Why did the Nazi Party grow to 1929?
The Nazi party (NSDAP) were first awarded part of the national vote in May 1924 and although losing votes proportionally each election until 1930, they did stay alive and in the Reichstag despite having lee than half the votes they had when they had entered in 1924. This fall in percentage was from 6.5% to 2.6% of the national vote. The main reasons for this survival were the quality of the organisation that the Nazi party had, the Nazi strategies as well as other small publicity claims that they involved themselves in. Mostly this was instigated through the role that Hitler himself played in the Nazi party.
Hitler’s role in the growth of the Nazi party can be demonstrated massively by his reorganisation of the party. This was instigated after Hitler had been released from prison for treason after his role in the failed Munich Pütsch of 1924. He did this by introducing the Führerprinzip which gave himself supreme power over policy and strategy for the party. A good example of this can be shown in the 25 points made by Hitler in order to structure and organise the party in common goals. Further examples of Hitler’s structuring can be seen through his introduction of the right-arm salute as a mark of respect to the Fuhrer, the introduction of the brown shirts for all of his SA storm troopers and the personal design of the Nazi Swastika. All of these things are brilliant demonstrations of the organisation instilled into the party by Hitler himself in order to give the party structure and identity. This gave the party a massive sense of appeal because it was much easier for people to easily identify the key objectives of the party as well as being able to easily relate to the party with relatively simple markings of the party. Furthermore, it gave the party a sense of unity meaning that there were less likely to be party splits in opinion, allowing the party to grow and to not suffer from divisions amongst members. Another aspect of the organisation instilled by Hitler can be shown in the regional deployment of the party. The party was organised into a series of Gaue (districts), headed by a local Gauleiter (leader) appointed by Hitler himself. This meant the party could modify itself to every different district to help apply to as many different types of people as possible. In addition to this, the Nazis also built up a series of associated organisations for young people, women, lawyers and factory workers in order to attract them to the party. This massively helped the party keep support throughout the late 1920s because of their tailored appeal to different sections of society through their organisation instilled by Hitler. This organisation filtered down into the strategies that the Nazi party used in order to keep support alive.