Germans were encouraged to enjoy a variety of leisure activities in the 1930s. Among other goals, the emphasis on leisure aimed to reinforce the notion that National Socialism was improving everyday life and to showcase Germany’s economic recovery. At the time, most Germans were unable to purchase more than a few new or large consumer items each year. Wages were kept artificially low, and most economic expansion came in sectors that supported the armed forces, not consumers. However, one hobby that increased in popularity in the 1930s, among those who could afford it, was photography, which was popularized by photojournalists such as Hanns Hubmann, who is pictured here photographing a young woman. Hubmann worked for the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung from 1935 to 1939 and served in various propaganda units during the Second World War. (Many of his photographs are featured in this project.) Professionals were not the only people who used cameras, however. Simple cameras were relatively affordable, and many Germans eagerly captured their daily lives on film. This enthusiasm for photography also led many soldiers to bring their cameras to war. They used them to document their wartime experiences, including, in some cases, war crimes in the occupied territories.