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''Kraft durch Freude'' (German for Strength through Joy, abbreviated KdF) was a large state-operated leisure organization in Nazi Germany.〔Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p 197, ISBN 0-03-076435-1〕 It was a part of the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF), the national German labour organization at that time. Set up as a tool to promote the advantages of National Socialism to the people, it soon became the world's largest tourism operator of the 1930s. KdF was supposed to bridge the class divide by making middle-class leisure activities available to the masses. This was underscored by having cruises with passengers of mixed classes and having them, regardless of social status, draw lots for allocation of cabins.〔Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p 197-8, ISBN 0-03-076435-1〕 Another less ideological goal was to boost the German economy by stimulating the tourist industry out of its slump from the 1920s. It was quite successful up until the outbreak of World War II. By 1934, over two million Germans had participated on a KdF trip; by 1939 the reported numbers lay around 25 million people. The organization essentially collapsed in 1939, and several projects, such as the massive Prora holiday resort, were never completed. ==Activities== Starting in 1933, KdF provided affordable leisure activities such as concerts, plays, libraries, day trips and holidays.〔 Large ships, such as the ''Wilhelm Gustloff'', were built specifically for KdF cruises. They rewarded workers with taking them and their families to the movies, to parks, keep-fit clubs, hiking, sporting activities, film shows and concerts. Borrowing from the Italian fascist organization ''Dopolavoro'' "After Work", but extending its influence into the workplace as well, KdF rapidly developed a wide range of activities, and quickly grew into one of Nazi Germany's largest organizations. The official statistics showed that in 1934, 2.3 million people took KdF holidays. By 1938, this figure rose to 10.3 million.〔Mason, T.W., Social Policy in the Third Reich: The Working Class and the 'National Community'(Oxford: Berg. 1993), p. 160〕 Two weeks after the ''Annexation'', when ''SS-Gruppenführer'' Josef Bürckel became ''Reichskommissar für die Wiedervereinigung'' as well as ''Gauleiter'', the first five trains with some 2,000 Austrian workers left for Passau, where they were ceremonially welcomed. While Bürckel announced that he did not expect all KdF travelers to return as National Socialists, he did expect them to look him in the eyes and say, "I tried hard to understand you."〔Anna Rosmus ''Hitlers Nibelungen'', Samples Grafenau 2015, pp. 142f〕 At the outbreak of war, holiday travel was stopped. Until then KdF had sold more than 45 million package tours and excursions.〔Spode, Hasso, Some quantitative aspects of Kraft-durch-Freude-tourism. In: Dritsas, Margerita (ed.): European Tourism and Culture, Athens 2007, p.125〕 By 1939, it had over 7,000 paid employees and 135,000 voluntary workers, organized into divisions covering such areas as sport, education, and tourism, with wardens in every factory and workshop employing more than 20 people. The National Socialists sought to attract tourists from abroad, a task performed by Hermann Esser, one of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda's (German: ''Ministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda'') secretaries. A series of multilingual and colorful brochures, titled "Deutschland", advertised Germany as a peaceful, idyllic, and progressive country, on one occasion even portraying the ministry's boss, Joseph Goebbels, grinning in an unlikely photo series of the Cologne carnival. KdF was awarded the 1939 Olympic Cup by the International Olympic Committee.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The olympic cup )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Strength Through Joy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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