced in Germany - Health Insurance, Old Age Insurance etc. - it was hoped that this social legislation, which guaranteed the working classes against distress arising from illness, accident or old age, would have the effect of bringing those classes into closer spiritual touch and sympathy with the State. But the standing antagonism on the part of the masses towards the State was not softened in the least. Rather the contrary happened. This antagonism showed itself stronger than ever. The tendency towards radical ideas, the shift towards the Left, became more pronounced, until it finally developed into a discontent which was directed against the State as its immediate object. Thus the ruling authorities who had hoped that their social legislation would bring the masses into organic unity with the State proved to be mistaken.

Germany is now endeavouring to establish a new social concept of the State and its functions. This idea is based on the traditional union between the people and their native land and on the hope that, by uniting the people in one folk community where class distinctions play no part, it may be possible to find a solution for the social problem in a synthesis between people and State. Unless this attempt first wins the acceptance and sanction of the people it will be doomed to failure. The State must secure the willing cooperation of the people.

This free collaboration on the part of the people, which is now an established fact and force in Germany, is a proof that the people have been approached and won in the right way. And this achievement must be placed to the credit of the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization (N.S.V. = Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt). This organization has now more than seven million members. These seven millions are the sponsors of that work which shows itself most strikingly in the German People’s Winter Help and in the „Mother and Child“ institution. In this social service there are nearly 1.500.000 voluntary workers. These workers are engaged in teaching the public in a practical way to understand that the need of the individual is an affair that concerns the community as a whole. Whatever help is given to the individual must not be given as an alms. It is the duty of the community to render assistance in cases of need, not as a work of supererogation but as a work that is necessary to maintain the existence of the community itself. Such is the principle which inspires all the activities of the N.S.V. and that principle is constantly kept before the public mind.

In the Marxist and liberalistic systems the individual and his needs formed the point of central interest. That is not so with the National Socialist welfare system. Here the community of the people is the primary and essential object of care. The wellbeing of the community is a necessary precondition for the wellbeing of the individual. Hitler once declared: „We do not say to the rich man: ‘Give to the poor’, but we say: ‘People of Germany help yourselves’.“

The N.S.V. is of an entirely different character from the denominational forms of welfare service, and that by reason of the purpose which it has set itself to fulfil. It is this purpose that determines the specific character of the N.S.V. Generally speaking, the aim of the denominational welfare services has been to relieve distress and make life bearable for the poor and needy. But the N.S.V. does not envisage this distress as a permanent condition under which the poor and needy have to live. It does not set out to make distress bearable for the individual, but it sets out rather to help the individual to overcome distress, to place him once again on a sound earning basis, to place the family also on a sound basis, and thus make the individual and the family organic members of the folk community. In carrying out this purpose the N.S.V. has to consider the health of the individual and the sanitary environment in which the family lives as preliminary conditions which are necessary for useful membership in the folk community. It aims at helping those who can afterwards help themselves. Therefore, its work is principally confined to those who are congenitally sound in health and who are potentially useful members of the community. But this does not mean that the hereditarily diseased and permanently infirm are not cared for. Apart from the official subsidies of the State for the care and upkeep of such people, there are the denominational institutions and associations for the care and assistance of the sick and infirm. The N.S.V. therefore leaves this branch of social assistance to the State as such and to the churches. But in this connection we must bear in mind the fact that the organizations for public assistance operating under the patronage and control of the churches are not entirely or even mainly dependent on the voluntary contributions of the faithful. They receive large and regular subsidies from the State and the municipalities in consideration of the work which they do in caring for the sick and infirm. With the National Socialist Welfare Organization, however, the main object is not to mitigate distress and make it bearable but rather to remove the causes of the distress. These causes are at once material and moral; for the continuance of unemployment and illness, and the feeling that nobody cares, creates a condition of moral despondency and slackness. The N.S.V. therefore gives not only material support but also moral encouragement and education. Social distress is a phenomenon that affects the community as a whole and therefore the community ought to deal with it for the sake of the common weal. That is the moral principle which the National Socialist Welfare Organization endeavours to instil into the minds of the general public and also into the minds of those who are the temporary victims of economic distress.

On the part of those who are in need of help there is an honest wish to be considered on a level with other people and to have their present condition looked upon as due to the accident of circumstances over which they themselves have no effective control. Therefore, they must not be classified as a proletariat and they must be made to feel that when we talk about the community we are not using empty phrases. Accordingly those who give their donations to help on the work do not give them in a patronizing way as if giving alms but rather out of a spirit of comradeship with the needy; for the well-to-do belong to the same community and they must realize that the basis on which the community exists is the moral principle of „Each for all and all for each“.

