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	~~'''~~Volksgemeinschaft~~'''~~ (German for "people's community" or "folk community") is a concept that became central to [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Nazism]]. In Nazi usage it denoted a racially unified and hierarchically organized national body in which the interests of individuals were to be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or [[Volk]].<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref> The term, however, did not originate with the Nazis; it gained wide use during [[World War I]] and remained a dominant political idea in [[Weimar Republic\|Weimar]] Germany before being adopted and reshaped by the [[Nazi Party]].<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, DOI: 10.14765/zzf.dok.2.569.v1, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref>		Volksgemeinschaft (German for "people's community" or "folk community") is a concept that became central to [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Nazism]]. In Nazi usage it denoted a racially unified and hierarchically organized national body in which the interests of individuals were to be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or [[Volk]].<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref> The term, however, did not originate with the Nazis; it gained wide use during [[World War I]] and remained a dominant political idea in [[Weimar Republic\|Weimar]] Germany before being adopted and reshaped by the [[Nazi Party]].<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, DOI: 10.14765/zzf.dok.2.569.v1, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref>

	== Etymology and early usage ==		== Etymology and early usage ==

Syf: Created page with "'''Volksgemeinschaft''' (German for "people's community" or "folk community") is a concept that became central to Nazi Germany and Nazism. In Nazi usage it denoted a racially unified and hierarchically organized national body in which the interests of individuals were to be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or Volk.Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft The term, however, did not..."

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Created page with "'''Volksgemeinschaft''' (German for "people's community" or "folk community") is a concept that became central to Nazi Germany and Nazism. In Nazi usage it denoted a racially unified and hierarchically organized national body in which the interests of individuals were to be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or Volk.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref> The term, however, did not..."

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'''Volksgemeinschaft''' (German for "people's community" or "folk community") is a concept that became central to [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Nazism]]. In Nazi usage it denoted a racially unified and hierarchically organized national body in which the interests of individuals were to be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or [[Volk]].<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref> The term, however, did not originate with the Nazis; it gained wide use during [[World War I]] and remained a dominant political idea in [[Weimar Republic|Weimar]] Germany before being adopted and reshaped by the [[Nazi Party]].<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, DOI: 10.14765/zzf.dok.2.569.v1, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref>

== Etymology and early usage ==
The word ''Volk'' is cognate with the English "folk" and can mean "people" in an ethnic or national sense. ''Gemeinschaft'' means "community". Among 19th-century scholars who used "Volksgemeinschaft" were [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]], [[Friedrich Carl von Savigny]], and others. The sociologist [[Ferdinand Tönnies]] had a lasting influence through his 1887 work ''[[Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft]]'' ("Community and Society"), which contrasted organic community with modern contractual society. Tönnies later joined the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] in 1932 to oppose the Nazis and protested their use of his ideas.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref>

== World War I and Weimar period ==
The idea of a people's community became widely current during [[World War I]], when Germans rallied behind the war effort. In August 1914 the German Emperor [[Wilhelm II]] proclaimed that he no longer knew "parties, only Germans", a statement that resonated with many who hoped for unity across social and political divisions.<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref> This wartime truce was often called [[Burgfrieden]] ("peace in the castle"). After the [[November Revolution]] of 1918 and the establishment of the [[Weimar Republic]], the concept of Volksgemeinschaft remained influential across the political spectrum. Liberals stressed a harmonizing, inclusive aspect "above classes"; the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrats]] spoke of a community of all who worked; and republican figures such as [[Friedrich Ebert]] invoked Volksgemeinschaft to bind citizens to the new constitution.<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref> On the right, the term was used in opposition to [[Marxism]] and [[class struggle]], and was taken up by the [[Nazi Party]] in the 1920s.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref>

