The Years of Frustration: 1924-1929 HITLER’S NAZI GERMANY The Years of Frustration: 1924-1929

Imposing Control Lesson Learned Weimar Weakness Refresher Obstacles to Hitler – The Strasser Brothers I. Hitler had learned from the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch that he would have to work for power through the Reichstag elections. The voting system of the Weimar Constitution made it possible for even small parties to win a few seats but a well-organized, national party could hope to achieve national success. Under the system of proportional representation, each party was given one seat in the Reichstag for every sixty thousand votes it received. II. Thus a number of parties, ranging from the Communists to the right-wing Nationalists, were represented in the Reichstag. This made a steady government extremely difficult to achieve because the leading party had to depend on the continuing support of too many political parties. Between February 1919 and January 1933, Germany had twelve Chancellors and twenty-one governments. This led to political instability and inefficient government. III. There had to be an undisputed leader and a clear program enforceable throughout Germany. One obstacle was the Strasser brothers, Gregor and Otto, whom Hitler had sent to start up party branches in the northern industrial cities of Germany. There was a risk that the Strassers would build their own power bases free from Hitler’s control. The Strasser brothers ruled the Berlin party organization unchallenged and developed an independent ideological profile from the south German party wing around Adolf Hitler. They advocated - at first together with Gregor Strasser's close collaborator in Rhineland and Westphalia Joseph Goebbels - an anti-capitalist, social revolutionary course for NSDAP that was heavily affected by anti-Semitism and anti-Marxism at the same time. With the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nordwest (Syndicate Northwest), a federation of north and west German NSDAP Gauleiters under his leadership (managing director was Joseph Goebbels) founded in 1925, Gregor Strasser had created an instrument to enforce the sociopolitical and economic ideas of the left NSDAP wing.

Imposing Control – Elimination of Rivals Joseph Goebbels Hitler’s Moves on Rivals I. In the Rhineland, another rising Nazi, Joseph Goebbels, was proving to be almost as talented a public speaker as Hitler himself. II. In 1926, Hitler finally moved in on his rivals. Goebbels was won over after being harangued by Hitler and soon became on of Hitler’s most devoted followers. When placed in charge of the party in Berlin, he developed into the most brilliant and unscrupulous propagandist in the party. He instinctively knew which lies about his opponents were most likely to be believed and how to use his local Stormtroopers to beat up the Nazis’ enemies, while saying it was all in the name of keeping good order. Gregor Strasser was also confronted, told directly by Hitler that many of his policies were nonsense, and forced to accept Hitler’s leadership. But on February 14, 1926 Hitler asserted himself successfully against this "National Bolshevist" faction during the Bamberg Leader Conference. This earned Hitler absolute leadership within the NSDAP. The disbandment of the syndicate was decreed by a directive from Munich on July 1, 1926.

A National Party Party Headquarters Allegiance to Hitler I. Hitler could now put in place a national organization. To allow Nazis to run in elections, party headquarters had to be set up in each of the 35 electoral regions into which Germany was divided. These were linked to local branches. worked to establish a highly structured party that could compete in elections throughout Germany and attract new recruits when another time of troubles arose. The organization of the Nazi party was established on a regional basis. Germany was divided into regions called Gaue. At the head of each Gau stood a Gauteiter, or regional party leader. Originally, Gauleiter owed their position to their superior effectiveness in their regions. But after 1926, they were officially appointed by Hitler and served as executive agents for their districts. Basically, Gauleiter became bureaucratic agents subject to control by Hitler and the party leadership in Munich. The physical size of the Gaue was originally determined by circumstances peculiar to each district, but in 1928, the Gaue were reorganized to correspond more closely to the thirty-five Reichstag electoral districts. Each Gau was divided into smaller units known as Kreise (districts) under the control of Kreisleiter (district leaders). These units were subdivided into Ortsgruppen (local branches or chapters) led by Ortsgruppenteiter (branch or chapter leaders). At least fifteen members were required to form a local branch. Local branches were responsible to district leaders, who in turn were responsible to regional leaders. Although the various administrative units of the Nazi party were allowed some freedom to exploit issues unique to their areas, they were supposed to be totally obedient to the policies established by Hitler and the Munich leadership. II. There were many opportunities for local leaders to emerge so long as they swore their allegiance to Hitler. Hitler, in fact, liked to see young Nazis fighting to control their local parties as it confirmed his ideas that life was a continual struggle in which only the fittest would come to the top. It was certainly true that many able and well-educated young men were drawn into the party. Over 90% of the members of the Nazi party were male: for Nazis, a woman’s place was in the home.

A National Party – Sowing Seeds for the Future Hitler too believed the children are the future Winning over farmers I. In order to attract supporters at a young age and build up future recruits for the Stormtroopers, the Hitler Youth movement was founded in 1926. The Hitler Youth was a logical extension of Hitler’s belief that the future of Nazi Germany lay in its children and that the party should be as influential in their education as their schools. There were separate organizations for boys and girls: the boys’ section prepared them for military service, the girls’ for motherhood. II. As the party began to expand nationally, it started receiving support from groups it had not reached before. One of these was the small peasant farmers of northern Germany. The inflation of 1923 had been followed by falling prices that had forced many farmers into bankruptcy. The Nazis cunningly told the farmers that their honest toil on the land made them the core of Germany, there was much talk of German blood and soil, and the promises of help if the Nazis came to power. By 1928, nearly 20% of the votes in some rural areas were going to the Nazis at a time when they still had no support at all in the big cities.

