"HItler and Nazi Germany: A history, 4th ed" -J. Spielvogel

Nazi Members and Leaders

• 1925-1930 NSDAP- attracted people from all important social groups
• Increasingly identified as a party of the lower-middle class
• "Old and New  lower middle class"
• Old lower middle class- small businessmen
• attracted by Nazi's attack on large department stores and blaming of Jews for the small business'  problems
• Farmers, were underrepresented 1925-27- then NSDAP directed propaganda towards farmers, overrepresented by 1928
• New lower middle class, white collar salaried employees, elementary school teachers, low-level civil servants  
• slower to come to the party- but eventually did
• Not many upper-class/ elite (still overrepresented)
• 1930- half of German University Student body in the National Socialist German Student Union
• Lots of Managers and Entrepreneurs
• "Young man's party" average age 1925-1928- 29 years old
• attracted to constant action of the party
• 18-29 year olds way overrepresented
• Barely any women in the party
• Party leaders, upper-middle class backgrounds ("elite")
• Generally older than members
• motivated by ideal rather than opportunism or greed
• Gauleiter (regional officials) not put on payroll until '29, often became impoverished because of there work for the party (relying on handouts to feed their families)

The Climb to Power, 1930-1933

• 1929- beginning of world-wide depression  (Nazis used it as an opportunity to seize control of the party
• No more short-term American loans (because of the stock-market crash), economy hurt
• Workers, hit hard by depression, turned away from SDP (Social Democrats) and towards the Communist Party (KDP)
• small business owners radicalized, but turned instead to the NSDAP
• Nazi propaganda blamed
• the Versailles settlement & reparations, the Weimar Republic, "November criminals" who implemented the republic, political parties who backed it
• communists (for trying to revolutionize an ruin all traditional German values), big business for ruining the middle class
•  Jews for standing for Marxism & pretty much every other bad thing 
• 1928- "Great Coalition" of Social Democrats (SDP) and Conservative People's parts (DVP) governed Germany
• Odd combo, due to the leader of the DVP, Gustav Stresemann, economic acumen. When he died & the economy took a down-turn in 1930, the coalition fell apart over a dispute over unemployment benefit policies
•  Article 48,  Absolute power of president in times of emergency, enlarged to include economic depression/ crisis
• President created a new government of a chancellor and cabinet ministers appointed by the President, ruling by official decrees
• Hindenburg, a monarchist at heart, never really like the Weimar system
• Army favored change (Army political expert, General Kurt von Schleicher had ties to Hindenburg & could manipulate hiring & firing of gov't officials) 
• First Chancellor, Bruning, of the Catholic Center Party submitted a traditional balanced budget, Reichstag overruled it
•  Bruning and Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag and called for new elections September 14, 1930
• Nazis won 107 seats in the election (second largest party)
• Pulled voters from The Democrats, the DVP, and the Nationalists (DNVP)

Elections and Nazi Propaganda 1930-1932

• Propaganda:
• Addressed to the masses, not intellectuals
• Call attention to certain facts, not educate
• Propaganda aimed at emotion
• Constant repetition of a few basic ideas
• Mass meetings essential for growing support
• Goebbels, propagandist for the Third Reich
• Propaganda offices set up at each level of the party, all under Goebbels' main office in the NSDAP 
• Local offices collected data, sent to main office
• Main office sent back a monthly magazine with slogans and themes to be used on posters and at mass rallies
• Speakers School, to train effective orators at every level of the party
• 2,000 speakers trained in 1929 & 1930 alone
• Correspondence School , est. by Franz Reinhardt, students memorized and wrote speeches
• didn't produce great orators, but helped bolster support for the party when these students went around the Germany pushing the party line
• Most Effective speakers, used at larger- well-planned- mass regional rallies
• Saturation Advertising- 70-200 rallies in one district within about a week (increase support in districts with hope of electoral breakthroughs)
• Mass rallies- every last shout and flag waving and marching band song designed to produce maximum emotional response
• "Hitler Over Germany" Campaign covering 50 cities in 15 days
• Voter registration campaigns
• Young People attracted to
• Political dynamism
• activism
• clear-cut lines of authority
• Opportunity for leadership at a young age
• Approach #1- Propaganda geared towards specific social groups
• Working-class areas, they campaigned against capitalism
• Middle-class areas, exploited fears of communist revolution and threat to private property
• Lower-middle class areas- propaganda attacked big department stores and Jews
• Places where there was not a lot of anti-Semitism they focused on the defense of religious values, nationalism, and anti-communism
• Approach #2- Denouncing conflicts of interests, saying Nazis are above classes and Parties
• Promises to build a "national community" based on social equality
• Hitler believed that more than economic forces, idealism, nationalism, sacrifice and dedication struck the masses emotions

Political Maneuvering

• While Bruning was in power he failed to gain the support of the other parties
• The SA would instigate fights with the communists in the streets, then blame the gov't for not being able to curb the violence in the streets
• the majority of the Nazi delegates were under 40 years old, and new to politics, and would intentionally cause chaos in the Reichstag so that the system was undermined
• The SA resented that the political leaders ordered them around while they were doing the actual dangerous work of the party
• Hitler kept them at bay with vague promises and appeals to personal loyalties
• Summer of 1931, Hitler agreed to cooperate with old political enemies, the German Nationalists (DNVP)
• Promised regional directors of big-businesses to rid Germany of communism and protect their economic prosperity by bringing back authoritarianism
• At the age of 84, Hindenburg ran again only to prevent Hitler from winning
• Hitler knew he would lose to the popular Hindenburg, but had to contest the election
• The tiny state of Brunswick appointed Hitler (an Austrian citizen) their state councilor, automatically giving him German citizenship  
• Hitler won only 30% of the vote
• Schleicher, the army's political expert, put pressure on Hindenburg to fire Bruning (the chancellor)
• Hindenburg fired Bruning
• Schleicher recommended Franz von Papen as the new chancellor
• Schleicher convinced Hitler to agree to a Papen gov't (they had to win over Hitler and the Nazis, for fear of a civil war)
• Papen proved to be dangerous, soon outclassed by his opponents
• Papen, using emergency decrees, created an anti-Nazi gov't
• Additionally, he purged Prussian civil servants- replacing them with nationalist and loyalists to the Weimar Republic