Reichsarbeitdienst

Reich Labour Service

Reichsarbeitsdienst - RAD
House flag with RAD symbol
A RAD squad in 1940
Agency overview
Formed	26 June 1935
Preceding agencies	Frewilliger Arbeitsdienst (FAD) Nationalsozialistischer Arbeitsdienst (NSAD)
Dissolved	8 May 1945
Type	Labor Army
Jurisdiction	Nazi Germany Occupied Europe
Headquarters	Berlin–Grunewald 52°29′31″N 13°17′6″E / 52.49194°N 13.28500°E / 52.49194; 13.28500
Employees	200,000 (1935) 350,000 (October 1939)
Agency executive	Konstantin Hierl
Parent agency	Reich Ministry of the Interior

The Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Nazi ideology. It was the official state labour service, divided into separate sections for men and women.

From June 1935 onward, men aged between 18 and 25 had to serve six months before their military service. During World War II compulsory service also included young women and the RAD developed to an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht armed forces.

In the course of the Great Depression, the German government of the Weimar Republic under Chancellor Heinrich Brüning by emergency decree had established the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst ('Voluntary Labour Service', FAD) on 5 June 1931, two years before the Nazi Party (NSDAP) ascended to national power. The state sponsored employment organisation provided services to civic and land improvement projects, from 16 July 1932 it was headed by Friedrich Syrup in the official rank of a Reichskommissar. The idea of a national compulsory service was quite popular, especially in right-wing circles, but it had little effect on the economic situation.

The concept was adopted by Adolf Hitler, who upon the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 appointed Konstantin Hierl state secretary in the Reich Ministry of Labour, responsible for FAD matters. Hierl was already a high-ranking member of the NSDAP and head of the party's labour organization, the Nationalsozialistischer Arbeitsdienst or NSAD. Hierl developed the concept of a state labour service organisation similar to the Reichswehr army, with a view to implementing a compulsory service. Meant as an evasion of the regulations set by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, voluntariness initially was maintained after protests by the Geneva World Disarmament Conference.