Who Voted for the Nazis and Why?
For years historians have been obsessed with the question who voted Nazi? , this is mainly because of how incredible the Nazis rise to power actually was. The Nazis came to power only fourteen years after the party had been founded, this was particularly miraculous because the Nazis were an extremist group and managed to get elected into power in the notorious system of the Weimar government, known for its difficult democratic system of government. Post war historians believed that there was a typical Nazi voter. This person was a young, middle class, male but historians soon realised that it would have been impossible for the Nazis to get to power to the degree they did with these votes only. Analysing this period more deeply historians found there was infact a wide spectrum of people voting Nazi. Extremist government was probably inevitable. After the Wall Street crash Germany's economy began its decline once more because of it's strong dependence on America, the Dawes plan for example. For most Germans this was the second depression they had been affected by. Luckily for Hitler he had opposed the Dawes plan during the referendum for its acceptance, many peopl
Also due to the Treaty of Versailles many servicemen were out of work, the Nazis had the SA and the SS to which many ex servicemen joined because of their natural nationalistic feelings after being in the German army. The Nazis were introduced to them through Hitler youth groups. e would have taken notice of this, which would have initially boosted Hitler's appeal to many people who had been hit the hardest in the depression. To the hungry, unemployed the Nazis promised "Work and Bread" this slogan was geared to the people hit worst by the depression, this made Hitler look as though he understood what the people wanted. Organisations were set up for women, children, lawyers the list goes on, constantly gaining support for the Nazis. Hitler promoted the idea of 'blood and soil ' and promised to wipe the farmers debts of which there were many, which again appealed to the agricultural workers. Hitler was constantly seen to be trying to help the German people but really he was exploiting people's hardships to gain votes. He made them ask themselves the question what am I getting back from the taxes I'm paying? The answer for many middle class folk was "not very much", middle class taxes were going towards unemployment benefits etc. Hitler also stirred up support in the middle classes by promising to concentrate on them when he got into power. They believed that women should stay home and have children, this appealed to many women who wanted to settle down and have a family so many women voted Nazi because they were given what most of them wanted, women were given a specific role by Hitler and felt important. Protestants were also growing increasingly concerned with the consequences of the 1920's experimental, media "openness". The Nazi party promised to reverse the Treaty of Versailles, which appealed to many people in areas such as the Sudetenland, the Rhur region and Prussia especially. There was a particular fear of communism by the industrialists and business owners. In built up industrial areas there were not many Nazi votes because people tended to vote for the social democrats or the communists.
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