National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP): program, leaders, symbols, history

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

In Germany in 1920, the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), in Russian - NSDAP, or NSRPG) began to exist, since 1933 it became the only legitimate ruling party in the country. By decision of the anti-Hitler coalition, after the defeat in 1945, it was dissolved, by the Nuremberg Trials its leadership was recognized as criminal, and its ideology was unacceptable due to the threat to the existence of mankind.

Start

In 1919, the German Workers' Party (DAP) was founded in Munich by railroad fitter Anton Drexler on the platform of the Free Workers' Committee for Peace (Freien Arbeiterausschuss für einen guten Frieden), which was also founded by Drexler. His mentor, Paul Tafel, director of the company and leader of the Pan-German Union, suggested the idea of creating a nationalist party that would rely on the workers. Since its inception, the DAP has already had about 40 members under its wing. Political party programwas not yet sufficiently developed.

Adolf Hitler joined the DAP already in September 1919, and six months later he announced the "Twenty-Five Point Program", which led to a change of name. Now it has finally acquired its name as the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Hitler did not come up with innovations himself, National Socialism had already been proclaimed at that time in Austria. In order not to copy the name of the Austrian party, Hitler proposed the Socialist Revolutionary Party. But he was persuaded. Publicism picked up on the idea, shortening the abbreviation to "Nazi", since the name "Soci" (socialists) already existed, by analogy.

Twenty-five points

This fateful program, approved in February 1920, will have to be briefly outlined.

1. Grossdeutschland should unite all Germans on its territory.
2. Achieve a rejection of all the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles than confirm Germany's right to independently build relations with other nations.
3. Lebensraum: Claim more territory to produce food and settle the growing German population.
4. Citizenship to grant on a racial basis. Jews will not be German citizens.
5. All non-Germans can only be guests.
6. Official positions should be held by people of appropriate qualifications and abilities, nepotism of any kind is unacceptable.
7. The state is obliged to ensure the conditionsfor the existence of citizens. When resources are scarce, all non-citizens are excluded from beneficiaries.
8. Entry of non-Germans into Germany should be stopped.
9. All citizens have not only the right but also the duty to vote.
10. Every citizen of Germany should work for the common good.
11. Illegal profits will be confiscated.
12. All profits from the war will be confiscated.
13. Nationalization of all large enterprises.
14. Workers and employees participate in the profits of large industries.
15. The old-age pension should be decent.
16. The need to support merchants and small producers, transferring all large stores to them.
17. Reform land ownership, stop speculation.
18. The death pen alty for profiteering, all criminal offenses are punished mercilessly.
19. Replacing Roman law with Germanic law.
20. Reorganization of the educational system in Germany.
21. State support for motherhood and encouragement of youth development.
22. Communal conscription, national army instead of professional one.
23. All media in the country should be only for the Germans, non-Germans are prohibited from working in them.
24. Religion is free, except for religions that are dangerous to Germany. Jewish materialism is prohibited.
25. Strengthening the central government to effectively implement legislation.

Parliament

From April 1, 1920, Hitler's political party program becameofficial, and since 1926 all its provisions have been recognized as unshakable. From 1924 to 1933 the party was gaining strength and growing rapidly. Parliamentary elections show the growth of the votes of German voters year by year.

If in May 1924 the National Socialist German Workers' Party won only 6.6% in the elections, and in December even less - only 3%, then already in 1930 the votes became 18.3%. In 1932, adherents of National Socialism increased significantly: in July, 37.4% voted for the NSDAP, and, finally, in March 1933, Hitler's party received almost 44% of the votes. Since 1923, NSDAP congresses have been regularly held, there were ten of them in total, and the last one took place in 1938.

Ideology

The totalitarian ideology of National Socialism combines elements of socialism, racism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, fascism and anti-communism. That is why the National Socialist German Workers' Party declared its goal to build an Aryan state with racial purity and a vast territory, which has everything you need for the well-being and prosperity of the thousand-year-old Reich.

