People's National Party: a step towards fascism

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

We know very little about the Weimar Republic and its public life. Although the entire decade of the existence of this state, the political arena was full of organizations of various directions. The study of the German National People's Party requires special attention.

How did it all start?

The history of the formation of the Nazi regime in Germany is not as simple as most people might imagine. The tendency to exaggerate the role of Hitler in the formation of such a regime does not make it possible to see that, in fact, specific historical conditions and elite demands pushed the future Fuhrer to power.

One of the pages in the history of the nationalist movement in Germany was the activities of the German National People's Party.

Reliance on financial capital

The history of Germany is tragic in many ways. The formation of new economic relations here proceeded with great difficulty. The influence of the old feudal elite up tothe collapse of the Third Reich was incredibly large. The old aristocracy was mostly nationalist. Especially such sentiments increased after the defeat of Germany in the First World War. The elite, humiliated by the current state of affairs, wanted the rebirth of the German nation, or rather a return to the times of the Golden Age.

This situation prompted the creation of many "patriotic" organizations. The German National People's Party was founded in November 1918. Monopolists and junkers became its basis.

Revival of the empire is the basis of the program

The backbone of the new party came from the German Conservative Party, the Imperial Party and other political currents oriented to the past.

One of the key demands of the nostalgic elite is the establishment of a monarchical system. The power of the emperor, as the nationalists argued, could lift Germany from its knees.

Xenophobia as a bond of society

The People's National Party successfully played on the feelings of the Germans, who saw the defeat of the Kaiser's Germany as a blow to their own pride. As successive imperials, the leaders of the organization opposed parliamentarism. However, this did not prevent them from participating in the elections.

The campaign materials produced by the German People's National Party were characterized by rabid chauvinism and anti-Semitism. As you can see, the National Socialists were by no means innovators on this path.

Change orientation

Gradually tough monarchist rhetoric changed onlydemand for an authoritarian state. Such a turn is connected in many respects with the defeat in the elections suffered by the People's Party. There was no national unity in a weakened Germany: conservatives, fascist organizations and communists fought for the votes. The NNP, led by Hugenberg, moved from demanding the restoration of the emperor's sole rule to hardline nationalism. Since 1928, the party began to cooperate with the National Socialists, who were gaining popularity among the lower and middle strata.

Popular among Germans

The populism of the Nazis allowed them to win support from the petty bourgeois, peasants and partly workers. The NNP could not boast of this. Her popularity has waned and waned. In the parliamentary elections in 1924, the party received 21% of the vote. In 1928 this fell to 14%.

NSDAP was less aristocratic, in their speeches its leaders turned primarily to ordinary Germans, playing on sympathy for socialism. The NNP has become a party of predominantly we althy people. The decline in popularity played an important role in the imminent self-dissolution of the organization.

Alfred Hugenberg is the leader of the NPP

The last and perhaps the most famous leader of the People's National Party was Alfred Hugenberg. Educated as a lawyer, the future chairman of the NPP defended the interests of the Germans in courts. He considered the struggle against Poland to be the goal of his life.

Politics has always interestedHugenberg, and the People's National Party seemed to him the most correct from an ideological standpoint. He began to represent the NNP in parliament from the moment it was founded in 1918. He was appointed chairman of the party at the most difficult time for her - in 1928, when popularity fell sharply by almost half.

The best way out, according to Hugenberg, was to cooperate with the Nazis. The radical views of the NPP leader himself did not conflict with the rhetoric of the NSDAP. After the dissolution of his native party, Hugenberg began working in Hitler's government.

Hartsburg Front

In 1931, together with the militarized Steel Helmet group, the Pan-German League and the Nazis, the NNP formed the Harzburg Front alliance. The People's National Party tried to control the NSDAP. This initiative, of course, did not strengthen the power of the weak NNP. The Nazis gained access to even more funding and increased their own respectability in the eyes of the public.

Last Days of NNP

In the last parliamentary elections in the Weimar Republic, the NNP received a critically small number of votes. In the coalition with the Nazis, she played a secondary role.

The party supported a law that gave Hitler all power. In 1933, the People's National Party dissolved itself. Many of its members joined the NSDAP.