Editing Strength Through Joy (section)

=== At home and abroad ===
The Sports Office organized several sports events and classes throughout the operation of KdF. In the summer months, activities such as horse riding, sailing and swimming were offered<ref name=":1" /> with KdF emphasizing track and field activities. Gymnastics became an increasingly popular sport for German women during this time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Krüger |first=Arnd |date=1993 |title=Germany and Sports in WWII |url=https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/shr/24/1/article-p52.xml |journal=Canadian Journal of History of Sport |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=52–62|doi=10.1123/cjhs.24.1.52 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> During the winter, KdF organized activities such as skiing, ice skating and winter hiking. Most of its activities and events occurred on weekends, and its volunteers, who were mostly unsalaried schoolteachers, taught exercise and sports classes. KdF would use local school [[gymnasiums]] or meeting halls and offer courses people could attend without prior registration, known as 'open courses,' for the price of 30 [[Pfennig|pfennings]] per 90 minutes. 'Closed courses' required participants to register for the entire course, cost 80 pfennings per 90 minutes, and often covered more skilled sports such as boxing, golf and rowing.  Activities organized early in KdF's existence often deliberately left out competition, training and expectations of high performance. This was intended to focus the course on the production of joy and improvement of the population's health.<ref>Bernett, Hajo (2017). ''Sport und Schulsport in der NS-Diktatur''. Brill | Schöningh. pp. 283–330. {{ISBN|978-3-657-78747-0}}.</ref> Another reason for it may have been that the government sought to prevent opposition between participating groups, and rather promote and encourage cooperation. In 1939, KdF was awarded the [[Olympic Cup]] by the [[International Olympic Committee]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Juergen Wagner |title=The olympic cup |url=http://www.olympic-museum.de/awards/olympic_cup.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060623145224/http://www.olympic-museum.de/awards/olympic_cup.htm |archive-date=2006-06-23 |access-date=2006-10-15 |work=olympic-museum.de}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1974-062-16, KdF-Theaterzug.jpg|left|thumb|A KdF ''Theaterzug'' delivering equipment]]
The Leisure Time Office offered a variety of different activities and discounts for workers. Offering discounted ticket packages to theatres for films, musicals and plays for workers in cities, KdF also organized events to occur in rural areas by utilizing buses, called ''Theaterzüge,'' equipped with film projectors and loudspeakers<ref>{{Cite web |title=Theater bus of the Nazi organization 'Kraft durch Freude' |url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-theater-bus-of-the-nazi-organization-kraft-durch-freude-48338842.html |access-date=26 April 2022 |website=Alamy}}</ref> as well as organizing productions using mobile stages. With the approval of the propaganda ministry, the [[Großes Schauspielhaus|Great Theatre]] (''Großes Schauspielhaus)'' in Berlin was renamed the 'Theatre of the People' (''Theater des Volkes'') and was established as the official theatre of KdF, with numerous other KdF theatres opening in major cities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gadberry |first=Glen W. |title=Theatre in the Third Reich, the Prewar Years |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1995 |isbn=0-313-29516-6 |location=Connecticut |page=11}}</ref> The Adult Education Office similarly used these theatres for showings of propaganda films, alongside the film buses. Employing civilian performers as well as organizing performances of their own orchestras, by 1938 KdF had sponsored and offered ticket packages to performances such as ''[[As You Like It]]'' by [[William Shakespeare]] and ''[[Journey's End]]'' by [[R.C. Sheriff|R.C. Sherriff]], but over time the performances would be replaced almost entirely by propagandistic pieces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mosse |first=George L. |title=Nazi Culture |publisher=Schocken Books |year=1966 |isbn=0-8052-0668-X |location=New York |pages=188–190}}</ref> Other notable performances included ''[[Wibbel the Tailor (play)|Wibbel the Tailor]]'' and ''[[The Land of Smiles]].'' Following the declaration of [[total war]], most musicians and performers utilized by the KdF were used for troop entertainment.
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P050068, Jüterbog, Theatergruppe der KdF-Bühne.jpg|left|thumb|Traveling KdF theatre performers]]
The Office for Travel, Hiking, and Holidays offered various discounted vacation trips, ranging in length from day and weekend trips to one week or upwards of three weeks. Taking travelers via rail and bus to their destinations, within Germany or its occupied and annexed territories, the office organized activities such as hiking trips and swimming excursions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hamburger |first=Ernest |date=1945 |title=Significance of the Nazi Leisure Time Program |journal=Social Research |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=227–249 |jstor=40982073 }}</ref> In most destinations hotelkeepers and some local businesses saw increased profits thanks to the increasing number of tourists, as did the ''[[Deutsche Reichsbahn]]'' (German National Railway). Popular extended holiday destinations included the Alps, the Black Forest, and the coasts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, but most of the trips booked were overnight or over a weekend.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Nazi Germany and Southern Europe, 1933–45: science, culture and politics |editor=Fernando Clara |editor2=Cláudia Ninhos |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-137-55152-8 |location=London |page=41 |oclc=961903415}}</ref> Two weeks after the [[Anschluss]], when [[SS-Gruppenführer]] [[Josef Bürckel]] became ''Reichskommissar für die Wiedervereinigung'' ('Reich Commissioner for Reunification') as well as [[Gauleiter]], the first five KdF trains with some 2,000 Austrian workers left for [[Passau]] where they were ceremonially welcomed. While Bürckel announced that he did not expect all of the travelers to return as Nazis, he did expect them to look him in the eyes and say, "I tried hard to understand you."<ref>Anna Rosmus ''Hitlers Nibelungen'', Samples Grafenau 2015, pp. 142ff</ref> Many KdF travelers complained of their trips, noting poor travel conditions, second-class treatment by locals and the KdF alike, and little free time, thanks to the regimentation of activities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pine |first=Lisa |title=Life and Times in Nazi Germany |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4742-1795-8 |location=UK |pages=143–144}}</ref>
[[File:Wilhelm Walther, An, Bord, 1 EF, KDF', +, 1-131-132-8164.tif|thumb|Travelers aboard a KdF cruise enjoying an orchestra performance]]

