Reich Wholemeal Bread Committee
The Reich Wholemeal Bread Committee (RVBA) was an institution in National Socialist Germany created in 1939 that campaigned to increase the production and consumption of wholemeal bread . The committee was headed by the physician Franz Wirz , who in 1940 formulated the aim of the RVBA to "bring the whole grain bread question to its final solution".
background
After coming to power in 1933, the National Socialists dealt with a variety of health policy issues: large-scale campaigns against alcoholism and tobacco consumption were launched, excessive consumption of confectionery was denounced, exercise and sport were promoted at all levels. This was based on the National Socialist idea that the “ people's body ” had to be strengthened in order to achieve greater work performance, higher fertility (also in the sense of eugenics ) and greater combat strength in war. In addition, some leading National Socialists were also supporters of ethnic-romantic ideas of a simple peasant life (see Blood and Soil ) and wanted to replace the “un-German” urban way of life and nutrition with “native” food. In addition to the Reich Wholemeal Bread Committee , other institutions also served this purpose, such as the Reich Working Group on Nutrition from the Forest, created in 1939 by the Reichsärzteführer Wagner and located at the Central Office for Public Health of the NSDAP, and in 1937 the Institute for Culinary Science and the Reich Working Group for National Nutrition .
The promotion of wholemeal bread also had an economic policy dimension: The acute shortage of foreign currency and the Nazi leadership's striving for economic self-sufficiency meant that the consumption of imported fats (especially vegetable oils) should be reduced as planned. This necessarily involved a change in eating habits: the consumption of beef, bacon, butter and lard was to be reduced in order to close the macroeconomic “ fat gap ”. In contrast, the consumption of (whole-grain) bread, potatoes and oat flakes should be promoted.
Foundation and development
The life reform movement had already strongly advocated wholemeal bread from the end of the 1920s, and the head of the RVBA, Franz Wirz, was significantly influenced by its ideas. Wirz was a leading employee in the main office for public health of the NSDAP and from 1938 - sponsored by Martin Bormann - a full professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Munich . From 1936 Wirz appeared as a proponent of wholemeal bread and also published in this sense. Further influences on Wirz and the work of the RVBA came from the ideas of the Swiss doctor Max Bircher-Benner and the hygienist Werner Kollath, which were already widespread at the time .
The Reich Wholemeal Bread Committee was founded on September 1, 1939. The initiative for this came from Reich Health Leader Leonardo Conti . He himself was an avowed supporter of wholemeal bread and declared the work of the Reich Wholemeal Bread Committee in 1940 to be important to the war, since self-sufficiency in war was guaranteed by healthy wholemeal bread:
"The demands of the food industry and health management [will] be in perfect agreement [...] The fight for whole grain bread is a fight for public health"
The RVBA gathered representatives from over 40 institutions, including the Reichsnährstand , the Reich Ministry of Food , the Fuehrer's Chancellery , the four-year planning authority and the Wehrmacht High Command . The doctor Bruno Gondolatsch acted as managing director, chaired by Franz Wirz. The office was located in Berlin in a Charité building (Robert-Koch-Platz 7). Organizationally, the RVBA was subordinate to the Central Office for Public Health of the NSDAP and thus also to the National Socialist German Medical Association .
The "wholemeal bread campaign"
The RVBA ran propaganda for the consumption of whole-grain bread (especially those made from rye ) as planned. Among other things, the committee initiated the Reichsaktion for increasing the consumption of whole grain bread throughout the country , which was significantly supported by the official authorities of the NSDAP. This resulted in the appointment of Gau administrators for the whole grain bread campaign throughout the entire Reich (e.g. the prominent doctor Karl Kötschau took over this function in the Gau Franken ).
The RVBA's advertising began with press releases that were published in the state-controlled media and highlighted in particular the health-promoting effects of wholemeal bread. White bread was portrayed as an unnatural, “chemical” product, the excessive consumption of meat and fat was linked to obesity and cancer , and wholemeal bread was touted as a healthy and also inexpensive alternative. Wholemeal bread was also advertised with posters and short films in cinemas.
In addition, uniform guidelines for wholemeal bread were drawn up and wholemeal bread training courses were held throughout the Reich. Bakers whose products passed a review by the RVBA were allowed to describe themselves as wholemeal bread bakers and label their wholemeal bread with the official quality mark in the form of a rune of life (see illustration).
In 1941 there were already over 20,000 wholemeal bread bakeries, in 1943 23% of all bakeries were recognized wholemeal bread companies.
The Reich Wholemeal Bread Committee was active until April 1945. Some of his proponents (including Franz Wirz) were able to gain a foothold in the German Nutrition Society after the war .
literature
- Uwe Spiekermann : Whole grains for the leaders. On the history of wholemeal bread policy in the "Third Reich". In: 1999. Journal for Social History of the 20th and 21st Century. Vol. 16 (2001), pp. 91-128.
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert N. Proctor: Blitzkrieg against cancer. Health and Propaganda in the Third Reich. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-608-91031-X , p. 332.
- ^ Ernst Klee : German Medicine in the Third Reich. Careers before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-10-039310-4 , p. 52.
- ↑ Detlef Briesen: The healthy life: nutrition and health since the 18th century. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-593-39154-0 , p. 102 ff.
- ↑ Tim Schanetzky : Cannons instead of butter. Economy and Consumption in the Third Reich. CH Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-67515-7 , pp. 143f.
- ^ Jörg Melzer: Whole Foods Nutrition: Dietetics, Naturopathy, National Socialism, Social Claims . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08278-6 , p. 189.
- ^ Robert N. Proctor: Blitzkrieg against cancer. Health and Propaganda in the Third Reich. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-608-91031-X , p. 147f.
- ^ Jörg Melzer: Whole Foods Nutrition: Dietetics, Naturopathy, National Socialism, Social Claims . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08278-6 , p. 193.
- ↑ Ecological places of remembrance: Sarah Waltenberger: Whole grain bread