To what extent do you consider that Hitler and the Nazi's had achieved their aim social revolution and unity [volksgemeinschaft] by 1939?
A vision of Hitler and the Nazi's was to establish and create a new social order, or a volksgemeinschaft. With volk meaning people and gemeinscaft a tightly bound rural community, together there were the people's community, which was a romanticised and anti-urbanised image. Membership of this community was for the 'pure' Germans only this meant no outsider such as Jews and Gypsies, but also of the sick and infirm. Hitler wanted to achieve a Volksgemeinschaft of people of a healthy physical and mental condition. Though how could it be a community if only the perfect people are allowed in?
The main idea behind the community was a peasant community, as the peasants showed everyday life using ordinary people. The nazi's tried to emphasise on traditional themes, such as the peasant sower scattering seeds by the hand and using horses rather than tractors.
Other images such as a peasant ploughing protected by a soldier with women working in the background conveyed the image of people working together in the new community. In fact life for the peasants was not the ideal shown by the Nazi propaganda. In reality the work got harder although peasants were promised they could return to their farms but this rarely happened. In general their standard of living decreased and the work hardened. Propaganda aimed at getting people back to the land but this attempt at social engineering was a failure.
Many nazi ideas were aimed at the industrial working classes. There campaigns such as the 'Strength of joy' and the 'beauty of labour' were attractive prospects for the workers. By doing so workers would work harder and for less because in the end they...