How did Nazi propaganda target unemployed Germans and the middle class?

The Nazi regime utilized propaganda and policy to integrate the working class into a racially defined national community, or Volksgemeinschaft, while exploiting economic instability to gain support.12

To address the high unemployment inherited in 1933, the Nazis prioritized public works projects, such as the autobahn, and rearmament to create jobs. Beyond economic measures, they sought to bridge class divides through the "Strength Through Joy" program, which subsidized leisure activities—such as vacations and cruises—previously reserved for the wealthy. The development of the Volkswagen was similarly marketed to provide workers access to a car, a symbol of status once limited to the upper classes.12

Rather than redistributing wealth, the Nazis framed class differences as subjective and unimportant, promoting the idea that social status was secondary to loyalty within the national community. Propaganda, directed by Joseph Goebbels, reinforced these themes while using antisemitism to scapegoat Jews for Germany's economic woes, portraying them as a common enemy to unify the population.345