Hitler was another one of the reasons people turned to the Nazis. He was the party’s figurehead and he appeared everywhere. He used aeroplanes in a hasty campaign for the 1930 and 1932 elections. Hitler had a positive appeal to many Germans and they saw him as a strong leader who could unite the country, restore order from social unrest, force other nations to remove the Treaty of Versailles and to persuade other nations to treat Germany fairly as Germany’s pride had suffered since world war one and promises to “Tear up the Treaty of Versailles” were favoured among its people. Hitler’s appeal also formed followers who were willing to fight for the success of their favoured party and this helped the Nazi party greatly.
The main opponents for the Nazis were the Communist Party. One factor in the electoral success of the NSDAP was that it had a stronger private army than the communists as Hitler enforced the idea of taking things by force into his followers. By 1930 the SA had 400,000 brown-shirted storm troopers who were used in rallies to make the Nazi party seem strong, organized and reliable. This made them seem strong enough to control unrest in chaotic times and it also made them seem able to challenge foreign powers. The SA was also used to disrupt opposition parties as the elections of 1930 and 1932 were violent. Armed men tore down opposition posters, intimidated their candidates and broke into their offices.
The Nazi Party tried many other ways to get as many supporters as possible. And they tailored their campaign to appeal to many different people. One of their targets were the workers and they were attracted by Nazi support for traditional German values, the Nazis promised them “Work and Bread” during the depression and they also used posters which gave the impression that working people supported the Nazis. The Nazis targeted the working class as they were important in politics. They were the biggest group of voters but the Nazi Party couldn’t dominate the working-class vote as many workers supported the communists. Therefore working-class support wasn’t enough for the Nazis.
Another key group in the growth of Nazi support was the middle class, which contained professional people, like teachers and lawyers, business people and small farmers. They often owned land or businesses and had savings. Between 1929 and 1932 they had deserted the moderate parties and supported the Nazis. They did this because the great depression had hurt the middle classes and many had lost their companies, savings or their pensions. They also saw Hitler as a strong leader who could help the country recover. They were also afraid of the growing Communist Party after 1920 as they wanted to abolish private ownership of land and businesses. They also sided with the Nazis because they represented a return to traditional germen values and this worked very well with the middle classes.
Nazis targeted the famers in particular as the Nazi policy of confiscating all private land was changed in 1928. The new policy said that private land would only be confiscated if owned by the Jews. So Hitler could promise to protect the farmers from the Communist Party which would have confiscated their land.
The support of big business was another reason for the growth of the Nazi party after 1929 as industrialists saw Hitler as their best hope of protection from the rise of the communists. The Nazi’s also benefited from this as their finances benefited from wealthy businessmen and propaganda benefited too as the National Party leader was a newspaper tycoon who allowed Goebbels to use his newspapers for Nazi propaganda against the communists.
Young people were also attracted by Hitler’s passionate speeches, his ambitions for the future and the atmosphere of Nazi rallies. Nazis also appealed to women as Nazi propaganda stated that boding for the NSDAP was best for their country and their families.
No single group was the key to Nazi success and this was new for German politics and this helped the NSDAP to grow. Therefore, between 1929 and 1932, the Nazis grew from what the interior Ministry called an “insignificant threat” to the biggest party in the Reichstag with 230 members.
Based on all of this, I think that the Great Depression was the main reason for the Nazi Party’s growth between 1929 and 1932 as it was what caused unemployment and chaos in German industry and life. And this led to extremist voters. It created a need for a strong leader who could take charge and make Germany and independently strong country and Hitler was seen as the person who could do that.
