Clever Nazis

I found this week’s reading to be an especially engaging account of the Nazi seizure of power in the town of Northeim, a vivid telling of a process that was probably seen through out Germany at the time. Reading this book, I felt like a Northeimer, vicariously uncovering the reasons that caused so many of them to adhere to Hilter. The reason was, simply put, that the Nazis put on a show and a disguise of exactly what the people wanted to see. That, aided by the current preconditions, like the division between classes, inevitably gave rise to the political radicalization and in turn, the seemingly sole ideal party, the Nazis.

Nazi’s attraction to the Northeimers was achieved through the praising of itself at the expense of other, which are often times slanderous. The local Nazi publication, Hear! Hear!, I presume, contained no more substantial information than the defamation of other parties and the Nazi’s will to “combat the lies of the reds which the bourgeois press sees incapable of doing” (21), without any real suggestion for action or change. This vague goal aligns with the party ideology to construct a new society where the “patriotic solidarity (or the Aryans) would supplant Germany’s class distinctions” (34). Thus by espousing nationalism, the Nazis indirectly denounced and attacked SPD's defense of democracy, or rather "defense of a status quo which was identified in the minds of most Northeimers with national humiliation" (54), which only made themselves appear nobler and more ideal. Furthermore, Nazi’s relentless attacks on the economic policies of the Weimar Republic resonated with the fear that the Great Depression engendered, enticing those workers who “lost their jobs, stood idle on the corners and exited on the dole” (24).

The Nazi’s change of propaganda strategy following its reconstruction in 1925 also significantly propelled its growth in Northeim during the late 20’s. Instead of blindly promoting party ideals, the Nazis cleverly targeted groups that actually responded to Nazism such as small businessmen, shop clerks and the rural population, and emphasized on themes, concerns, and people’s needs that produced results measured by attendance to meetings. The new self-correcting and adaptable system gave the Nazis an edge in delivering what the public wanted. Nazi’s response to the Noelting meeting in February 1931 exemplifies the flexibility that the Nazis newly adopted as the party turned to one of Northeim’s peculiarities, its high proportion of civil servants, for a mass meeting by constructing a theme called “The Civil Service and National Socialism” whose speaker was a “the famous old fighter, locomotive-Engineer Dreher, a Reichstag representative”(50). Topped with an admission price that was cut to merely 30 Pfennig, it is inevitable that this meeting was a hit among the middle, maybe even working class. This led me to question that, on the flip side, in tailoring the party, perhaps the Nazis presented a deceiving or not so accurate reflection of their real ideals in order to entice the public. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case, as it would demonstrate again just how far the Nazis went to garner support, even if it were through intentionally skewed principles or sugarcoated white lies.