meant that Hitler’s fame spread to parts of Germany where he was not well
known. As a result, support for the Nazis continued to grow. In prison Hitler
was treated as a political prisoner. There he had a lot of time to think and he
wrote a book of his Nationalistic and anti-Semitic ideas called Mein Kampf (My
Struggle). Many of the points he discussed were similar to what he had talked
about before. This was Hitler's period of reflection. It allowed him to realise his
mistakes. By writing Mein Kampf he also gave the Nazi party an ideology, a bit
like a Nazi bible.
After the failure of the Putsch Hitler was forced to change and his main aim was
to create a National Movement. He decided to use the legal instead of the violent
approach by winning elections and by being democratic. “We will have to hold
our noses and enter the Reichstag”. However, he kept the SA, this stayed the
same policy as before, Hitler still used violence and intimidation, to fight off the
Communists who the rich people feared because they were becoming quite
powerful. Many people gave the Nazis a very large amount of money so that
they would fight their election campaigns. Hitler began to realise that finance and
publicity were very important if the Nazis were to gain national recognition. This
showed that his approach to politics would be more structured and planned.
While he was in prison, the Nazi Party fell apart. This showed that Hitler was the
centre of the party. When he was released, he created the SS (his bodyguards)
and set up a group for young people called the Hitler Youth. Hitler made the
Party more structured and divided Germany up into districts with Nazi’s leaders.
Hitler presented his ideas using Propaganda, and he made Goebbels his
propaganda minister. However, by 1928 the Nazis lacked support and still only
had 12 seats in the election. Therefore, other events helped the Nazi Party to
change.
The trigger for support was the crisis of 1929. Stressemann died in October
1929, just before the Wall Street Crash and the German people had no credible
politician to believe in. This disastrous Wall Street Crash created a dramatic rise
in unemployment. By 1930, the Nazis were the second largest party (they gained
100 seats in the election).
Therefore, the Nazi party changed in many ways over this period. It became
more respectable. They would use democracy, and their appeal was broadened.
However, although the methods changed, what Hitler said he was going to do
didn’t.
