Reichsausstellung Schaffendes Volk (1937)

The Reichsausstellung Schaffendes Volk (The Reich's Exhibition of a Productive People) of 1937 was held in the North Park district of Dusseldorf, Germany, along one mile of the Rhine shorline. It was opened on May 8, 1937 by Hermann Goering. Through October of the same year it attracted more than six million visitors.

Planned in secret and deliberately designed as a rival to the 1937 International Exposition of Modern Life in Paris, the exhibition was meant to showcase the domestic accomplishments of the National Socialists in new housing, art, and science during their four years in power. The fair's director was Dr. Ernst Poensgen. The exhibition was laid out in four main divisions: industry and economics, land utilization and city planning, material progress (with an emphasis on progress in synthetics), and arts and culture.

Through the publicity efforts of its CEO, Max Keith, a functioning Coca-Cola GmbH bottling plant stood at the center of the fairgrounds, with a miniature train for children, and immediately adjacent to the Propaganda Office.

Sources

• New York Times, April 26, 1937
• extensive online schaffendesvolk source (in German)
• Mark Pendergrast (2000). For God, Country and Coca-Cola. Basic Books, pg. 220
• Dusseldorf municipal history site, with photos