Within the first four-and-a half years of its existence the resources of the N.S.V. have increased steadily in accordance with the increasing commercial prosperity and the decrease in unemployment. The truth that not one of us is self-sufficient but that we are all dependent on one another has come to be recognized in its practical implications by all those who desire to sec social justice promoted and established. Thus it may be said that the nation has become as one great family whose maintenance can be assured only in so far as the single members of that family are physically sound, morally steadfast, ready to cooperate with the other members and willing to sacrifice individual interests to whatever extent that may be necessary in order to attain and uphold a uniform standard of wellbeing and efficiency in the whole community.

In the past it was considered out of the question to think of altering the social structure in such a way that large sections of the population would no longer have to live in needy and straightened circumstances. The poor were looked upon as forming a permanent stratum of the social structure. And the fact that this stratum has existed through so many centuries illustrates how the principle has worked out in practical life. Little attempt was made to eliminate poverty as such and the conditions under which the poor had to live have been only relatively improved. During the War and the post-War period poverty and distress became so widespread in Germany that the overwhelming majority of the population found itself in the ranks of the poor and needy. Distress had developed to such enormous dimensions that those charitable activities which had been inspired merely by the love of the neighbour could no longer even mitigate the general suffering, to say nothing of being able to eliminate it. Under the pressure of these hard conditions the revolutionary spirit developed and the antagonism of the masses towards what were supposed to be the upper classes became more and more marked.

When the present German Government took office, in 1933, the number of unemployed exceeded six million. This Government put forward the principle that it was a mistake to look upon the conditions of distress then existing as if they were an unalterable feature in the life of the nation. This principle was soon put into operation.

The National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization was entrusted with the task of uniting the whole population, the well-to-do and the destitute alike, in one great public work for the sake of the common weal. Within a short while it proved possible to banish from the whole nation of nearly seventy million people that moral lethargy which had existed for several years past. A spirit of optimism was awakened and a practical faith in life and human destinies was restored The millions of unemployed and their families were given practical assurance that those in better economic circumstances felt it a moral duty to contribute their utmost in money and goods and services for the purpose of overcoming national distress. The people responded as a unit, thereby overthrowing all former prejudices and restoring the victims of economic circumstances once more as useful members of the national community.

Early in 1933 the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization - the N.S.V. - comprised barely a few hundred workers. On May 3, 1933, Adolf Hitler issued a decree establishing the N.S.V. as the official Party organization for all questions appertaining to social welfare and relief. The number of voluntary members increased month by month and year by year. In April 1937 the membership had reached 6.886.000.

The preliminary work of the Winter Help for the first year of its establishment commenced on September 13, 1933, throughout the towns and cities of the Reich. This work was carried out under the aegis of the N.S.V. Success was possible however only because hundreds of thousands of men and women readily offered their services voluntarily. That gesture assured the success of the whole undertaking. Four weeks later the organization was in full working order, with a complement of 1.500.000 volunteer helpers. This body of helpers continued their services in the following years although their various occupations allowed them to give only the spare evening hours to the N.S.V. The fact that no essential alterations had to be subsequently made in the organization or its working plans proves how accurately it had gauged the popular feeling from the beginning. One of the greatest proofs for the practical character of the experiment may be found in the fact that it succeeded even though the 1.500.000 workers were quite untrained and inexperienced in such work. This spirit of solidarity showed what real socialism can be in practice. The example thus given of how keenly the great majority felt their obligations of service for their fellow-countrymen and women awakened confidence among the ranks of the unemployed that the causes of their distress would subsequently be overcome. The maxim which inspired and directed the Winter Help was: No one shall go hungry or suffer cold this winter. And yet that maxim was launched at a time when 17.000.000 had to be helped. Hence the principal occupation of the Winter Help during its first year was the distribution of food, clothing and domestic fuel. At the end of October, the first deliveries of free goods were made.

In organizing the Winter Help the respective needs of the various districts were first of all taken into account. There were districts which coul3 provide for themselves by organizing an interchange of goods and services within the district itself. That was accordingly done. There were other districts that had to be assisted from outside on a basis of mutual interchange. These were organized under what was known as sponsorships, one district agreeing to send its surplus products to another which was in need of those products. Then there were districts that had to be treated as distressed areas pure and simple.

