The Nazis: By Any Means Necessary

I felt that this week’s reading in “The Nazi Seizure of Power” is a really good case study of the effects of the end of the World War I and the rise of Nazism in Germany. The story of Northeim and its conditions during these times give an in depths look at how Nazism effected each town. One of the most intriguing details I noticed about this week’s reading is the way the Nazis promoted the Nazi ideas. It seemed that the Nazi’s cared only for taking power, and worried about their actual policies later. It was interesting to see that when the Nazis were trying to gain power, they did everything they could to boost their popularity. It states in the reading that because Northeim was predominantly Lutheran, the Nazis had a Lutheran church leader as a speaker. The Nazis knew that the people of Northeim valued their religion and German nationalism, in turn, the Northeim Nazis strongly “drew on religion and nationalism” in their speeches. During the depression, the Nazis appealed to the people by having Nazi soup kitchens to help unemployment, and provided “Nazi evenings of entertainment”, which further appealed to the masses of Northeim.

However, it was not all good will and charity work that the Nazi party in Northeim did. The propaganda and goodwill was done behind a political motive of gaining the support of the people, and to gain the support, the Nazis also resorted to violence. It is stated in this week’s reading that the Nazis coerced workers into the ideas of Nazism, and “shifted to more violence” during the election process.

The Nazis were obsessed with power, and attempted to gain it by any means necessary. If good will, charity work, and propaganda isn’t going to cut it, then violence is certainly not out of the question. To the Northeimers, the Nazi’s wanted to appear well organized and a honest organization, but in reality, they were anything but organized and honest, and seemed to do anything possible to gain power.