Dorothee Hochstetter. Motorisierung und 'Volksgemeinschaft': Das Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK) 1931-1945. München: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005. 536 S. EUR 69.80, cloth, ISBN 978-3-486-57570-5.

Reviewed by Thomas Zeller

Published on H-German (February, 2007)

When it became known during the Waldheim auspices of the NSKK was far from apolitical. On afair of 1986 that later Austrian president Kurt three major levels, the NSKK worked towards Waldheim had lied about his service as an ofcer Nazi goals: the training of a hundreds of thou‐ in the SA-Reiterkorps (the cavalry corps of the sands of capable motorists whose skills were used storm troopers) and about his time as an ordi‐ in World War II, the Nazifcation of sports racing nance ofcer in Greece during World War II, in Germany and Europe, and the participation of Waldheim's opponent in the presidential race NSKK members in the Holocaust. Most of this will mocked him by stating that not Waldheim him‐ be news to historians of Germany. This study, self, but only his horse, had been a member of the therefore, deserves wide attention and contrib‐ SA-Reiterkorps. The joke was on Waldheim, but it utes to our understanding of both the history of raised the issue of the allegedly unimportant sub- Nazi Germany and the contested process of mo‐ organizations of the Nazi party, which attracted torization in this country. Hochstetter's book re‐ hundred of thousands of members interested in minds us that the spread of automobiles and equestrian or other supposedly apolitical pur‐ trucks in the twentieth century was neither in‐ suits. For historians of the Nazi regime, the ques‐ evitable nor apolitical. While Americans often tion is whether these organizations were indeed tend to think of cars and roads as emblems of as politically innocent as many of their members freedom, the German context and the very Ameri‐ claimed after 1945 and what specifc role they can Henry Ford make it clear that automobility flled under the dictatorship. possessed quite difering political meanings un‐ Dorothee Hochstetter's voluminous study of der diferent regimes. the National Socialist Motorist Corps (National‐ Providing his country with cars and roads sozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps, or NSKK), the mo‐ was one of Hitler's earliest political goals. The dic‐ torized equivalent of the Reiterkorps, shows that tator was as enamored of Henry Ford's anti‐ driving a car or learning to drive one under the semitism as he was of his production of mass-pro‐ H-Net Reviews duced vehicles for a broad market. The Volkswa‐ more, it took over some of the work of state-li‐ gen efort largely failed under the Nazis while the censed driving instructors, Jewish or not, and was push for roads materialized in the form of the Au‐ responsible for training the tens of thousands of tobahnen. The NSKK's role in all of this was to Germans who were learning to drive. NSKK of‐ "motorize" the Volksgemeinschaft. Founded in cials supervised the "Motor-HJ," a branch of the 1930 under a slightly diferent name, the NSKK Hitler Youth in which youngsters could learn how was a department of the SA until the "Night of the to ride and repair motorcycles and cars. All over Long Knives" in 1934. After this event, Hitler the Reich, the NSKK set up 26 "Motor‐ turned the NSKK into an independent organiza‐ sportschulen" that, despite their sportive name, tion under the umbrella of the NSDAP. In true were training sites for future soldiers; 180,000 of Nazi fashion, the organization was made up of a their graduates received driving licenses before complex hierarchical bureaucracy, with regional 1939. In efect, the NSKK became part of the Nazi "Motorobergruppen," diferent ranks, uniforms preparation for the military conquest of Europe. and a host of publications. Neither ownership of a There can be no doubt that learning how a motor‐ car nor membership in the Nazi party was a pre‐ cycle or car works and operating one when they requisite for joining the NSKK, whose ranks were still scarce was an exciting venture, especial‐ swelled to 500,000 by 1941. The "Korpsführer," or ly for German males, whose defnition of mas‐ NSKK leader, was Adolf Hühnlein (1881-1942). Yet, culinity included love of modern technology. At Hühnlein's weak personality seems to have been the same time, it becomes clear from Hochstet‐ no match for the main political actors in the force‐ ter's study that this popular enthusiasm was as ful, if inconsistent, Nazi push for cars and roads. closely connected to war as a hubcap is to a Fritz Todt, the General Inspector for the German wheel. Road System and the Reich's chief engineer, arro‐ In the feld of motor sports, the NSKK tried to gated powers from the erstwhile German states exploit the growing popularity of races, which and the Reich department of transportation. In‐ had already attracted large crowds during the deed, Hühnlein's and the NSKK's role in high-level 1920s. It attempted to control drivers, car manu‐ decision-making was marginal, as Hochstetter facturers and audiences as well as events them‐ shows. A "scary" public speaker, as Joseph selves. In her nuanced analysis, Hochstetter ad‐ Goebbels confded to his diary, and not as politi‐ mits that the NSKK was especially unsuccessful cally savvy as other Nazi leaders, Hühnlein was when it came to controlling drivers, with their relegated to representing the NSKK at races and risk-taking, hypertrophically male individualism, awarding prizes. In public, he always wore which also fed on notions of heroism. The race car spurred boots, earning him the nickname "ges‐ driver Hans Stuck, for instance, continued his ca‐ pornter Heini" (p. 129). reer despite being married to a Jewish tennis Still, the periphery of Hühnlein's position player and journalist, Paula von Reznicek; Stuck does not mean that the organization as a whole happened to enjoy Hitler's personal protection. was irrelevant. First of all, the NSKK was one of Still, the NSKK succeeded in broadening the popu‐ the agents in "Aryanizing" the feld of automobiles lar base for motor races and freeing them from and motor sports and of motorizing "Aryans." their former elitist status, according to Hochstet‐ Membership in the NSKK was restricted to appli‐ ter. cants classifed as "Aryan." Hühnlein urged the Lastly, the NSKK played an important role in automobile industry to fre employees classifed the logistics of the National Socialist Party and the as Jewish. The NSKK also pushed for restricting Wehrmacht before and during World War II. Nazi the work of Jewish driving instructors. What is

