Volksgemeinschaft

Volksgemeinschaft, literally “people’s community,” is a term associated with Nazi ideology that referred to a racially defined, homogeneous national community under the leadership of the Nazi state. It was presented as a unifying social order in which class differences would be overcome and all Germans would share in common welfare, duty, and loyalty to the nation.

In practice, the concept served as a propaganda tool and a means of social control. It demanded conformity to party ideology, suppression of dissent, and subordination of individual interests to the collective will. The regime pursued Gleichschaltung, aligning institutions, organizations, and culture with Nazi aims. Membership in organizations such as the Hitler Youth, the League of German Girls, and various state-sponsored welfare programs reinforced loyalty to the regime and the idea of a unified Volksgemeinschaft.

A core element was exclusion based on racial and other criteria. Jews, Romani people, disabled individuals, political opponents, and other groups were branded “unworthy,” marginalized, persecuted, and ultimately targeted for deportation and murder as part of broader Nazi racial policy.

Gender and social policy reinforced the ideal. Women were urged to fulfill roles as mothers and homemakers to strengthen the nation’s future, while men were expected to contribute through work and military service. Welfare and public works programs were promoted to foster a sense of shared benefit, even as coercion and surveillance expanded.

Scholars view Volksgemeinschaft as a tool of totalitarian control that used propaganda to mask exclusion, violence, and racial policy as a supposed expression of national unity. After World War II, the concept became a focal point of critique and condemnation.