Hitler's first speech to the party was in October 1919. Then the history of the party was just beginning, and the audience was small - only one hundred and eleven people. But the future Fuhrer captivated them entirely. In principle, the postulates in his speeches have never changed - the emergence of fascism has already happened. At first, Hitler told how great he sees Germany and declared her enemies: Jews and Marxists who doomedcountry to defeat in the First World War and subsequent suffering. Then it was said about revenge and about German weapons that would eliminate poverty in the country. The demand for the return of the colonies, contrary to the "barbaric" Treaty of Versailles, was reinforced by the intention to annex many new territories.

Party structure

The National Socialist German Workers' Party was built on a territorial basis, the structure was hierarchical. Absolute power and unlimited powers belonged to the chairman of the party. The first head from January 1919 to February 1920 was the journalist Karl Harrer. He took an active part in the creation of the DAP. He was succeeded by Anton Drexler, who became honorary chairman of the party a year later when he handed over the reins to Adolf Hitler in July 1921.

Directly the party apparatus was led by the Deputy Fuhrer. From 1933 to 1941, this position was held by Rudolf Hess, who created the Headquarters of the Deputy Fuhrer, who was immediately headed by Martin Bormann in 1933, who in 1941 transformed the Headquarters into the Party Chancellery. Since 1942, Bormann has been the Fuhrer's secretary. In 1945, Hitler wrote a will in which he established a new party post - a minister for party affairs appeared, who became its head. Bormann did not stay at the head of the NSDAP for long - about four days, from April 30 until the signing of the surrender on May 2.

His fight

When the Nazis attempted a coup d'état, the Bavarian Commissar Gustav von Kahr issued a decree banning the National Socialistparties. However, this did not have any effect, the popularity of both the party and his Fuhrer grew at a tremendous pace: already in 1924, forty deputies of the Reichstag belonged to the NSDAP. In addition, party members hid under other names of newly created organizations. This also applies to Julius Streicher's Greater German People's Association, and the People's Bloc, and the National Socialist Liberation Movement, and many other parties with a small number of members.

In 1925, the NSDAP again entered the legal position, but its leaders disagreed on purely tactical issues - how much socialism and how much nationalism this movement should contain. Thus, the party was divided into two wings. The whole of 1926 passed in a split and a bitter struggle between the right and the left. The party conference in Bamberg was the culmination of this confrontation. Then, on May 22, 1926, without overcoming the contradictions, Hitler was nevertheless elected their leader in Munich. And they did it unanimously.

Reasons for the popularity of Nazism

In Germany, the severity of the economic crisis in the early twenties of the twentieth century was at its peak, the discontent of all segments of the population grew by leaps and bounds. Against this background, it was not so difficult to fool the masses with the ideas of nationalism and militarism, proclaiming the race of masters and the historical mission of Germany. The number of adherents and sympathizers of the NSDAP grew rapidly, attracting thousands and thousands of boys from various classes and estates to the ranks of the Nazis. The party developed dynamically and did not disdain populist methods when recruiting new followers.

The cadres that made up the backbone of the NSDAP were very impressive: for the most part they were members of paramilitary associations and veteran unions dissolved by the government (the Pan-German Union and the German People's Association for Offensive and Defense, for example). In January 1923, at the first party congress, Hitler held the ceremony of consecrating the NSDAP banner. At the same time, Nazi symbols appeared. After the end of the congress, the first torchlight procession of six thousand SA attack aircraft took place. In autumn, the party already numbered more than 55 thousand people.

Preparing to take over the world

In February 1925, the previously banned newspaper, the NSDAP print organ, the Völkischer Beobachter, began to be published again. At the same time, Hitler made one of his most successful acquisitions - Goebbels, who founded the Angrif magazine, went over to his side. In addition, the NSDAP received the opportunity to broadcast its theoretical research with the help of the National Socialist Monthly. In July 1926, at the NSDAP Weimar Congress, Hitler decided to change party tactics.

Instead of terrorist methods of struggle, he recommended that political opponents be squeezed out of all administrative structures, elected to the Reichstag and to the land parliaments. This had to be done, of course, without losing sight of the main goal - the eradication of communism and the revision of the decisions of the Versailles Treaty.

