J05. Nazi Party & Knorr Bremse in Cooperation

Knorr-Bremse AG is a German manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has been in business for over 110 years. Today the company employs shy of 30,000 people.

This 1935 photo album depicts an outing to the German Alps by 38 teenage boys in Knorr-Bremse’s vocational school. In the introduction, the boys thank the leadership of Knorr-Bremse and the Strength Through Joy (NS Gemeinschaft Kraft durch Freude) state operating leisure organization whose purpose it was to promote Nazism through subsidized leisure activities. These 14-16 year old boys would be of “prime” fighting age during the later World War.

The album documents the close cooperation between German industry and the Nazi government and it illustrates how social programs promoting fitness and leisure were used in the mid-1930’s as propaganda and to build loyalty to the ruling party. Likely produced in very small quantities as a thank you gift and souvenir for the participants. We were not able to locate another copy anywhere.