The Rise of the Nazis - Voted into Power?

1 - The Rise of the Nazis - Voted into Power?

Lenman started by introducing FOUR themes that he was going to develop during his lecture, they were:

1         THE DEPRESSION - that the crisis of the Depression eventually broke the back of the Weimar Republic and he used election results to help make this point at this stage -
1928 - NSDAP 12 seats
1930 - NSDAP 107 seats - suggesting that this leap in representation/support underlines the importance of the Depression on the rise of the Nazis.

2         THE EROSION OF THE MIDDLE GROUND OF GERMAN POLITICS -
He suggested that the polarisation of opinion in Germany was a further key issue in the Nazi rise.

3         THE EXTREMES - that the fear of Communism may have been one of the key motivating factors for many to support the Nazis.

4         SUPPORT - this he divided into two parts -
a)          Which elements in German society voted Nazi
b)          In November 1932 when the Nazis had reached their electoral ceiling, Hitler realised that he needed support from the establishment -
                                The Military
                                Industry.

1         Germany was proportionally worst hit by the Depression - eg unemployment - and the reasons for this were:
i         There had been some success during the 1920s particularly in exporting between 1924-28 however, this was dependent on maintaining markets, but in 1929 those markets collapsed.
ii         The potential of the German economy attracted investors - particularly from USA - in the 1920s BUT they were:
a)         dependent on America's continued prosperity and
b)         only short-term loans and thus the money could be easily removed.
So, by Summer 1932 unemployment had risen to 6 million - though this figure was more likely to have been 8/9m PLUS there were 5 million Germans working on short-time and already by the Winter of 1931/32 this included -
                         90% of building workers
                         60% of metal workers.
It should also be borne in mind that German post-war problems had been far worse than those of any of the other protagonists and they had to suffer the additional psychological factor of having lost, and then the Depression hit.
The most notable effects of being the worst hit economically may have been -
i          The air of Despair that resulted eg massive increase in the number of juvenile suicides during this period
ii         The increase (and acceptance) of political violence on the streets and the concern regarding the threat of Communism and
iii         The social security system was overwhelmed within six months of the crisis occurring.

2         The contraction of the democratic middle-ground can be demonstrated by the percentage of the vote won by those parties. Though, they had actually struggled from the earliest days of Weimar -
January 1919         - 75%
Mid 1920          - 44%
So, the struggle for these parties began early and it was worsened by the need for a coalition in order to form a majority government.
By 1929/30, the middle ground was completely paralysed and it was the extremes that profited -
July 1932        KPD 14.3%)
        NSDAP 37.3%) = 51.6%
Thus the paralysis of the whole political system brought a correspondent loss of faith amongst a people whose political culture had not been based on the principles of liberal democracy anyway, and then Hitler's propaganda machine was able to make further gain by amplifying the growing threat posed by the Communists.

3         As noted above, by July 1932 the `Extremes' won 51.6% of the vote and both were rabidly anti-democratic and anti-parliamentarian.

The KPD had been founded in December 1918, inspired by the successes of the Bolsheviks, and were violently opposed to the SPD. There were 1 million unemployed in the mid-1920s and it was this element allied to the unskilled workers who kept the party alive and then by 1930 the permanence of unemployment and depression helped to increase support. It was this increase that saw the growth of the `fear factor' amongst many in German society, especially the middle-classes who believed in the threat of a Communist seizure, encouraged by Hitler's propaganda machine, and were thus driven to the Nazis.
By 1932 the NSDAP was the biggest political movement in German history -
i          It was a violently anti-Communist and hyper-nationalist movement, identifying itself the `Right' in order to gain support and respect BUT it was not conservative

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ii         It was a radical party committed to change in political policies and personnel
iii         It was a party with a modern approach, it wanted to break the mould of German politics, previously various elements in society had aligned themselves with particular parties -
        Working-class - KPD
        Catholics - Zentrum
        Bavarians - Bavarian Party -
        The Nazis attempted to create a party that appealed to a cross-section of German society
        and that although committed to bringing down parliament and democracy would use the
        twin cloaks of legality and respectability to achieve power.

4 a)
At this time, Germany was regionalised and federal which lead to a complicated political structure and thus Lenman suggested that there were many elements who have to be considered in helping to bring about the breakthrough of 1930 -
i          Religion played a part in German politics and it was the more nationalist protestants who were more likely to support the Nazis than were the Catholics who were rather more conservative and may have been put off by racial intimations in Nazi rhetoric.
ii         Class -
a)         the working-classes were split between the inner-urban w/c who tended to support the KPD and the employed and skilled w/c who lined up with the SPD - However, 30% of the Nazi vote did come from `workers' but this was more likely to be from those in towns rather than those in the big cities
b)         groups in the upper and middle-classes were associated with the Nazis from an early stage, as were the small business elements of the lower middle-class.
iii         Age was also a factor as young people were more likely to vote Nazi, they were attracted by the image of vitality and energy compared to other parties which was exemplified by the leader - Hitler was only forty and was the first politician to travel by air. In addition, the young were desperate about the future and their idealism was best represented by the Nazis.
iv         Gender - men were more attracted by the nationalism, violence and militarism of the movement but by 1932, more women were moving towards the Nazis as Hitler was becoming more statesmanlike and respectable.
v          Provinces - people who lived in these areas were more likely to vote for the Nazis than any other party and this was particularly so amongst small protestant farmers. In some villages in Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony, the Nazis received 90-100% of the vote.
vi         Non-voters - these people were usually more extreme in their opinions and as the crisis worsened they tended to move to the Nazis.

4 b)         By the end of 1932, the Nazis needed new allies in their pursuit of power. However, business did not create and finance the Nazi party, it was not one-dimensional -
i         Heavy industry was more likely to favour the Nazis as rearmament would favour their interests, yet the exporters wanted a total reorganisation of the world economy and they viewed Hitler's economic policies as crude. Small-scale industry and shops had found it increasingly difficult to compete and so looked to the Nazis for help.
ii         The Army was very important in the fall of Weimar and the rise of the Nazis -
The Army was very prestigious in Germany, especially among conservative elements
The Nazi desire for rearmament coincided with Army views
Their links with Hindenburg provided easy access to the President.
In addition, by 1932/33 other considerations had emerged. In the short-term, they felt that German governments had become increasingly unrepresentative, in August 1932 a vote of no-confidence in von Papen's govt was passed by 512 votes to 42 and the Army believed that it would have to defend the government if a civil war broke out. Further, the military hierarchy feared that outsiders would attempt to take advantage of such a situation and intervene particularly the Poles and French.

Thus they considered their options, they would not turn to the KPD, who anyway only had 14% of the vote, and thus the only real alternative was the Nazis (37%) with whom they felt they could do business, in the short-term.
In the long-term -
                        rearmament
                        revisionism and
                        the desire to return to former glories
were areas of agreement and the Nazis looked even more attractive in this light, especially when compared to the Weimar regime that the military considered pacifistic and welfare-minded. The Army wanted a `warfare state' not a welfare state, which would include rearmament, the reinstatement of militaristic values and the expulsion of leftist tendencies. They believed that their would be a conflict at some stage with Poland and/or France and it was thought that the Nazis could help to gain success in these actions - this may be supported by the appointment of von Blomberg as Minister of War in Hitler's government.

The Rise of the Nazis - Voted into Power?

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