appeal of nazi ideology to different social groups

how did the NSDAP have a wide-ranging appeal?

• loose collection of attractive, popular ideas rather than a clear ideology

• used adaptable policies to target different areas of society, telling them what they wanted to hear in order to secure their support

• e.g. promised improvements to workers’ rights while promising industrialists improved profits → contradicted each other yet successfully gained varied and diverse support

methods of the nazis initially introducing their policies

• 25 point programme february 1920 → official statement of aims, party did had divided support on some points

• mein kampf (my struggle) best displayed hitler’s aims and beliefs

  • written during his 9 month prison sentence following november 1923 munich putsch, gained publicity from nationwide attention to party, took opportunity to remove NSDAP from fringes of society

• propaganda

9 key themes of nazi propaganda

• the power of the will

• struggle and war (militarism stemming from social darwinism)

• people’s community → volksgemeinschaft

• blood and soil

• national socialism

• the führerprinzip

• aggressive nationalism and lebensraum

• anti-semitism

• aryanisation and racial hygiene

power of the will

• key nazi message

• idea of hitler and the nazis providing the power, strength and determination to achieve their goals and “make germany great again”

• would provide a decisive, strong authoritarian leader, providing a solution to weimar weakness

  • conveyed through carefully cultivated cult of personality, presenting hitler as führer

  • hitler appeared as heroic saviour, solution to their problems

• presented message through propaganda, the SA and the image of unity and discipline

struggle and war (militarism)

• struggle, violence and war placed at the heart of nazi thinking and actions → aggressive mentality of competition in everything

• heavily influenced by survival of the fittest (social darwinism) → conflict between races was a natural situation

• believed armed conflict was necessary to ensure conquest of german race → appealing to nationalists and veterans

• virtues of courage, loyalty and self sacrifice (intrinsically military values) shown as applicable and advantageous to all

• embodied in title of mein kampf → reflects aggressive mentality in social conflict

people’s community → volksgemeinschaft

• volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) → nation working together with no social classes, providing a chance for everyone to achieve their own potential

• germans would work for the good of their nation, following traditional german values → receive employment and welfare rights in return

• based upon racial lines, aiming to create racial purity

  • only pure germans, aryans, could be considered members of the state with all others being mere ‘subjects’ with no influence

  • aryans were deemed the master race

national socialism

• worked through primarily anticapitalist 25 point programme → unrealistic promise to win over working class votes who were mainly supporting spd and kpd, in reality needed funding from wealthy industrialists to stabilise economy and fund party

  • state would provide work and welfare for all

  • unearned income would be abolished

  • corporatism - state controlled business production targets for the good of the nation

• ‘socialism’ used to win working class votes

how did hitler undermine the policy of anticapitalism and the socialism of national socialism?

• never fully committed, only used to win over previously left wing workers, changed his message to suit audience (remained relatively unsuccessful despite this)

• after 1929 (following WSC) sought funding and donations from wealthy businessmen like fritz thyssen, had to be reassured busness ventures would not be threatened by nazism

• promised businesses lucrative government contracts if elected as sweetener to gain trust

  • gained support and funding in exchange for votes

the führerprinzip (principle of leadership)

• believed the republic was weak and ineffective, alien to german who had previously been moderately successful and stable under decades of strong authoritarian government

• 1922 in a speech from hitler - “democracy is not fundamentally german: it is jewish”, “means towards the destruction of any existing Aryan leadership”

• weimar should be replaced by one party state and dictatorship → ran using führerprinzip, method of nazi party leadership since 1925 - after hitler was released from prison

• once in power would be enforced through Gleischaltung (forcing into line, through nazification of everything)

meaning of führerprinzip

• principle of leadership

• demanded absolute obedience from ALL divisions of society towards the führer

aggressive nationalism and lebensraum

• aggressive expansionist policies, aimed to :

  • reverse humiliation of tov → lost 13% of land and citizens within

  • establish a greater german reich where all germans would live within borders → expand into east and restore 1914 borders, space to grow against communists

  • secure lebensraum to provide land and resources for germany to become a greater power

• hitler was prepared to use armed conflict to achieve aggressive nationalistic aims, justified policy by nazi racial theory of superiority to the german race and believe of life as a continual struggle and battle to survive → social darwinism and power of the will

meaning of lebensraum

living space

targeted expansionism particularly to the east

anti-semitism

• jews became scapegoats for germany’s problems → used propaganda to portray them as greedy, cunning and financially motivated (stemming from long experience in finance industry)

• parasitology → “parasite in the body of other nations”

• propagated ideas of the protocols of the elders of zion → jewish conspiracy to establish dominance over other races

• jews blamed for communism and evils of capitalism

• accused of being responsible for defeat in ww1, tov, political instability and decline in power of german

• hitler called fro “eradication” of jewish creed → key word used in mein kampf

aryanisation and racial hygiene

• hitler viewed humanity as a hierarchy of races (social darwinism)

• aryans were depicted as the herrenvolk → master race

• nazis aimed to purify stronger races by eliminating intermarriage with “degenerate races”

• jews presented as deadly biological and cultural threat to the german volk, “germ” to be eliminated

  • used by himmler to justify the final solution and sterilisation of disabled (mentally and physically), the roma, LGBTQ, pacifists and jehova’s witnesses