Too Much Talk About Hitler Makes Lolotte a Dull Girl (919-926)

In 1928, the struggling Weimar Republic finally went sour. An election was held that year which shifted the political poles from right to left, making it impossible for the Republic to drum up any more support. In addition to this loss of support, alienated voters, mostly of the peasantry, started backing "specialized interests" such as those of the Nazi party. The Nazis identified this electoral splintering as profitable, and with the stunning propaganda of Goebbels, their party led the way towards the inevitable splintering of the Weimar. They painted themselves as a young, hip contingent concerned with Germany's well-being, and even during the Depression they were well-funded enough to organize the rallies that won them 18.3 percent of the vote early on. The presence of the Nazi party in the Reichstag prevented other groups, such as the National Socialists, from becoming an overpowering majority; the Nazis only followed Hitler, and refused to partake in other areas of government. Hitler, however, could not win the majority required to become president electorally. Thus, after a Dutch anarchist and pyromaniac did his worst on the Reichstag, Hitler seized the opportunity to create "The Third Reich" under Nazi jurisdiction.

In 1933, Germany officially became a one-party Nazi state. The left was crushed by Hitler's regime, and all non-Nazi organizations were forced to assimilate. If the Nazi state was efficient, perhaps the autocracy would be justified, but the bureaucracy was so complicated that very little was accomplished. In fact, Hitler's biggest challenges came from within the Nazi party at the end of his first term; these internal difficulties led to the creation of the infamous Nazi secret police, the SS. Headed by Himmler, the most feared Nazi next to Hitler, the SS invented the Nazi concentration camp. Still, the regime enjoyed a certain amount of popular support that cut across class lines. Hitler admired and emulated Mussolini in this regard by attempting to infuse a universal nationalism into the German people and reaching out to the country's youth. The main staple of the party's politics was racism, and for this issue I recommend reading the two posts preceding this one.