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The Nazi Party, 1919-29

  

  

The Nazis grew out of a small right-wing party, which Hitler took over after 1919.   He developed a Twenty-Five Point Programme based on hatred, and built up a paramilitary group (the SA) to defend his meetings and attack other parties.

The Nazis appealed to a wide range of people, but especially the 'middling' sort of people, and the party grew rapidly in the years of crisis 1919-1923.

After the disaster of the Munich Putsch, and during the prosperity of the Stresemann years, however, support for the Nazis fell.   During this time Hitler believed that he could be elected to power.   He used these years to develop and strengthen the party's organisation.   

 

 

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

BBC Bitesize on Nazi beliefs & structure and development of the Nazi Party 1924-29

Good notes

The History Place is fantastic - especially on the Formation and the 'Quiet Years'

Nazi propaganda - an old site, but lots of info

 

- Giles Hill's overview of Hitler's Rise to Power, 1919-33

- Scott Allsop's overview of Hitler's Rise to Power, 1919-34

 

Formation of the Nazi Party and its Beliefs and Organisation

  

1.  Start

The German Workers’ Party, led by Anton Drexler, was formed in 1919.  Hitler joined and soon became leader.

His speeches gave people scapegoats to blame for Germany’s problems:

  •   The Allies.

  •   The Versailles Treaty and the ‘November Criminals’ (the politicians who signed it)

  •   The Communists, and:

  •   The Jews.

  

2.  Twenty-five Point Programme

In 1920, the party renamed itself the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis), and announced its Twenty-Five Point Programme.

At first, the Nazis were both nationalist (they believed in Germany’s greatness) and socialist (they believed the state should benefit everybody equally).

  

3.  Mein Kampf

After the failure of the Munich Putsch in 1923, Hitler was sent to Landsberg jail.  There he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) advocating:

  •   National Socialism – loyalty to Germany, racial purity, equality and state control of the economy.

  •   Racism – the triumph of the Aryan race by armed force, because all races, especially the Jews, were inferior to the Aryan (pure German) ‘Master Race’.

  •   Lebensraum  – to expand into Poland and Russia to get ‘Living Space’.

  •   Strong Government – complete obedience to the Führer.

  

4.  Organisation

At first, there were a number of people involved in running the party, but Hitler soon became the sole boss, and he built up the organisation so that he was unquestioned leader.

  

Source C

Nazi Membership in the 1920s by social group % % In
Germany
Skilled workers (e.g. plumbers) 33 27
Businessmen (e.g. factory owners) 19 7
Lower employees (e.g. shop assistants) 18 18
Unskilled workers (e.g. farm labourers) 12 37
Farmers 11 8
Students 4 0.5
Professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers) 3 2.5
Aristocrats (lords) 0 0

This table shows the percentage of each social group in the Nazi Party, compared to the size of that group in the country as a whole.  Which groups did the Nazis appeal to most?

 

 

Source A

This Nazi poster, 11 May 1920, advertises a speech by Hitler: "What Do We Want?"  It reads: "Do not believe that other parties can save the Germany of misfortune and misery, the nation of profiteers and debt, the land of Jewish corruption!"

 

Source B

In the future we may be faced with problems which can be solved only by a superior race of human beings, a race destined to become master of all the other peoples and which will have at its disposal the resources of the whole world.

Hitler, Mein Kampf (1924)

 

Source D

This poster reads: "National Socialism: the organized will of the nation".
At first the Nazis were just another right-wing terrorist group.  Nazi ‘Stormtroopers’ attacked opposition parties.

 

Source E

An election poster published by the Nazi Party in 1924.

 

 

Decline of the Nazi Party, 1924-9

  

1.  Elections and decline

After the failure of the Munich Putsch, Hitler decided that he would have to get power by being elected, rather than by rebellion.  However, he was banned from speaking until 1928.

The prosperity of the Stresemann years, also, meant that the Nazis' message became less appealing and the party lost support.

  

 

Source F

Support for the Nazi Party had grown due to the country's problems of hyperinflation and the French invasion of the Ruhr.   By 1928 Nazism appeared to be a dying cause.   Now that Germany's outlook was suddenly bright, the Nazi Party was rapidly withering away.   One scarcely heard of Hitler or the Nazis except as a joke.

William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1959)
Shirer was an American journalist who lived in Germany from 1926 to 1941.

  

The Number of Seats in the Reichstag held by each Party, 1919-33

Date of Election

Jan 1919

Jun 1920

May 1924

Dec 1924

May 1928

Sep 1930

Jul 1932

Nov 1932

Mar 1933

Social Democrats - SPD  

165

102

100

131

153

143

133

121

120

Communists - KPD/USPD

22

88

62

45

54

77

89

101

81

Centre Party (Catholics) - Z

91

64

65

69

62

68

75

70

74

Democrats - DDP

75

39

28

32

25

20

4

2

5

Right-wing parties - BVP/ DVP/ DNVP

63

157

156

174

134

90

66

83

72

Nazis - NSDAP  

 

 

32

14

12

107

230

196

288

Others

7

9

29

29

51

72

11

12

7

Total Deputies

423

459

472

493

491

577

608

584

647

Copy the figures from the table above into an Excel workbook and use the Chart wizard to draw a graph of party electoral fortunes.
Then write a paragraph in words to explain what your graph shows.

 

2.  Re-organising the Party

In this period, however, Hitler set about reorganising the Party.  He put in place many of the things which helped it take power after 1928:

  •   He reduced the number of Stormtroopers (SA) and set up the SS, a personal bodyguard fanatically loyal to himself.

  •   He set up a network of local parties.  He merged with other right-wing parties, then took them over.

  •   He set up the Hitler Youth, which attracted young people to the party.

  •   He put Josef Goebbels in charge of propaganda.  Goebbels and Hitler believed that the best way to get the support of the masses was by appealing to their feelings rather than by argument.  They waged a propaganda campaign using posters, leaflets, radio and film, and organised rallies.

  •   He cultivated the support of wealthy businessmen promising them that, if he came to power, he would destroy Communism and the Trade Unions.  This gave him the finance to run his campaigns.

     

Source G

This Nazi poster c.1927 reads: "Despite the Ban, not dead."  This poster was drawn by 'Mjölnir' (real name was Hans Schweitzer) who set new standards for Nazi publicity.

 

Consider:

1.  Explain the symbolism, meaning and appeal of the Nazi poster in Source E.

2.  Looking at all the information on this page, list the key strengths of the Nazi Party. 

3.  Do you agree wth Source F?  How strong do you think the Nazi Party was in 1929?

 


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