To illustrate this plan of operation we may take the distribution of potatoes as an example. Potato-growing districts helped themselves in the consumption of potatoes. The sponsor districts, that is to say the districts with surplus products of potatoes, sent their potatoes to those provinces that do not grow sufficient for their own consumption. Distressed areas, as far as concerns the potato consumption, are principally the industrial districts, where the largest number of unemployed are to be found. To these areas potatoes were sent from all those districts which have surplus supplies. In planning the system of distribution to those districts which have no potatoes themselves account was taken of the fact that the industrial areas of Western Germany, Hamburg and ether cities, generally speaking, prefer the variety of potato and they receive that quality accordingly. The blue and white varieties were sent to the districts that prefer them. Of course, this principle of selection involved a great deal of detailed work, but this was all the more appreciated by the provinces concerned inasmuch as they felt that their particular tastes had been catered for. The fact that 15.043.634 cwts of potatoes were distributed affords an illustration of the enormous amount of work which this branch of assistance alone entailed. Not only were local tastes and needs catered for in the matter of potatoes but in certain districts, where less potatoes are eaten, the difference was made up by supplying various kinds of farinaceous foods.

The distribution of coal affords another example of this selective work. As the transport of coal is costly, particular care has been taken to have the distribution rationalized as far as transport is concerned. Besides wood and peat, during the winter of 1933/34 the Winter Help distributed 52.903.070 cwts of coal. The distribution of these huge amounts was rendered possible only by systematically organizing the collaboration of the coal trade. Coal coupons which could be exchanged for a hundredweight of coal or lignite briquettes were issued for household use. The total number of such coupons issued during the Winter of 1933/34 was 8.800.000. Those who receive such coupons have a free choice of coal merchants but pay a booking fee of three halfpence on each coupon. As soon as the coal merchant has sufficient coupons on hand he delivers them to the local coal-distributing centre of the N.S.V. where he is given a payment voucher in return. He then passes on this voucher as payment to his own wholesaler. The latter sends it to the Coal Syndicate and the Syndicate receives payment in cash from the N.S.V. The cash payments include the cost of transport, which is of course different for different districts. The coal distributed by the Winter Help in 1933/34 amounted to 16 % of the whole domestic consumption of coal in Germany. The average winter issue for each person thus helped came to eight coupons, which represents a ration of 8 cwts. This varied according to individual needs.

The distribution of potatoes and coal are the principle features of the Winter Help subsidies, then come clothing and foodstuffs of all descriptions, but particularly the issue of warm clothing and domestic linen, donated by all classes of the community. The farmer gives from his farm produce, the city people contribute wearing apparel, the miner gives coal and the woodman supplies wood. In classifying all these it is found that they fall into 60 different categories, from cod-liver oil for children to all kinds of comestibles such as smoked foodstuffs, fresh meats, wines, honey, sausages, greengroceries and tobacco. Another example of the varied kinds of goods contributed is shown in what is called the pound-weight contributions. Every month the German housewife buys a pound weight of some food commodity or other, according to her means, and donates it to the Winter Help. In thus alleviating distress among needy families the housewife expresses her sense of duty towards her less fortunate neighbours.

Clothes are collected on a large scale. When these are in need of repair they are sent to special sewing workrooms attached to the Winter Help Independently of these donations new household linen is collected at the shops, paid for when necessary, and distributed where it is needed. Millions of pairs of stockings and sets of domestic linen are distributed. In the first year of the Winter Help 92.437.694 pairs of boots and shoes were issued. And all this was done and is being done not in a patronizing way but in a spirit of solidarity between the several members of the community. All tendencies towards treating the needy as belonging to a permanent class called the proletariat have been abolished.

The economic importance of the Winter Help is also demonstrated in these figures. No better illustration can be given of this importance than the measures adopted for the distribution of fresh fish. Before the Winter Help was founded the average consumption of fresh fish throughout the whole of Germany, -ith its sixty-seven million inhabitants, did not exceed the average consumption of London alone. The poor demand for fresh fish made it necessary to convert the catches into fish meal for animals. But the proceeds did not even cover the expenses of making this meal. The first attempt made to sell fish to the public through the Winter Help resulted in the purchase of one thousand tons of fish by the Winter Help at a reasonable price. This amount was distributed among needy families. In the second year of the Winter Help the amount purchased and distributed came to nearly three thousand tons. In the third and fourth years the figures were respectively 8.250 and 9.350 tons. These totals indicate how the fish habit was introduced into whole provinces that had hitherto not been accustomed to using fish as a staple diet. In this way the action of the Winter Help created a natural demand which has extended even beyond the winter months, the result being that the general public now consumes ever so much more fish than previously. Of course the fish purchased by the Winter Help is transported in the most modem refrigerator cars. In distributing the fish suitable cooking recipes are also handed to the housewives at the same time.

