This article outlines a Nazi Party initiative to reshape German domestic life, advocating for the creation of specifically designed household items and celebratory practices. The aim is to foster a stronger sense of national identity and align private lives with Nazi ideology.
Specific examples include redesigned cradles, wedding paraphernalia, and Christmas decorations, all imbued with Germanic symbolism.
The distribution of the plan was strictly controlled, reaching only high-ranking party officials. The text also underscores the importance of German craftsmanship in creating these items.
The core idea is that a person’s home, family life, and celebrations should reflect National Socialist principles. Here’s a breakdown of how this is envisioned:
The Home as a Reflection of Ideology
- The home environment should be created and shaped by National Socialist ideals. This includes furniture, decorations, and overall atmosphere.
- The document criticizes the “unbalanced” and “uneven” state of homes due to unfavorable examples from previous decades. It asserts that political leaders should lead by example in creating exemplary homes.
- The goal is to guide the entire population towards what suits their “inner nature”, encompassing all aspects of life.
- The text stresses the importance of “solid German craftsmanship” in household goods, promoting items that reflect a “German sense of form” and the “spiritual attitude of the Germanic-German people”.
Festivals and Celebrations
- National Socialism aims to transform traditional festivals, which are seen as having lost their true meaning. There is a desire to create “supporting customs” to fill the perceived “emptiness and dissatisfaction”.
- The message focuses on three key celebrations: birth, marriage, and death, and seeks to imbue them with National Socialist meanings.
- Birth: The father is to take responsibility for the “cradle festival”. A life candlestick with a life rune is lit for the new-born. Gifts like document boxes, name signs, and decorated cradles are encouraged.
- Marriage: The wedding celebration is also to take place within the circle of loved ones. A candlestick is lit to protect the life of the couple, and an ancestral chest is introduced to connect them with the family’s past. A meaningfully carved door, bowl, and bread plate also play a role.
- Death: A life candle is lit for the last time at the funeral ceremony, with the hope that another child will carry on the life task. Memorial stones or wooden monuments with appropriate inscriptions should be used.
- Easter and Christmas: Easter celebrations are to take place outdoors, with wooden eggs filled with sweets given to both children and adults. Christmas should be transformed from a children’s festival back into a family celebration, with a tree decorated with shaped bread, a tradition the author claims is rooted in “folk culture”.
Specific Objects and Symbols
- The text mentions specific objects designed to embody National Socialist principles:
- Life candlesticks with life runes
- Ancestral and clan chests
- Carved doors
- Wooden bread plates with Germanic symbols
- Julrad (Yule wheel) as a Christmas tree base
- Ceiling lights with Viking Age carvings
- Candlesticks for birthdays
- Family trees with candles for those still alive.
- The emphasis is on creating objects that reflect a connection to the past and Germanic tradition, and to instill a strong connection with family and clan.
- There is a clear rejection of Jewish influences, with the text stating that “Jewish-Talmudic sayings should not hang from our walls, but rather the Führer’s words”.
Leadership and Implementation
- Political leaders are expected to set an example by creating homes that reflect these values. It is stated that the party and people will follow suit.
- The article was intended for distribution to leaders in the Gaue, districts, and local groups, to inform the responsible leaders so they can implement these practices. This confidentiality notice indicates that this document is part of a plan to systematically promote these ideas.
In summary, National Socialist ideology, aims to deeply influence all facets of domestic life and cultural practices by imbuing them with its ideological beliefs and symbols. This is intended to create a cohesive cultural identity rooted in family, clan, and Germanic tradition while also explicitly rejecting perceived outside influences.
The full article attributed to Wolfgang Schulz and published in “Der Hoheitsträger” magazine is translated by NS-Kunst below. Of note, each magazine is marked “Confidential” , with a serial number for each copy of the magazine and the following Confidentiality Notice is printed;
“Distribution plan for the Gaue, districts and local groups:
The “Hoheitsträger”, the contents of which are to be treated confidentially, is only intended to inform the responsible leaders. It may not be loaned to other people. According to the order of the Reich Organization Leader, the following sovereign and political leaders in the Gaue, districts and local groups receive it:
Gau leader, Deputy Gau leader, Full-time Gau office leader, Gau representative for training letters, head of the Gau training castles, District leader, District personnel office leader, District organization leader, District training leader, District manager, District treasurer, District propaganda leader, District press office leader, District judge of the NSDAP, District foremen of the DAF, Local group leader.
In addition:
Commanders, Stammführer and Junker of the Ordensburgen, the Reich, shock troop and district speakers of the NSDAP, the senior group leaders and group leaders of the SA, SS, NSKK, NSFK, the senior regional leaders and regional leaders of the HJ, the work district leaders of the RAD, the office heads of the Reich student leadership, the district student leaders.”
The translated article:
One Recognizes a National Socialist by His Home!
