Holocaust Notes 2
NSDAP and the Sociology of German Politics
1) 1890-1912 – Each election, the SDs increased their number of votes
a. Catholic Centrist Party had a core following, never grew
i. CCP was wooed back in, the SDs pushed more and more aside
b. Conflict between Liberals – Left creep toward socialism, Right get caught up in corruption
2) Early Volkisch movement (1880s – 1890s)
a. Emerging as a racialist program – Jews linked to liberal capitalism on Right and Marxism on the Left
i. Type A – Religious basis of anti-semitism
ii. Type B – Social/Economic anti-semitism
iii. Type C – Racial – product of imperialism (19th century)
iv. Nazis is a blend primarily of Type B and C
b. Political mixed in with the social
c. Politics too liberal – felt that the German “little man” is being left out
i. Therefore, a 3rd way needs to be formed
d. Liberalism and Marxism are the same side of the coin
i. Both are inherently materialist
ii. Class conflict is driven by or results from these
e. 1893 – German Conservative Party develop an anti-semitic party platform
i. Tivoli Program – reduce Jews’ power, converting would be preferred
ii. Nobody jumped on board at eh this time
iii. By 1912, anti-semitic party platforms disappeared
f. Irony of this racism – German Jews are the best integrated as compared with Europe
i. Germany was “beacon of light” – good place to immigrate to
ii. Russia/Austria/France (Dreyfus) would have been better bets on where a Holocaust would take place
g. Volksgemeinschaft – “people’s community” (adopted by Nazis)
i. How do farmers live alongside industrialists?
3) Domestication of Anti-Semitism
a. Rise of SDs
b. Crisis of MC politics
c. Agreement that class conflicts needs to be dealt with
d. 1914 – After Franz Ferdinand killed, Kaiser Wilhelm II says that we need “no more divisions….unity of Germany”
i. Burgfrieden – “Peace in the castle”
4) Volkisch Movement works
a. Focus on individual groups
b. All believe that “all parties lead Germany down path toward disintegration”
c. Language – roots, soil, blood – organic
d. Department stores were frightening – largely owned by Jews
i. Hitler is getting ideas from this Volkisch Movement
ii. He would add in the Racialist anti-semitism to the Economic
5) Corporatist Economy
a. No “dog eat dog”
b. Unity that isn’t competitive – focus on artisans, farmers,….
6) WW1 as Generation’s Pressure Cooker
a. Africa – Balkans – Morocco – Entangling Alliances
b. 19th century conflicts – short, small numbers of causalities
c. During WW1, there was real solidarity – Socialist saboteurs?
d. Schlieffen Plan fails – Russia mobilizes more quickly than thought
e. By 1915, a gloom had set in and then by 1916 – fatalism
i. Verdun in 1916 lasted an entire year – 1,000,000 total losses
7) War domestically
a. General Hindenburg – running a military state – very little partisanship
b. Policies of inflation – all wartime economies are
c. Raw materials readily available
d. Army working with organized labor to make things run smoothly
e. Small businesses begin to deteriorate – lots of monopolies
i. 1/3 of all small businesses close between 1916-7
f. Nobody happy by end – farmboys first to war, white collar jobs disappearing and blue collar jobs’ wages not keeping up with inflation
g. Horrible Turnip Winter of 1917
h. Peace with honor desired by 1917 – still upbeat military
i. Very frustrated with the truce that was signed
8) Russian Revolution of 1917 (Bolsheviks take over) makes Germany very wary
a. Violence, led by Socialist groups, starting to break out by 11/1918
9) Was the Weimar Republic stillborn?