In this way the Winter Help has been largely instrumental in keeping the deep sea fisheries fully occupied right through the winter months as well. All these activities illustrate the national-economic importance of the Winter Help. From this point of view the donation of vital necessities to needy people allows them to spend whatever little money they have for other supplies and little amenities. Thus it happens that goods are purchased which otherwise would remain unsold. A genuine increase in purchasing power has thus been brought about, resulting in trade revival within those branches where the need of stich a revival had been keenly felt

Wherever possible the Winter Help places its orders for Collection Day badges in the distressed areas. Street collections by members of various party organizations are held once a month and badges that have been manufactured in these distressed areas are then sold for the equivalent of twopence each. Several millions of these badges are sold. An average of one half-penny each is paid for their cost. The badges themselves vary in design and material from one month to another. They are made of lace, ivory, porcelain, amber and artificial flowers. As time went on the designs have become more and more artistic and are now objects of interest to collectors.

No badges are sold when the Party and State chiefs make their annual collection on the Day of National Solidarity. This Solidarity Day is another exemplification of the community of feeling which now exists between the ruling authorities and the bulk of the population. A steady increase in the amounts collected on this day throughout the whole Reich is shown in the returns for the last three years. These were, respectively: 4.0292.000 Marks for 1934, 4.085.000 for 1935, and 5.662.000 Marks for 1936. The amount of money collected on National Solidarity Day in 1937 was 8.071.180 marks.

In guaranteeing the actual cash monies necessary to carry on the work of the Winter Help, voluntary deductions from salaries and wages play a very important part. With the increase of employment throughout the whole country there came an increase of contributions to the treasury of the Winter Help, which shows the practical economic reaction to the Winter Help policy. Again and again it has been proved that the work thus carried on has awakened a sense of moral responsibility in the individual. And this is equally true of the small as well as the big donor. No hard and fast rules have been made. Donations given in rich areas are distributed in the poorer areas. A sound basis of equalization in distribution had to be established not only for actual gifts in kind but also for financial help. The work of the organization has been sectionalized on the model of the National Socialist Party organization - that is to say, into regions, districts and local centres-, thus making it possible to control the whole machinery of collection and distribution at a glance. The districts submit a weekly statement of accounts to the regional authorities and these in turn issue daily reports to national headquarters. This strict control practically excludes the possibility of any irregularities occurring, although this possibility has to be taken into account where 1.500.000 voluntary helpers are engaged. That is the secret of the low administration costs of the whole undertaking Originally these amounted to barely one percent. Subsequently they increased to 1.8 %. This was due to the increasing necessity of employing full time social workers, so that gradually it was possible to distribute subsidies on a basis of definitely ascertained family necessities as against a basis of mere mass distribution.

Reviewing the final achievements of the Winter Help, we are first struck by the fact that these have been made possible not by a bulk of large donations from outstanding rich persons or communities but rather by the small contributions from individuals in the rank and file of the nation. Once every month those families that are normally accustomed to more than one course for their Sunday dinner restrict themselves to one course and contribute the financial equivalent of the extra course or courses to the Winter Help. This plan is also followed by the restaurants, where the management receives the price of a full meal from his client and pays over to the Winter Help the margin which he saves by merely serving one course. This margin is stipulated according to a definite schedule. The Sunday one-course dinner has now become a national custom and has the symbolic significance of breaking bread with the fellow members of the community. The Winter Help has also established a National Lottery, in which tickets are sold at an equivalent of sixpence each. This has proved extremely popular, the more so as winnings are paid out immediately. Finally, a plan has been put into operation whereby the Winter Help receives a quota of all game which has been killed during the season.

Thus the Winter Help has become an important influence in domestic politics inasmuch as it tends to break down class and party barriers. An institution which in times of severe economic depression Succeeded in awakening a new spirit of solidarity among the people will not allow its energy to lag in times of prosperity. This is where the value of the Winter Help as a far-reaching social educative factor lies. Its reception among the masses of the people was not due to any dictation from above but the manner in which it is being carried out is entirely due to the spontaneous collaboration of the people. From its foundation onwards it has had the character of a self-help undertaking based on the entirely new social order introduced by the National Socialist Movement.

At the beginning the Winter Help distributed its subsidies in a general way to individuals who claimed to be in need; but with the passing of time it has been possible to introduce a modus operandi wherein the family becomes the principle object of attention. In this way it was possible to investigate and obtain an estimate of the measure of distress existing among needy families. As a logical consequence of these investigations there developed the conviction that there was a definite call for other work along the same lines as the Winter Help but in different spheres. One of the principal results of this conviction was the establishment of the „Mother and Child“ section of the N.S.V.