Most famously, the office also offered discounted cruise trips to German citizens. Although not initially planned to be a program offered by KdF, the initial successes of the cruises led to six large ships, including the [[MV Wilhelm Gustloff|MV ''Wilhelm Gustloff'']], being built specifically for use by KdF while a further six were chartered. They were first ships to be built specifically for cruises. They were collectively known as the KdF fleet, with the [[MV Robert Ley|MV ''Robert Ley'']] being considered as its flagship. Through these cruises Nazism was promoted internationally, and KdF travelers therefore were expected to represent it positively by dressing modestly and behaving appropriately. Ship events included [[Masquerade ball|masquerades]], political and educational lectures, and events dedicated to displaying customs of individual German regions, such as shows of dance groups performing dances from their home regions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Timpe |first=Julia |title=Nazi-Organized Recreation and Entertainment in the Third Reich |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-137-53193-3 |page=28}}</ref> Drinking alcohol was prohibited, and the government planted spies on ships instructed to pose as passengers and monitor participants' behavior. Cruise trips were sometimes offered as prizes in KdF competitions, but were largely affordable; an eighteen-day trip to [[Madeira]] cost 120 [[Reichsmark]]s, the equivalent to about four weeks' average salary at the time, and a seven-day trip to Norway cost about 50 Reichsmarks. Although cruises were inexpensive, workers were often greatly underrepresented on these voyages, with most of KdF's cruise participants being from the middle class. Following [[Operation Barbarossa|Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union]], tourism opportunities were suspended and the organization shifted to more domestic activities and troop entertainment; up until this point, KdF had sold more than 45 million package tours and excursions, totaling over 700,000 German travelers.<ref name="Kraft-durch-Freude-tourism 2007, p.125">[[Hasso Spode]], Some quantitative aspects of Kraft-durch-Freude-tourism. In: Dritsas, Margerita (ed.): European Tourism and Culture, Athens 2007, p. 125</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spode |first=Hasso |date=2004 |title=Fordism, Mass Tourism and the Third Reich: The "Strength through Joy" Seaside Resort as an Index Fossil |journal=Journal of Social History |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=127–155 |doi=10.1353/jsh.2004.0107 |jstor=3790030 |s2cid=143532651 }}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27992, Lazarettschiff "Wilhelm Gustloff" in Danzig.jpg|left|thumb|The cruise ship [[MV Wilhelm Gustloff|''Wilhelm Gustloff'']] served the Strength Through Joy program during 1937–1939]]
The Nazi government also sought to attract tourists from abroad, a task performed by {{lang|de|[[Hermann Esser]]|italic=no}}, one of the secretaries of the {{lang|de|Ministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda}} ('[[Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda]]'). A series of multilingual and colourful brochures, titled ''Deutschland'', advertised Germany as a peaceful, idyllic and progressive country, on one occasion even portraying the ministry's boss, {{lang|de|[[Joseph Goebbels]]|italic=no}}, grinning in an unlikely photo series of the [[Cologne carnival]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Shown here, Goebbels at right|url=http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-56994-galleryV9-jvoz.jpg|format=JPG|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831002333/http://www.spiegel.de/images/image-56994-galleryV9-jvoz.jpg|archive-date=2018-08-31|website=spiegel.de}}</ref>

Following [[Operation Barbarossa|Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union]], tourism opportunities were suspended and the organization shifted to more domestic activities and troop entertainment; up until this point, KdF had sold more than 45 million package tours and excursions, totaling over 700,000 German travelers.<ref name="Kraft-durch-Freude-tourism 2007, p.125">[[Hasso Spode]], Some quantitative aspects of Kraft-durch-Freude-tourism. In: Dritsas, Margerita (ed.): European Tourism and Culture, Athens 2007, p. 125</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spode |first=Hasso |date=2004 |title=Fordism, Mass Tourism and the Third Reich: The "Strength through Joy" Seaside Resort as an Index Fossil |journal=Journal of Social History |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=127–155 |doi=10.1353/jsh.2004.0107 |jstor=3790030 |s2cid=143532651}}</ref> By 1939, it had 7,000 employees and over 135,000 volunteers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shelley |first=Baranowski |title=Strength through joy: consumerism and mass tourism in the Third Reich |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-521-70599-8 |page=49 |oclc=1055679453}}</ref>