elderly due to ‘the rise of inflation’ during the Weimar years (pensions became
worthless which meant that their life-savings were ruined). Other various social issues
such the modernising role given to women were looked down on by the older
generation and the Nazi’s promised to introduce ideas to deactivate these so called
social mishaps, which derived after the Kaiser years. They did this by using
propaganda to encourage women to conform to the traditional ‘house wife’ means of
living. Also in 1920 the ‘Nazi Party’ announced its Programme, which included ‘ the
State must ensure that the nations health standards are raised by protecting mothers
and infants, by prohibiting child labour….’
German society at this time was disintegrated into sectional components, and the
Nazi’s tried to represent all social groups (e.g.
Peasants/Doctors/Lawyers/Teachers/Working class/War pensioners.) The nazi’s
worked their way through these different social groups and successfully achieved
electoral rise.
The themes that the party was associated with included militarism, nationalism,
authoritarianism, anti-Semitism and racism.
In militaristic terms the party aimed to increase its army again, gain back any lost and
de-militarised land under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Therefore a keen
electoral success was achieved in areas of The Palatinate as the area in which they
lived in made them feel vulnerable and bitter. Other areas, which were influenced by
Nazism included Bavaria and Franconia. This was due to feelings of
anti-Semitism and strong nationalism. In these rural areas depression had striked
earlier than in the larger cities, which may have been a cause for the electoral success
the nazi’s achieved. Rural areas held traditional views thus held
strong authoritarian views about how Germany should be run. The Nazi party also
expressed strong beliefs about an authoritarian run Germany and emphasised the
abolition of a democracy. Much of the votes obtained in the rural areas were
predominantly of Protestant support. In July 1932 the
Nazi share of the vote was twice as high in Protestant areas than in Catholic. Catholic
support was mostly gained due to special circumstances. In Silesia, for example,
where there were ‘strong nationalist grievances against neighbouring Poland, many
Catholics did vote Nazi.’ (History Channel)
Many believe that the largest proportion of votes came from the ‘Mittelstrand’. The
Mittlestrand consisted of small businesses, farmers, miners, construction workers and
domestic servants. The Mittlestrand wanted a reaction against department stores, big
businesses, trade unionists and high government taxes. The Nazi’s appealed to the
‘Mittlestrand’ directly by mentioning an improvement for their lives in their ‘nazi
party programme.’ The Nazi’s appealed to the ‘Mittelstrand’ because the
Parliamentary Government system wasn’t strong and failed to represent them,
therefore the ‘Mittelstrand’ voted for the Nazi party.
Overall the Nazi party achieved electoral success by taking advantage of the social
and economical issues which derived after World War One. The depression of the
Wall Street Crash, the harsh terms of the treaty of Versailles which made life a
struggle for very German in some way or another were all potential causes to the
achievement of electoral success for the Nazi party. The events, which occurred in
Germany shaped the Nazi Party’s success.