The predominant feature of the distress existing among the individual families was due to unfavourable housing conditions. Many of them were living in dingy tenement lodgings in the large cities. Prolonged unemployment had given rise to a general feeling of indifference and despair. People had begun to think that life was not worth living because the conditions in which they had to live were considered as unalterable. This feeling helped to weaken the whole basis of family life. And finally the indifference of the ruling authorities and their failure to adopt any policy for the maintenance of family existence contributed to destroy the family idea itself. Nothing could be done here until a sound policy for the care of the family as such had been adopted. Therefore, the first move was to find regular and assured employment once again for the fathers of families. Conditions in 1933 were the reverse of encouraging. Young people were afraid to undertake the responsibilities of married life and thus the normal quota of marriages fell considerably, because existence itself had become a problem for which no satisfactory solution was in sight.

For twenty years, during the War and the inflation and the troubled times arising from the class-conflict among the people, the mother was almost the sole support of the family. During the War she had to do men’s work arid no matter how hard she might labour she found it impossible to secure the vital necessities for her children. When the father became unemployed she tried to save the situation by undertaking work that was paid at a lower rate than if it had been done by a man and thus she became disillusioned as to the possibility of being able to earn enough to support the family. According to investigations made in 1932, only ten percent of children attending the primary schools were well nourished, while 41 % were definitely under-nourished. Thus it happened that the health and physique of a large proportion of school children suffered seriously and the problem now was to find some means of repairing those damages. Rickets grew more prevalent and constitutional resistance to attacks of influenza and other diseases steadily became weaker. In face of all this, the woman as guardian of the family began to feel discouraged in her struggle.

When at length, after years of struggle and anxiety, the head of the family once again found employment the mother’s powers of resistance had been exhausted. The national welfare services had therefore to be directed towards the moral and physical rehabilitation of mother and children. This could only be done, as in the case of the Winter Help, by mass collaboration, so as to relieve the most urgent cases of distress.

Under the aegis of the N.S.V. a Reich Committee of Action was founded. The members of this Committee were selected from government and municipal officials, the Party and its organizations, as well as ecclesiastical welfare associations. In this work the following organizations collaborated: The Central Committee of the Evangelical Church for Internal Missions, the Catholic Charitable League, the German Red Cross, the Executive Council of the German Sick Benefit Societies, the Reich ‘Midwives’ Association, social workers in factories, the Association of German Nurses etc. This community of helpers thus assures the organic and sound development of the „Mother and Child“ organization. Public support and a readiness to make sacrifices were also essential for the success of this undertaking. As time went on it became clear that this movement had also become an integral factor of the folk community.

With all this support it was possible quickly to develop a widespread System of recuperation and rest for mothers and their children. During the period from May 1934 to April 1935 approximately 53.000 mothers were sent away by the N.S.V. to specially constructed homes in the country for a stay of three weeks to enable them to recover their strength. But the work could not possibly end here; because it was necessary to adopt measures whereby mothers would be replaced during their absence. Girls and women had to be chosen to look after the family at home, to keep the house going, cook the meals, wash and mend for the children etc. Girl students came forward and voluntarily offered their Services for this work.

In the recuperative homes mothers are given not only medical care and attention, but have the chance of a well-earned rest, probably for the first time in their lives. Through a series of friendly talks on various subjects problems are dealt with which are interesting to every mother of a family. The field of vision is widened. New cooking recipes and experiences in household methods are discussed and exchanged. Thus those weeks of rest and recuperation are also weeks in which the minds of the mothers are stimulated and furnished with new and brighter ideas.

Naturally the „Mother and Child“ movement is in no way confined to those women who are members of the National Socialist Party or women of any one particular class. Women of the National Socialist Party are cared for in the same manner and to the same extent as women who have belonged to political parties that were formerly opposed to National Socialism.

The same guiding principles apply in the case of children sent to the country for holidays and recuperation. Here again the present regime shows that it has no intention of trying to win over the, nation by coercive methods but rather will the wholehearted suffrage of the public through the influence of practical and visible results, Up to the end of 1934 the number of children sent to the country to recuperate came to 545.115. These children were housed and fed in special homes or as guests in farm homesteads. Many helping hands came forward in the country and thus made it possible for the N.S.V. to carry out its work for the children on such a large scale. More than half a million children from the big cities and industrial areas thus experienced for the first time what real home life was like. They saw, often for the first time, cattle grazing in the meadows, they felt the charm of the countryside, of the mountains, lakes and the sea. They had the unique experience of coming into contact with the customs of the peasantry, rural customs and festivities and with the peaceful charm of Nature, in contrast to the hustle and bustle of city life. Above all, it was the work of the farmer that turned out most impressive to the mind of the city child. The spirit of the city child struck roots, as it were, once again in the soil of its forefathers. When these children returned home they brought with them the refreshing memory of the countryside and would relate its wonders and beauties to their companions.

