The Changing Political Fortunes Of The Nazi

Party Essay, Research Paper

?Account for the changing political fortunes of the Nazi Party from November, 1923 until January, 1933.?The main political changes that the Nazi Party or the NSDAP endured during the period of November, 1923 until January 1933 was its rise from a small extreme right party to a major political force. It is vitally important that the reasons behind this rise to power also be examined, to explain why the NSDAP was able to rise to the top. However first a perspective on the Nazi party itself is necessary to account for the changing political fortunes of the Nazi Party.

In late 1923 and early 1924 the German economy seemed to experience a mild period of economic stabilisation and ?prosperity?. In November, the government issued a new currency and ensured that tight restrictions were imposed. The economy was further stimulated by loans principally from the USA. However despite all this there simultaneously, was increasing numbers of unemployed persons. A well cited example of this is the coal mining industry where the introduction of more efficient machinery meant that one in four miners lost their jobs. No doubt that increased unemployment meant that the German population grew increasingly discontent with the Weimar government and this is the beginnings of the swing towards more radical political voting. Hitler knew that he had to have attractive political policies in order to attract a greater pool of voters, looking for alternative parties, and he recognized a possible solution to this was to attract the attention of the farming and rural community. The Nazi Party took this opportunity quickly and campaigned hard to win over the votes of the farmers and rural workers by promising tax reductions, cheaper electricity and a promise to rebuild the farming industry. “The peasants, the Nazis said, were of true German blood and their life was the true German life. They had shamefully been neglected by the Weimar Republic.” Hitler told the people of the land that under a Nazi Government, rural people would be the most important people in Germany. The rural Germans were on the brink of bankruptcy, constituting approximately 11 Billion marks by 1932. The Nazi?s promise of a return to rural prosperity was too good for them to resist. Yet this adoption of the rural Germans also proved useful in another sense because it allowed the Nazi party to use the Jewish people as a scapegoat towards the problems faced by the rural Germans.

In 1928 the Nazi Party was blessed with external situations which so happened to move in their favour. President Hindenburg made it no secret that he greatly disliked the most popular party, the Social Democrats. He mainly disliked them because they were opposed to the expansion of the German military. Hindenburg with the help of General Kurt von Schleicher came to a decision that the Social Democrats would have to be excluded and that Germany needed governments that had greater authoritarian tendencies. In November 1928 the iron and steel industries located in the Ruhr were paralysed by union and employer disputes. The workers wanted a higher wage, which they were eventually granted however the employers argued that the wages were too high. It was after this incident that the employers sought to circumvent institutions such as the arbitration system, and they therefore backed the idea of an authoritarian government which did not rely on the backing of the Reichstag majority. This is where Hitler was able to attract the all important support from the industrialists who were able to inject funds into the party. This was very important because approximately 70% of the Nazi party support was to come from wealthier socioeconomic groups.

Much of the rise in the Nazi Party?s success was due to Hitler himself and all his promises. When the Young Plan was proposed and eventually signed the German people were angry because this meant Germany would be paying reparations till the year of 1988. When this was announced, Hitler stated that he would not pay reparations and condemned the Weimar Government’s decision to agree to the Plan. On this matter, Hitler found an ally in Alfred Hugenburg, leader of the largest conservative party – the German National People’s Party. Hugenburg controlled a sizeable influence on the media, and used this to campaign against the Young Plan and ?The Enslavement of the German People’ as they called it. Although this attempt to stop the signing of the controversial document was unsuccessful, Hitler was given national publicity, and was given notoriety as a politician who strongly opposed the constraints set upon Germany after the embarrassing loss in World War One. As resentment over the loss of the war was still rife within Germany, Hitler’s stance on the reparations issue gained admiration, and added to his popularity. This situation displayed the Nazi?s as a political party with strong leadership, which especially appealed to the German sense of militarism.

Although the war was over, the militarism and fondness for military tradition remained strong in Germany. With their processions, military bands, leaflets and sheer energy, the Nazis attracted massive interest and appealed to the soft spot that many Germans had for the Prussian military style, with discipline and pride. The marches, often by the SA (Nazi Storm troopers), had a huge presence and were very impressive. Albert Speer, made