Raising capital

With all sorts of tricks, Hitler managed to interest the most significant German financial andindustrial figures. Bosses such as Wilhelm Kappler, Emil Kirdorf, editor of the exchange newspaper W alter Funk, chairman of the Reichsbank Hjalmar Schacht and many, many of those who, in addition to their own membership, which was good PR for the people, contributed to the party fund huge sums of money. The crisis deepened, unemployment grew uncontrollably, the Social Democrats did not justify the people's confidence. Most social groups were losing ground under their feet, the very foundations of their existence were crumbling.

Small producers are desperate, blaming government democracy for their troubles. Many saw a way out of this situation only in the strengthening of power and a one-party government. Both bankers and entrepreneurs of the largest scale willingly joined these demands, they subsidized the NSDAP in election campaigns. Everyone associated national and personal aspirations with this party and personally with Hitler. For the rich, it was primarily an anti-communist barrier. In July 1932, the first results were summed up: 230 mandates in the elections to the Reichstag against 133 for the Social Democrats and 89 for the Communists.

Subdivisions

In the party in 1944 there were nine Angeschlossene Verbände - affiliated unions, seven Gliederungen der Partei - divisions of the party and four organizations. The unions that joined the NSDAP consisted of lawyers, teachers, employees, doctors, technicians, the war victims' relief union, the public welfare union, the labor front and the air defense union. They were independent in the structure of the partyorganizations, had legal rights and property.

The political party in Germany had divisions: Hitler Youth, SS (security detachments), SA (assault detachments), unions of German girls, docents, students, women (NS-Frauenschaft), mechanized corps. The organizations that Adolf Hitler's party joined were crowded, but not too significant, these are: the cultural society, the union of large families, the German communities (Deutscher Gemeindetag) and the Labor of German Women (Das Deutsche Frauenwerk).

Administrative divisions

Germany was divided into thirty-three Gaue - party areas coinciding with constituencies. Their number increased over time: by 1941, there were already 43 Gaus, plus the foreign organization of the NSDAP. Gau were subdivided into districts, and those - into local branches, then - cells and blocks. Up to 60 houses were combined in the block.

Each party organizational unit was headed by a gauleiter, kreisleiter and the like. On the ground, respectively, party apparatuses were created, the officials had insignia, ranks and uniforms, which were decorated with Nazi symbols. The color of the buttonholes indicated the affiliation and position held in the structure of the organization.

Branches

NSDAP obeyed not only their own party members, but also parties in the territories of Germany's allies and in the occupied countries. In Italy, until 1943, Benito Mussolini led the National Fascist Party (it is believed that the cradle of fascism was there), after which it turned into the Republican Fascist Party. In Spainthere was a Spanish phalanx completely dependent on the NSDAP.

Similar organizations also functioned in Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway. And Belgium and Denmark literally had branches of the NSDAP on their territory, even the Nazi symbols coincided almost completely. It should be noted that all the listed states, where the Nazi parties were created, participated in the Second World War on the side of Germany, and many representatives of all these countries ended up in Soviet captivity.

Defeat

The unconditional surrender of 1945 put an end to the most inhuman party ever created by mankind. The NSDAP was not only dissolved, but banned everywhere, property was completely confiscated, the leaders were convicted and executed. True, many members of the party still managed to escape to South America, the Spanish ruler Franco helped in this by providing both ships and subsidies.

By the decision of the anti-fascist coalition, Germany was completely subjected to the process of denazification, active members of the NSDAP were especially checked: dismissal from the leadership or from educational institutions is still a very small price to pay for what fascism has done on earth.

Post-war

In Germany in 1964, fascism reared its head again. The Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands appeared - the National Democratic Party of Germany, which positioned itself as the successor to the NSDAP. For the first time since the Second World War, neo-Nazis approached the Bundestag - 4,3% in the 1969 elections. Before the NPD, there were other neo-Nazi formations in Germany, Roemer's Socialist Imperial Party, for example, but it should be noted that none of them achieved noticeable results at the federal level.