Aus Not geboren!

Focusing on the health risks of modern urban life, this film foreshadows several major themes that would become closely associated with Nazi public health policies. These include the importance of outdoor activities and healthy foods or campaigns against alcohol and tobacco. Coordinated mass exercise became a common feature of Nazi Party rallies, Nazi youth groups, and the regime’s “Strength through Joy” program, but these activities were all informed by pre-existing German traditions of gymnastics and outdoor recreation. “Born Out of Necessity” shows how many of the defining aspects of the Nazi regime’s public health policies were actually rooted in longstanding German traditions or the medical and cultural atmosphere of the Weimar Republic.