Thus the sending of children to the country is not only a means of enabling them to recuperate their health but it has also an educative function which justifies the great efforts involved in it. Not only was the first year of this work eminently successful, but success has steadily increased year by year in proportion to the number of trained women workers that it was possible to engage for the „Mother and Child“ work. It is not to be wondered at that family life is once again being properly esteemed, with the result that the general standard of life has been raised. It is not the financial support that is of primary importance in a sound family policy but the fact that this policy is carried through on principles that respect the personal dignity of the people assisted.

Once the family realizes that the nation desires to promote the health of its children and their mental as well as bodily efficiency, when the mother has been restored to her natural function as mother and housewife, when the husband is no longer forced by circumstances to look after the household but to do the work, which corresponds to his natural calling, then this restoration of family dignity must redound to the benefit of the nation.

The increase in the number of qualified people who had passed through numerous training establishments and were employed by the N.S.V. as nurses, sisters, kindergarten teachers etc., made it possible for the organization to set up numerous aid and advisory centres for mothers and their children. During the first six months of 1936, 1.390.790 women received advice and help in these N.S.V. centres. In September 1937 accommodation for a total of 251.439 children was available at 2.616 permanent nurseries and 4.119 at nurseries set up during harvest time. Trained workers of the N.S.V. were busy everywhere in town and country, in crèches and children’s homes. Consequent on the unification of the public health services, all medical consulting centres established by the N.S.V. in 1934 are now under the control of the government health authorities. Some of the homes also were transformed to meet certain definite requirements. Thus, for instance, we now have homes which are exclusively reserved for elderly mothers and other homes for expectant mothers. Then there are the special homes where mothers and their infants receive care and medical attention. In these latter homes, the mother is taught how to care for and feed her infant from the very first day of its existence. She is taught that proper feeding need not always be expensive and that even though costing relatively little it might still contain the vital elements necessary for the proper nourishment of the child.

The number of homes for children who need special care and attention has also increased considerably. In the harvest kindergartens the children are well cared for and receive excellent food. They learn to sing folk songs. Stories are told them and other such little entertainments are provided for which busy hard-working mothers never have sufficient time. The harvest kindergarten system has grown from year to year and has helped considerably to improve the general standard of infantile health. Moreover, the system has reduced the toll of accidents to children and has kept the children from doing damage. Of the fires which have broken out in homes during one year it has been shown that in 5.000 cases these were caused by children between the ages of two to seven years. Therefore, the harvest kindergarten removes one great source of danger to property and life.

In the distressed areas of the Reich special measures had to be adopted. In collaboration with the dental profession the N.S.V. has purchased and equipped sixty travelling dental clinics which visit the outlying village schools to examine the teeth of the children and give them the necessary treatment. In 1938 the number of these travelling dental clinics will be doubled. There were many village communities in which 95 % of the school children were found to have unsound teeth. It was found that this state of affairs was due to improper feeding. Such a thing will be eliminated for the future through the combined efforts of the authorities concerned. In Lower Bavaria the N.S.V. are now erecting the first Health Station which is meant to serve the purpose of systematically taking care of those young people who are suffering from trouble that may be congenital and adopting the most modem means to get rid of these troubles.

As a result of all these endeavours, we find that a noticeable change has taken place in the curve of infant mortality. Within a short space of time infant mortality has fallen from 8.3 % of births in 1931 to 6.6 % in 1936. One might reply to this by saying that infant mortality during the last ten years, even during the most acute periods of economic depression, also fell. But it should be remembered that the decreasing ratio was much smaller in the first half of the decade. It never amounted to 1,5 %. To this must be added the fact that the number of large families in Germany has considerably increased since 1933 and that experience shows that infant mortality in large families is greater than in small families. Hygienic methods can be more easily observed in small families than in large. This alone is sufficient proof that the present low rate of Infant mortality when compared with previous years has resulted at least partly from the measures adopted by the N.S.V. The „Mother and Child“ Section as well as the German Women’s Organization can pride themselves on having saved the lives of about 1.40.000 children during the last four years. According to the old standard of living, these lives would have most probably been lost. In the year 1934 the number of children who died during the first year of their existence was 13.827. Of these children more than 50 % died within the first month. It is on the basis of the lesson to be drawn from this fact that certain particular measures have been adopted. The N.S.V. pays particular attention to the expectant mother and has advisory centres everywhere for the purpose of giving skilled advice.

