In the United States and most other industrial countries, we take our roles as consumers very seriously. We speak regularly of “consumer choice,” “consumer protection,” “consumer rights,” and “consumer advocacy.” The consumer price index is a key measure of economic health, and the provision of goods and services is a multibillion-dollar industry and, arguably, the foundation of any market economy. We recognize that support for political systems can wax and wane on the basis of consumer satisfaction and that even the health of the planet depends on the monitoring of our consumption habits. In short, “consumption” and “consumer” are important keywords in the modern lexicon.

If the economic, social, and political importance of consumption is obvious to most people today, it was not so during much of the twentieth century, when elites throughout the West were trying to make sense of the democratization of the economy and the rise of mass society. At the center of this society was a new figure: the modern consumer. How important was he or she to the economic well-being and political stability of the nation-state and the global economy? Did everyone need to have access to the same goods and services for economies and political systems to function effectively? These questions were common in Europe and the United States during the twentieth century, but they took on a particular resonance in Germany, which witnessed the end of an empire, two democratic republics, and two dictatorships in the course of seventy years. The political upheavals of modern Germany challenged politicians and economists to provide both necessities and luxuries to their citizens during times of rapid transformation, while also binding them to their visions of a correct economic and political order. The twelve years of National Socialism stand out in this regard, wedged between the Great Depression and the democratic and socialist settings of West and East Germany. For the Nazis, the rejection of liberalism and Marxist socialism, combined with a racist, imperialist mission, demanded a rethinking of the basic relationship between people and the economy. The consumer played a decisive role in the Nazi economic vision. From 1933 to 1945 politicians, company leaders, and marketers devoted intense energy to learning how consumers gained material gratification and to determining the political and social implications of consumption. This book explores these elite investigations into consumers and their world of goods. What role did “getting and spending” play in National Socialist ideology and in the work of business and economic elites?