"The National Socialist People´s Welfare (German: Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, NSV) was a social welfare organization during the Third Reich. The NSV was established in 1931 as a local welfare organization; on 3 May 1933, shortly after the Nazi Party took power in Weimar Germany, Hitler turned it into a party organization of the NSDAP. The main offices were in Berlin. The structure of the NSV was based on the Nazi Party model, with local, county (Kreis) and district (Gau) administrations.
Erich Hilgenfeldt, who worked as office head at the NSV, organized a charity drive to celebrate Adolf Hitler´s birthday on 20 April, 1931. Following this move Joseph Goebbels named him the leader of the NSV. The NSV became established as the single Nazi Party welfare organ on 3 May 1933. On 21 September in the same year, Hilgenfeldt was appointed as Reich Commissioner for the Winterhilfswerk (Winter Support Programme). Under Hilgenfeldt, the programme was massively expanded so that the régime deemed it worthy to be called the "greatest social institution in the world". One method of expansion was to absorb, or in Nazi parlance coordinate, already existing yet non-Nazi charity organizations. In 1933, Hitler decreed the banning of all private charity organizations in Germany, ordering NSV chairman Hilgenfeldt to "see to the disbanding of all private welfare institutions", which provided the Nazis the means to engage in the social engineering of society through the selection of who could receive government benefits. Hitler had essentially nationalized local municipalities, German federal states and private delivery structures that had provided welfare services to the public." - (en.wikipedia.org 30.01.2020)
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