In close collaboration with the Hitler Youth, the N.S.V. has established a system of taking care of juvenile offenders, whose conduct has resulted from defective upbringing, and placing these youths under kindly influences which will make them realize the meaning of their errors. In cases where this process proves successful, a stage is reached where positive training of character comes into play. Homes have been set up where refractory children who have proved difficult to educate are housed and taken care of. The Hitler Youth helps in this work, inasmuch as it inculcates its own principles of honourable conduct in the hearts of wayward youths. Finally, six months of compulsory work in the Labour Service has the effect of bringing the hitherto wayward youngster back to that kind of life which he was meant to lead.

The fight against tuberculosis furnishes one of the most important grounds for the activities of the N.S.V. This is a problem that is of primary importance not only in Germany, but in all civilized countries. The tuberculosis problem is not a new phenomenon. But the fight against it has hitherto not been conducted under a unified command. For this reason, a Central Committee to combat tuberculosis was established in 1933. Within the framework of this Committee the N.S.V. in conjunction with the National Committee of Public Health, was empowered to fill up the gaps and consolidate the work of fighting the disease which the medical and health insurance authorities had hitherto been unable to cope with. Here it is not a question of relieving others of the financial responsibility for the work, but the primary function of the N.S.V. is to see to it that those responsible for the financial costs-the various social insurance offices etc. - connected with the treatment of tuberculosis will have to fulfil their obligations. Only when financial support has come to an end, according to the terms of insurance contracts etc., it then devolves upon the N.S.V. to take further care of the sufferers.

The first step to be taken in combatting tuberculosis is to remove the conditions which favour its development in the individual and the spread of infection to others. Economic distress and undernourishment, insanitary housing conditions, insufficient clothing and warmth in winter, furnish the conditions under which children easily fall victims to the disease. By placing family life on a healthy basis many of the preliminary conditions leading to tuberculosis were successfully eliminated. It happens often that people who are earning their livelihood for themselves and their families are afraid to give up work and undergo the proper treatment, because they think that by doing so they may lose their positions. Therefore, they often try to hang on as long as possible, though by doing so the development of the disease renders their subsequent chances of convalescence less hopeful and, furthermore, they become a source of infection to their immediate environment. For these reasons the N.S.V. takes effective steps to assure every patient that no economic losses will be involved if treatment be at once undertaken and continued for as long a time as necessary. In other words, the N.S.V. becomes the trustee of the family and makes itself responsible for the family welfare.

It only remains to mention the influence which the work of the N.S.V. exercises on the various callings and professions. In order to carry out its task it requires specially trained staffs, both male and female, to do duty as nurses, kindergarten teachers, supervisors of homes etc. The total number employed in the „Mother and Child“ Section amounted to 279.156 at the end of 1936. This sphere of activity which was once exclusively occupied by the churches or under their aegis is now in the hands of the N.S.V. This is a very significant transformation because this sphere is one of the most important in educating the members of the national community.

The training of a National Socialist Nursing Sisterhood is one of the principal features of the N.S.V. The nurses are trained and equipped for their work by a two years’ course in hospitals. They are then employed as district nurses particularly in distressed areas. These nurses are looked upon by the people of each locality as their faithful helpers and advisers. The district nurse is the responsible person to whom all questions of health have to be referred. The Mother House of the Nursing Sisterhood is undenominational. The nurses may marry without having to give up the practice of their profession. And so among professional occupations for women a new type has been created.

Every nation desires to have a social order that will correspond to its natural traditions and ideals. For the first time in its history Germany is now creating the social order that corresponds to the yearnings and the ideals of the German people as a whole. Within the short space of five years a great advance has been made towards definitely superseding the old order of things. And the N.S.V. is the pioneer of all this work. The secret of the success that has hitherto been achieved lies in the educative system which has brought the people to realize that the claims which the individual has on the community must be equally balanced with the duties that he owes to this same community.

Statement of Account

The total assistance rendered by the Winter Help as:

1933/34	350.000.356 marks
1934/35	360.493.430 marks
1935/36	371.943.908 marks
1936/37	408.323.140 marks

The following statistics and figures are quoted from the General Report for 1936/37.

