The Birth of the Arbeiter -- Body and Politics in the Third Reich

The role of the masculine image of arbeiter (worker) in the political culture of the German Third Reich is examined. The policies of the Nazi regime were directed toward the working class & created the image of the heroic & virile worker to convey a sense of the rise of workers to the public. The intent was not to overthrow the bourgeois public in favor of the working class as depicted in socialist iconography, but to fuse the bourgeois & workers in a disciplined arbeiter. The arbeiter figure simultaneously represented a body of great vitality & the power that could domesticate it, & conveyed the Nazi intention of disciplining workers & transforming them into the productive capacity of the regime. The masculine body of the arbeiter is discussed as a metaphor of the modern worker of equality & performance. 4 Figures, 34 References. Adapted from the source document.