== Nazi conception ==
For the Nazis, the creation of a Volksgemeinschaft was a central aim of their revolution.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref> [[Adolf Hitler]] held that inequality between races and individuals was part of an unchangeable natural order and that the natural unit of mankind was the Volk, with the German Volk the greatest. The state was to serve the Volk; the [[Weimar Republic]] was portrayed as having betrayed that mission. All morality and truth were judged by whether they served the interest and preservation of the Volk. The unity of the Volk was held to be embodied in the [[Führer]], who possessed absolute authority.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref>

Membership in the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft was defined by race. Only people of "[[Aryan race|Aryan]] blood" could be full members; [[Jews]] and others deemed non-Aryan or racially harmful were excluded. The [[Nuremberg Laws]] of 1935 forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Germans and assigned Jews a lower legal status. The regime presented its project as "[[Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Führer]]" ("One empire, one people, one leader") and directed hostility against socialists, Jews, and those it accused of having "stabbed in the back" the German army in World War I.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref>

Nazi policy combined racial purification with measures intended to strengthen the "Aryan" population. The Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health (July 1933) allowed for the sterilization of people deemed hereditarily unfit. The Marriage Subsidy Law of 1933 aimed to raise the birth rate among "Aryan" couples through loans that were partly forgiven with the birth of children. The legal and political framework built around the Volksgemeinschaft was part of the basis on which the [[Holocaust]] was later carried out.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref>

== Volksgenossen and Gemeinschaftsfremde ==
Nazi legal and administrative practice divided Germans into those who belonged to the Volksgemeinschaft—[[Volksgenosse|Volksgenossen]] ("fellow nationals" or "comrades of the people")—and those who did not: the ''Gemeinschaftsfremde'' ("community aliens" or "alien to the community").<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref> The 1920 [[Nazi Party|NSDAP]] programme stated that only a Volksgenosse could be a citizen, and only "German blood" could make one a Volksgenosse; no Jew could therefore be a Volksgenosse.<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref> The inclusion of Volksgenossen went together with the exclusion and persecution of those classified as Gemeinschaftsfremde.<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref>

== Propaganda and mobilization ==
The regime gave the "folk community" a prominent place in [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|propaganda]]. It presented the events of 1933 as a "Volkwerdung"—a people coming into its own—and portrayed individuals as part of a greater whole. Organisations such as the [[Hitler Youth]], the [[Bund Deutscher Mädel]], the [[Winterhilfswerk]] (Winter Relief), and the [[Reich Labour Service]] were presented as embodiments of the Volksgemeinschaft.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref> Welfare bodies such as the [[National Socialist People's Welfare]] directed aid to "racially worthy" Germans and excluded Jews and others deemed unfit. The regime continued and expanded [[social welfare]] initiatives from the Weimar period and used campaigns such as Winter Relief to foster a sense of shared sacrifice and to reinforce racial ideology.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Volksgemeinschaft", https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volksgemeinschaft</ref>

== Historiographical debate ==
Historians disagree over whether a Volksgemeinschaft was ever realised as a social reality between 1933 and 1945. It is widely accepted that the "Volksgemeinschaft" as proclaimed by the regime did not exist as an actual, unified social order; structural differences of class and status persisted.<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref> Some scholars have treated the term mainly as a propaganda formula. Others have argued that the promise of Volksgemeinschaft and the regime's mobilising efforts—for example through the labour service and Winter Relief—produced a "felt equality" or sense of belonging among much of the non-Jewish population that helped secure loyalty to the regime.<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref> One approach is to study Volksgemeinschaft not as a fixed social fact but as a set of practices—the ways in which inclusion and exclusion were produced, and how people aligned with or distanced themselves from the regime.<ref>Michael Wildt, "Volksgemeinschaft", Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 03.06.2014, https://docupedia.de/zg/wildt_volksgemeinschaft_v1_de_2014</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Blood and soil]]
* [[Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft]]
* [[Nazism]]
* [[Volk]]
* [[Weimar Republic]]

== References ==
<references />

Volksgemeinschaft - Revision history

Syf at 20:11, 26 February 2026