Stalemate Times of Nazi Success Times of Nazi Difficulty Accomplishments of Gustav Stresemann I. The Nazi party thrived when times were hard for the people of Germany. Desperate and unsettled, the Germans were all the more responsive to the Nazi’s promise, outlined in 1921 in the program of 25 Points, to destroy the Treaty of Versailles, revive Germany through a policy of expansion to the eats and deprive Jews of their civil rights. II. Yet the attraction of these policies eventually faded. After 1924, the German economy stabilized and actually began to grow. These trends came largely due to the political prowess of the German Foreign Minister and Chancellor, Gustav Stresemann (1923-29), who worked hard to improve Germany’s relations with its old enemies. Stresemann realized that careful diplomacy could mitigate the harshness of Versailles. He secured a reduction in the total reparation demanded and payments could now be stretched over a 60 year period instead of 30 as the Treaty of Versailles had originally stipulated.

Stresemann’s Accomplishments The Rentenmark - Stresemann ended this disastrous process of overprinting money that led to hyperinflation by introducing a new currency, the Rentenmark, which reassured the people that the democratic system was willing and able to solve urgent problems. The Dawes Plan (1924) - which reduced Germany's overall reparations commitment and reorganized the Reichsbank. Treaty of Locarno (1925) - Germany officially recognized the post World War I western border for the first time, and was guaranteed peace with France, and promised admission to the League of Nations and evacuation of the last Allied occupation troops from the Rhineland. The Treaty of Berlin (1926) – Movement to allay growing suspicions from the USSR. The treaty reaffirmed the Treaty of Rapallo from 1922. League of Nations (1926) - Germany was admitted to the League of Nations as permanent member of the Security Council. This was a sign that Germany was quickly becoming a "normal" state

Stresemann’s Accomplishments The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) - It renounced the use of violence to resolve international conflicts. Although Stresemann did not propose the pact, Germany's adherence convinced many people that Weimar Germany was a Germany that could be reasoned with. The Young Plan (1929) – Superseded the Dawes Plan by reducing reparation payments further and establishing a 60 year time frame for repayment. I. Hitler was sent to Landsberg Castle in Munich to serve his prison sentence. He was treated well and was allowed to walk in the castle grounds, wear his own clothes and receive gifts. Officially there were restrictions on visitors but this did not apply to Hitler, and a steady flow of friends, party members and journalists spent long spells with him. While in Landsberg History read a lot of books. Most of these dealt with German history and political philosophy. Later he was to describe his spell in prison as a "free education at the state's expense." II. One writer who influenced Hitler while in prison was Henry Ford, the American car-manufacturer. Hitler read Ford's autobiography, My Life and Work, and a book of his called The International Jew. In the latter Ford claimed that there was a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Hitler also approved of Ford's hostile views towards communism and trade unions. III. In Mein Kampf Hitler outlined his political philosophy. He argued that the German (he wrongly described them as the Aryan race) was superior to all others. "Every manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and technical skill, which we see before our eyes today, is almost exclusively the product of Aryan creative power." Adolf Hitler warned that the Aryan's superiority was being threatened by intermarriage. If this happened world civilization would decline: "On this planet of ours human culture and civilization are indissolubly bound up with the presence of the Aryan. If he should be exterminated or subjugated, then the dark shroud of a new barbarian era would enfold the earth.” Although other races would resist this process, the Aryan race had a duty to control the world. This would be difficult and force would have to be used, but it could be done. To support this view he gave the example of how the British Empire had controlled a quarter of the world by being well-organised and having well-timed soldiers and sailors. Hitler believed that Aryan superiority was being threatened particularly by the Jewish race who, he argued, were lazy and had contributed little to world civilization. (Hitler ignored the fact that some of his favourite composers and musicians were Jewish). He claimed that the "Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end satanically glaring at and spying on the unconscious girl whom he plans to seduce, adulterating her blood with the ultimate idea of bastardizing the white race which they hate and thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the Jew might dominate."

Loss of Nazi Appeal Election weakness Little Reichstag Representation I. The Nazis lost their appeal. Just how weak the party was became evident in the elections of 1928. The Nazis gained only 2.6% of the votes, fewer than in 1924 when they had received 3%. The Social Democrats received nearly 30% and the conservative National People’s Party 14%. II. The poor showing at the election earned them only 12 deputies in the Reichstag. Goebbels and Gregor Strasser were among them.

Goering and Himmler New Important Figures Herman Goering Heinrich Himmler I. Despite the weaknesses of the Nazi Party, there were by now other important men in it who were to shape its future. One was Herman Goering, a WWI air ace who had aristocratic connections that helped make Nazism seem much more respectable than it really was. Goering saw himself as a daredevil who brought glamor to the party. His first involvement with the Nazis had been in the early 1920s as the head of the Stormtroopers. After the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, he had left Germany, but Hitler asked him to return to run for election, and he was one of the 12 elected deputies to the Reichstag in 1928. He was intensely loyal to Hitler and was now one of the most important figures in the party. II. More sinister was Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was a conscientious, hardworking, and ambitious man, but displayed few leadership qualities. However, he was virulently anti-Semitic and obsessed with the superiority and purity of the German race. Hitler found a place for him as head of his unit of bodyguards, the SS. Himmler gave this unit a black uniform to distinguish it from the brownshirted Stormtroopers, and enforced firm discipline. The SS became under Himmler the party’s secret police, ready to gather information about threats to Hitler and, when ordered to do so, to deal with them brutally.