With a bleak economic outlook, a major reason why Northeimers were attracted to the NSDAP was because it was “first and foremost an anti-Marxist party” (34). The people perceived the current government to be in the hands of the left and associated the current economic problems with the ruling government. The Nazis exploited this fully. Much of Nazi propaganda had a “primary content of anti-Marxism [and also] attacked…the economic policies of the Weimar republic” (29). In truth, the current government had little to do with the bleak economy but the people did not see it as such. The SPD did little to counter this notion. They offered no new vision of change to alleviate the economic hardship. They “defended the Republic but could not promise a better future” (145). Northeimers were tired of this and “most joined the Nazis because they wanted a radical answer to the economic situation. Disgusted with parliamentary politics, they wanted a hard, sharp, clear leadership” (85). Thus a resentment of the status quo, the democratic Republic and the SPD led many to embrace the Nazi movement.
The politics at the time also helped contribute to Nazi’s ability to gain power. There was little effective opposition to the Nazis. The foremost opposition was the SPD but, as explained, they weren’t effective in stopping the surging popularity of the NSDAP. It seemed evident that Northeim wanted change and this change would not appear to be coming from the left. Thus it was up to an alternative right wing group to rise up. But the various right wing splinter groups did not offer any clear distinction or choice from the NSDAP. Rather, they helped Nazi’s rise to power by promoting similar attitudes. These groups promoted nationalism and anti-socialism and their essential contribution “was that they served as the repository of potential Nazis”. Thus Nazism was able to dip into that well of potential Nazis for their support.
Lastly, it was the Nazi’s ability to hold effective meetings and their ability to use propaganda that also contributed to their success. Nazi meetings became increasingly more frequent and grander. From 1930 to 1933, they were 162 political meetings or approximately 3 and a half per month. In these meetings there would be a great outpouring of energy and manipulation that proved to be very effective. The Nazis adapted mass meetings with “appropriate speakers to local interests and concerns” (82).
This was key to their success. “In these meetings, they drew the tortured masses into the mammoth meetings where one could submerge oneself in the sense of participating in a dynamic and all-encompassing movement geared toward radical action in fulfillment of every need…In short, the NSDAP succeeded in being all things to all men” (142). It was from these meetings that a great number of new Nazis were recruited and joined the party.
Because of these reasons, the Nazi popularity grew and the NDSAP gained a clear majority in Northeim by 1933. Upon gaining a majority, the party immediately moved to seize dictatorship control over the town. Its first move was a purge of the local administrations. By using its power to manipulate the City Council, the four SPD members were forced to quit and a Nazi dictatorship was established. “By the summer of 1933…the Nazis gained absolute control of Northeim’s Council, Senate, and Executive…they had also conducted a thorough purge of city’s administration” (181).
With complete Nazi control of the town, life completely changed for the average Northeimer. For the intial six months, the Nazis implemented a system of terror to prove their power. “The initial investment of terror would multiply itself through rumour and social reinforcement until opposition would be looked upon as wholly futile” (184). The Nazis frequently raided suspected opposition’s houses and persecuted all those they thought were a potential threat to their power. The Nazis justified this by claiming there was a local threat and pointed out the fact that there were citizens who were caught with weapons. This persecution occurred frequently and without warning to the point that it became clear “that even to express oneself against the new system was to invite persecution” (189).
Thus it eventually became unnecessary for the Nazis to continue their level of terrorism. Their terror system soon became a self enacting system. There was a general sense of fear among all citizens and this was enough to keep people in line. “More than anything else, rumour and social reinforcement maintained the system of terror” (256). A sense of hopelessness overtook the people with the feeling that opposition was completely futile. To oppose the system was only to invite harm. “Under these circumstances, the Nazis had very little to do to intimidate people” (190). It became so severe that it was thought that “one who failed to give the Nazi salute, who left a meeting early, or who ventured a cold look at Ernst Girmann (the Nazi leader), was thought to be displaying almost foolhardy recklessness” (190).
Along with Nazi’s grip on political power and social control was their dissolution of society. This entire process had the general term “Gleichschaltung” or “coordination”.
“The total reorganization of society was the most important result of the Nazi revolution. Eventually no independent social groups were to exist. Wherever two or more were gathered, the Fuehrer would also be present. Ultimately all society, in terms of formal human relationships, would cease to exist, or rather, exist in a new framework whereby each individual related not to his fellow men but only to the state and to the Nazi leader” (221). All independent clubs and groups came under the control of the state and was reinvented as to be a tool of the state. Clubs of similar goals and activities were fused together to form one and changed to include the Nazi doctrine in some shape or form. All organizations had to have a majority of NSDAP members on the councils as to maintain constant control of the group. In short, social life was completely strangled. People no longer wanted to go to social events for it was no longer fun but rather just another extension of state control. As one man put it, “There was no more social life; you couldn’t even have a bowling club” (222). Thus clubs no longer existed or the attractiveness of going was no longer there. “What was the value of getting together with others to talk if you had to be careful about what you said? Thus to a great extent the individual was atomized” (232).
The years of 1929-1933 were a time of great change for the people of Northeim. A time of turbulence and change and complete radicalization polarized the people and transformed society. By exploiting the economic and political conditions of early 1930, and through great use of propaganda and mass meetings, the Nazis were able to win over the support of the people of Northeim needed to gain a majority government. It was pretty evident after the Nazis had established their dictatorship that the people were the victims of a party whose main goal was the acquisition of power and who subordinated everything to the realization of that goal. Life under the new regime completely changed. It was as free as it was enjoyable. No longer could one truly express themselves. All one could do was express the party, for that was what they were-not an individual, but rather, a German Nazi. But this realization was too late for “no matter what Northeimers felt about the Nazis, there was very little that they could do about it” (279).
