How did the Strength Through Joy program seek to win workers’ support?

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Nazi SS troops march in formation carrying banners with swastikas and eagles at the 1933 Party Day rally in Nuremberg, Germany, with trees in the background. — Third Reich A Nazi Party rally at Nürnberg, Germany, in 1933.

The Nazi regime established the "Strength Through Joy" (Kraft durch Freude, or KdF) program to integrate the socialist-minded German working class into the Volksgemeinschaft, or national community, thereby overcoming their historical alienation from the nationalist consensus.1

To win workers' support, the program provided subsidized leisure activities that were previously accessible only to the wealthy. These offerings included:1

Vacations and Excursions: The program subsidized trips to mountain and seaside resorts, as well as cruises in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean.1
Consumer Accessibility: The regime promoted the Volkswagen, an inexpensive automobile designed to make car ownership—a traditional symbol of upper-class status—attainable for workers.1

By providing these benefits, the Nazis sought to foster a sense of belonging among workers as integral members of a racially based national community. This effort was part of a broader strategy that also utilized public works projects and rearmament to eliminate the mass unemployment inherited by the regime in 1933.1