2 H-Net Reviews party speakers and foreign guests were transport‐ governance. Her analysis shows that this goal is ed by NSKK ofcers; the organization was respon‐ elusive, given the inferior role of the organization sible for parts of the logistics of the party's public in making top-level decisions. Instead, Hochstetter celebrations. In some cities, local NSKK men par‐ reviews many aspects of transportation in the ticipated in the November 1938 pogroms. In Janu‐ Third Reich, even if they are only tangential to the ary 1939, Hitler charged the NSKK with motorized NSKK itself. These somewhat lengthy sections are preparation for war. Besides having trained well-researched, but readers knowledgeable young Germans on their wheels, the organization about Nazi transportation will fnd them less orig‐ integrated its services into the Wehrmacht. Start‐ inal than the chapters on the NSKK itself; they ing in the fall of 1939, the NSKK became responsi‐ could easily have been trimmed in the interest of ble for the entire logistics of the "Westwall," a for‐ stringency. In the end, Hochstetter's main contri‐ tifcation on the Reich's western border. Through‐ bution is to show how the NSKK, by spreading out the war, the organization trained thousands knowledge and skills regarding cars and trucks, of future car and truck drivers for the Wehrma‐ both exploited and expanded the popularity of cht, procured supplies for the front and chauf‐ these new technologies. Simultaneously, this or‐ feured military personnel. Some ten NSKK "trans‐ chestrated process was wound up in the Nazi port regiments" assisted mostly the Luftwafe. In regime's preparation for and execution of war. occupied Poland, NSKK units harassed the local As any useful study does, this one opens up population under the guise of enforcing German new questions. One wonders, for example, about trafc laws. By 1941, SS chief Heinrich Himmler National Socialist ideas of masculinity and femi‐ employed nine NSKK companies with some 600 ninity and how they related to training behind the men in Ukraine and Russia, whose members wheel. Hochstetter states that "active service" in killed thousands of Jews. None of these NSKK the NSKK was prohibited for women after Octo‐ killers appear to have been charged for their ber 1934. Women could only become supporting crimes after 1945. members and were excluded from driving Hochstetter's study is thus a valuable addition lessons. While Nazi propaganda celebrated fe‐ to the literature on cars, roads, and motor sports male "fying aces" such as Elly Beinhorn, its prom‐ in the Third Reich and on the relationships be‐ inent race car drivers were almost exclusively tween technology and Nazism. She successfully male. Beinhorn's husband Bernd Rosemeyer, who debunks the myth that the NSKK was an "apoliti‐ died in 1938 while setting a speed record, is a case cal" organization. Yet, it was precisely this stance in point. What exactly was "manly" about driving that allowed former members to portray their a car and why were female pilots acceptable? membership after 1945 as trivial. When the au‐ What were the legacies of this gender-based ex‐ thor interviewed some former members in 1999, clusion from driving in the two successor states of they claimed that their "technical" jobs were not Nazi Germany?[1] Secondly, Hochstetter's study, related to the repressive side of the regime. If one as the pioneering one on the organization, rightly needed further evidence that technology is as po‐ stresses the top-down, heavy-handed eforts of litical as the societies which create it, this study Nazi instruction on how to handle cars and provides it. trucks. Could one conceive of other, counterintu‐ The book's focus is, however, not always itive efects of spreading motoring skills by using clear. In the introduction, the author sets out to the consumer angle rather than the regulatory write an organizational history of the NSKK and one? For instance, how did ftful motorization its functioning in the National Socialist system of change social relationships in the countryside? In the American hinterlands, where driving dis‐

3 H-Net Reviews tances are admittedly longer, early motorists re‐ member access to automobiles as contributing to the break-up of spatially constricted sets of rela‐ tionships.[2] Did the German Provinz see similar developments? What agency, if any, did con‐ sumers have in the process under such dictatorial conditions? If future research engages these kinds of questions, it will fnd Hochstetter's study indis‐ pensable. Notes [1]. See the classical account for the United States: Virginia Scharf, Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age (New York: Free Press, 1991). [2]. See Ronald R. Kline, Consumers in the Country: Technology and Social Change in Rural America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).

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Citation: Thomas Zeller. Review of Hochstetter, Dorothee. Motorisierung und 'Volksgemeinschaft': Das Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK) 1931-1945. H-German, H-Net Reviews. February, 2007.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12888

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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