An unspoken duty of political leaders and all party members is to align their own lives with the National Socialist idea. It is one of the most beautiful tasks and one that is worth every effort.
Our own orientation also includes, above all, our environment, which we create and shape ourselves; that is, our family, our home, our celebrations. The strength we draw from here fills us so that we can do many other things with more joy, enthusiasm and conviction. We only find true faith when we lead by example and do not just call on others to follow suit with words.
It is not surprising that the home is so uneven and unbalanced, since the examples of the last few decades have been so unfavourable; and not everyone can create their own furniture, pictures and equipment, and then in such a way that they are exemplary. That is why the way must first be shown here, and it is self-evident to us that the sovereigns and political leaders must also lead the way here.
In these matters too, National Socialism wants to encompass our entire people and lead them to what best suits them, what is in keeping with their inner nature. Likewise, the festivals are no longer what they should be, and this creates an emptiness and dissatisfaction within us. We are not really ourselves and cannot arrive at the right thing by mere deliberation; we lack the supporting customs.
In many things, therefore, we are at the very beginning and sometimes the objection cannot be avoided without reproach that something still seems too thought out and made; but we need time and patience so that the valuable things emerge from the experiments and the customs take root.
A large number of our political leaders feel the need to finally have something as a basis here and will gladly take it. The church, for example, has taken over or absorbed many things that should have been done by the family. This is precisely how emergency solutions and wrong developments in our national life arose, and even bad habits that also took good customs with them or made them unpleasant.
Today we want to turn to the festivals of the clan and the decoration of the home from a few objects; these are objects that I have been working on for years and that can now be presented to the wider community. They are works of art that, in addition to their craftsmanship and unique artistic design, also have the advantage that they were created from a strong feeling for the people and folklore and knowledge of tradition. I will begin with the three main celebrations in human life:
The cradle festival, the celebration of the birth of a child, is held independently as a celebration in a small circle of the clan, something new for many. However, we are firmly of the opinion that the father must take on this responsibility again. We do not want to imitate any church ceremonies, except we recognize that these were customs of their own, which the church did not shy away from imitating our ancestors.
It was an old custom to light a candle for a new-born; it came from the idea that life is like a light and that the Norns, for example, guard the light as long as life lasts. But since we no longer take a whole log and a candle alone is too fleeting, we light a candle on a life candlestick, which is now to be the child’s own.
In place of the child, the old life rune stands in the candlestick shown; the arches on both sides surround it, as the parents care for and protect the child.
Another gift is a box for documents, mementos, family jewellery.
A sign on the wall with the child’s name carved into it will always be a fond memory for the parents. The young mother could receive a piece of jewellery with a pendant, into which further pendants can be hooked for later births.
A beautiful cradle painted or carved with a tree of life and paired animals, fabrics, jewellery are meaningful gifts.
The next most important celebration in life is the wedding. Two people unite in the circle of their loved ones and friends.
The room is decorated accordingly; a candlestick with the lights of life symbolizes that they want to protect the life and inheritance that is familiar to them.
An ancestral and clan chest for documents, jewelry, valuable fabrics, an ancestral candlestick (at the top space for the Name plates and lights of the children, below on the right and left for man and woman and downwards on both sides for both ancestors) traditionally establishes the connection to our ideas of people and clan.
The bride and groom enter their new home through a meaningfully carved door; bowl and bread plate tell of the duties towards life.
The end of life is the funeral ceremony.
We light the life candle or candle on the ancestral tree for the last time; may a child soon revive the extinguished candle and continue the life task. A memorial stone or a wooden monument; we want to ensure that our ideas and characteristics are expressed there too.
Now to the festivals in the year: some are festivals of the large national community, others of the clan. This is especially true of Easter and consecration. Easter is already being moved outdoors, but large wooden Easter eggs filled with sweets are a gift for children as well as for adults.
Christmas is completely tied to the home, and we must start to transform it from a children’s festival into a clan festival again. The solstice celebrations of the groups take precedence. The green tree is in itself a symbol of life, which is further emphasized by the apples and nuts hanging on it.
Instead of all the junk, we hang shaped bread on the tree again; the shapes are still alive in our folk culture; the pieces are made of gingerbread.
If it gets to the point where many political leaders build their environment in this way, the party and the people will also take an example from this and our ideological orientation will begin to deepen considerably. It is often the small things that make the difference and it is precisely in their simplicity that they are compelling. On birthdays or other festive occasions, the light burns on the family tree in the form of a candle for everyone who is still alive.
They alone are the guiding principles of our lives.
Editor’s note: The household goods industry is only slowly beginning to follow the radical transformation. We must therefore promote all efforts that bring solid German craftsmanship back to the fore. We see the craftsman who produces household goods based on a German sense of form as an essential designer and bearer of German living culture. So let us allow the solid craftsman to produce our beautiful German household goods again. In doing so, we are leading him back to his great task of making the spiritual attitude of the Germanic-German people visible in his household goods.