Stated in terms of money, the assistance which the Winter Help rendered to those in need during the Winter of 19361/37 has been valued as follows:

Foodstuffs, groceries etc.	124.080.304.02 marks
Domestic Fuel	2.937.592.36 marks
Clothing	78.965.296.514 marks
Objects for Household Use	9.519.671.89 marks
Coupons and various gifts	38.030.041.72 marks
Sundry Expenditures	1.650.106.53 marks

In order to dispense as far as possible with the necessity of carrying out collections during the rest of the year, the Winter Help gave a subsidy of 16.500.000 marks in 1936/37 to the German Red Cross and the other welfare organizations. Over and above this subsidy, 3.000.000 marks were given from the Winter Help funds to the N.S.V. to be used in the treatment of patients suffering from tuberculosis.

Among the gifts in kind which were made by the Winter Help during 1936/37 were the following:

Potatoes	10.956.038 cwts
Coal, coke and peat	42.543.420 cwts
Sundry foodstuffs	2.512.448 cwts
Clothing, shoes, household linen, beds, bedding etc. pairs	13.047.459 pieces
Free meals, school and Winter Help meals	32.980.559
Tickets for theatres, concerts and cinemas which were placed at the disposal of the Winter Help gratis	3.734.752
Gifts of various objects, such as books, musical instruments, toys etc.	3.212.462 pieces

The German national railways, the private railways and the light railways forwarded 53.132.128 cwts of goods for the Winter Help during 1936/37. This involved 3.542 freight trains of 50 waggons each. Through the free transport of these goods, the German national railways, the private railways and light railways contributed the value of a sum of money amounting to 17.527.980.06 marks.

The decrease in unemployment has continued to show itself in the decreased number of people who had to be assisted by the Winter Help. Thus, for instance, in 1933/34 253 persons out of every 1000 inhabitants had to be helped. In 1934/35 this number was reduced to 211 and in 1935/36 to 194. Last year, 1936/37, only 161 people in every thousands of the inhabitants had to be helped.

The number of assistants engaged in the Winter Help for 1936/37 to whom salaries and compensation were paid amounted to 0.6 % of the average number of helpers, that is to say, 0.6 % out of 1.349.008.

The working expenses of the Winter Help for 1936/37 were very small. They amounted to 1.8 % of the total assistance rendered.

The Day of National Solidarity brought in 1.577.465.70 marks more in 1936 than in de previous year. This increase in the social plebiscite, as the Day of National Solidarity is rightly called, amounted to 38.6 %.

In comparison with 1935/36 the one-dish Sunday contributions showed a gain of 1.769.867.50 marks.

The street collection throughout the Reich were in enormous success in 1936/37. These brought in 30.531.925.24 marks, which was an increase of 12.122.610.95 marks or 65.7 % on the previous year.

118.662.178 Winter Help badges were sold on the streets, which was an increase of 47.352.819 over the previous year. As in former years, the production cost of these badges was paid out in the distressed areas and helped to give auxiliary work there.

The popular Christmas festivities inaugurated by the Winter Help were carried out also in 1936/37. Three million children belonging to very poor families were entertained at these Christmas festivities, which numbered 23.000 in all.

Hitherto the resources of the Winter Help were applied exclusively to relieving the appalling distress which the National Socialist regime found on coming into power. But the fundamental principle of National Socialist Welfare Services is not merely to fight the ills from which the nation suffers hut to remove the causes of these ills as far as that is possible. In this direction the steady improvement in economic conditions has made it possible for the Winter Help to devote attention to other spheres. In 1936/37, 59.597.469.88 marks were spent for the „Mother and Child“ section and the National Mothers’ Welfare.

In this way the work done by the „Mother and Child“ section increased considerably. At the end of 1936 the number of relief and advisory centres was an increase of 37.7 % over the previous year. These 26.279 relief and advisory centres dealt with 3.410.848 persons. In 1936 185.845 expectant mothers and mothers during confinement were cared for, also 99.168 infants.

From May 1934 until the end of 1936 175.892 mothers were cared for during recuperative periods. The number of days in all came to 4.657.316. From this number 69.876 mothers were cared for during recuperative vacations in the year 1936 alone.

In the sphere of kindergarten work an average of 176.803 free meals were given each month to the children.

In order to relieve mothers with large families and housewives who had become ill, 80.817 cases were dealt with either by sending special auxiliary household helpers or doing substitute work for mothers at their ordinary places of employment.

The section which deals with recuperative vacations for the youth treated 417.072 to a vacation during 1936.

The purpose we have in view here is to bring the rate of infant mortality as low as possible and especially to see to it that children who are born healthy will be developed into healthy specimens of the race. Therefore the section „Mother and Child“ is of special significance for our work in the future. And its scope will grow larger from year to year.