The Rise of Hitler and the Nazis to January 1933 » The Lean Years: Rebuilding the Nazi Party, 1924-28

A party in pieces, 1924

When Hitler walked out of Landsberg Prison in December 1924, there was not much of a party left to lead. The Nazi Party was still banned. Without Hitler, its leaders had split into rival groups that argued with each other. In the Reichstag elections of 1924 his followers had to stand under another name, together with other far-right groups. They won 32 seats in May, but only 14 in December.

Historians often call the years 1924-28 the Nazis' 'lean years', because the party won so few votes. But these were also the years in which Hitler rebuilt the party from top to bottom.

Key terms:

• Bamberg Conference: the meeting of Nazi leaders in February 1926 at which Hitler defeated his critics inside the party.
• Gau: one of the regions into which the Nazi Party divided Germany (plural: Gaue).
• Gauleiter: the Nazi leader of a Gau, chosen by Hitler and answerable to him.
• SS (Schutzstaffel): the 'protection squad', set up in 1925 as Hitler's own small, loyal bodyguard.
• Hitler Youth: the Nazi organisation for teenage boys, set up in 1926.

The relaunch of the party, 1925

Hitler's first job was to get the ban lifted. On 4 January 1925 he met Heinrich Held, the head of the Bavarian government, and promised that from now on the Nazis would keep to the law. On 16 February 1925 the ban on the party and its newspaper was lifted.

On 27 February 1925 Hitler relaunched the Nazi Party with a speech in the Bürgerbräukeller, the same Munich beer hall where the putsch had begun. He demanded that the quarrelling groups unite behind him as the one leader. His speech was so threatening that the Bavarian government banned him from speaking in public. That ban lasted until 1927, and most other German states copied it.

The decision to win power through elections. After the failure of the Munich Putsch, Hitler had decided to win power legally. This did not mean he now believed in democracy. He still aimed to destroy the Republic, but he would use votes to do it instead of guns. To win elections across Germany, a small Bavarian party had to turn itself into a national one, with members, money and local branches in every part of the country.

The Bamberg Conference, 1926

• The problem. In northern Germany the party was growing in industrial cities under Gregor Strasser, helped by a young speaker called Joseph Goebbels. These northern Nazis took the socialist points of the Twenty-Five Point Programme seriously. They wanted the party to stress them more, to win over workers. This was a challenge to Hitler, who needed the support of businessmen and the middle classes and would not let anyone else decide party policy.
• The conference. Hitler called about 60 party leaders to a meeting on 14 February 1926 in Bamberg. He made a long speech rejecting the northern leaders' ideas. The programme of 1920 would stay exactly as it was, and there could be only one leader. Strasser made only a short, weak reply, and Goebbels said nothing.
• The result. Hitler's control of the party was now complete. He also won over his critics. Goebbels switched to Hitler's side and later in 1926 was made Gauleiter of Berlin. Strasser was put in charge of party propaganda. From now on, policy was whatever Hitler said it was.

A new national structure

Membership grew from about 27,000 at the end of 1925 to about 100,000 by the end of 1928.

Why the Nazis won only 12 seats in 1928

The Reichstag election of May 1928 was the first real test of the rebuilt party. The Nazis won just 2.6 per cent of the vote and 12 seats. The Social Democrats won 153. There were three main reasons.

• Germany was doing well. Stresemann had ended the crisis of 1923. People who feel safe do not vote for extreme parties, so most Germans chose moderate parties that supported the Republic.
• The Republic looked stronger. In 1925 Hindenburg, the famous wartime commander, was elected president. Many conservative Germans who disliked the Republic were more willing to accept it with him at its head.
• The Nazis were chasing the wrong voters. The party had put a lot of effort into winning workers in the big cities. But most workers stayed loyal to the Social Democrats or the Communists. Many other Germans were put off by the Nazis' extreme ideas and by the violence of the SA.

There was one small sign of hope for Hitler. In some farming areas of northern Germany, where farmers were already struggling with falling prices and debts, the Nazi vote was much higher than the national figure. After 1928 the party turned more of its effort towards farmers and the middle classes.

Why the lean years still mattered. In 1928 the Nazis looked like a failure. But Hitler now had complete control, a party organised in every region, about 100,000 members and experience of fighting elections. All the party lacked was a crisis that would make voters listen. That crisis comes in The Great Depression and Growing Nazi Support.

Exam-style question

Extract A (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history textbook)

From a modern history textbook.

For all Hitler's frantic reorganising, the Nazis of the mid-1920s remained a noisy fringe group that most Germans simply ignored. New regions, new uniforms and new youth sections could not hide the fact that hardly anyone was listening. In May 1928, after three years of rallies and marching, the party scraped together a pitiful 12 seats in the Reichstag, fewer than Hitler's followers had won in 1924. To voters enjoying better times, Hitler looked like yesterday's man.

(a) What impression does the author give about the Nazi Party in the years 1925-28? You must use Extract A to explain your answer. [6 marks]