Another strong supporter of the Nazi party was the youth of the time. This may have been for many reasons. The first and most simple one could have simply been the desire for change or the desire to go against the current system. Hitler provided this and this eventually lead to the creation of the Hitler youth etc. They may also have been drawn by Hitler's promise of strong leadership, which was lacking greatly at the time.
In support of the statement that the Nazi party was a people’s party it has been shown that both men and women both supported the Nazi party in elections and so it was obliviously, adverse to popular belief a largely sexless party.
The majority of the support for the party however came mostly from the petty bourgeoisie. These were shopkeepers etc and were usually middle class citizens. There was large support from this group at the time and this could have been for many reasons. For example, as many of them owned their own businesses and were self employed then the promise of economic stability would have been a high contributing factor to the fact that people supported them. They may also have been attracted by the propaganda, which was being heavily used by the Nazis. This appealed to the emotions and helped people be aware of what the Nazis stood for and build up their popularity. It could also have been because of their attraction to Hitler and the promise of a strong leader. The Nazis were promising the ‘third Reich’ and to some this strong leadership was what they thought Germany needed at the time and so they gave their support.
There was some, but not a great deal of support also from the working class. The Nazis did try very hard with the use of propaganda etc, to appeal to the working class. They were mostly supporting more left wing groups like the socialists because of what they stood for. However some did change and vote Nazi but they were small in number. The leader, Adolf Hitler, may have attracted them as he was a man who had come up from below and also he may have attracted voters because of his promise, again, for a strong and united Germany. There was mass unemployment at the time and so the promise of a strong country would have attracted some voters from the working class. It has been shown here that some support from all of the class divisions have been found. Propaganda will also have had a large effect on the voters from the working class as, after the Dawes plan many politicians were more interested in he reparations than the people. Hitler said he would change this through propaganda with the use of slogans such as ‘First bread, then Reparations’ and the promise of ‘Work and Bread’. This will have attracted the working class, as it would offer them a way out of poverty and hunger. The middle, working and Upper class all in some degree supported the Nazis. This supports the idea that they are a ‘peoples party’ as no class divisions lie in the support for the Nazis.
The Nazis did actually try to gain the votes from anti-Semitists by appealing to them through propaganda and through some of Hitler's speeches but this was probably not really a reason why the public voted for the party. It may however have possibly heightened the appeal of the party to some of the public who disliked the Jews but I do not think that it was a large factor to Hitler and the Nazis success.
Hitler also appealed to mainly the Protestants in the country, this could have been because of the promise for a strong country or just generally a liking for the party and its ideals. This shows that the party does not just appeal to the non-religious in the country.
It also appealed widely, to much of the population as it offered a strong alternative to the weak democratic system, which was in place at the time. Many people in the population thought that the democratic system used by the Weimar government was no good for the country and a strong leadership would be better. This was what Hitler offered and by doing this he appealed to a large band of people. The upper and middle classes had been ravaged by the mistakes in the economic and political sides of the government of the Weimar.
Hitler appealed also to people who had sent their saving decrease and sometimes be lost by the badly handles hyperinflation and later on the aftermath of the Wall Street crash which caused severe unemployment etc. He promised economic recovery and financial controls for those who were in debt. This would have appealed to those people who were hardest hit by the Hyperinflation and the Wall Street crash.
In conclusion it is plain to see that the widespread support of the Nazis by the middle class was key for their success in elections simply because of their numbers. However they also obviously appealed to other groups with their ideals of a strong Germany, which was very appealing to the groups of people who had lost land and had been hardest hit by the economic and political events in recent years such as the middle and upper classes. It can also be shown that they were a people’s party because of their lack of sexual divides in their membership and also the large spread of the types of people who voted. Overall I think that the Nazi party was largely a people’s party because of their lack of divides in class and gender. However because of the size of the support in some areas e.g. the working class and the elite where it was only a small band of support and the lack of support in some other areas e.g. the Catholics they cannot be truly called a complete peoples party as they did not cater for the needs of some of the population. They were really a party, which reached many different parts of the population, but not all of it, and so in by eyes it cannot really be a people’s party.
