Volksgemeinschaft dürch volkwerdung: national socialist social engineering for a classless society

Abstract

The ideal of the Volksgemeinschaft, the «people’s community», long predates Hitler’s National Socialist Party’s rise to power in 1933. Inspired by aspirations for renewal and greatness through a popular union directed towards a shared destiny, it aroused particular enthusiasm in German thought. Its creative potential did not go unnoticed by National Socialist leaders, who, claiming the «sacred» mission of giving effective form to «the Idea», devised an unprecedented project of social engineering. This essay examines its underlying metaphysical principles, the attempt to put them into practice —analysed from an economic perspective— and their subsequent results.