Kershaw points to two things that attracted people to follow the Nazi Party. One of them was the Furher Cult where the people believed in the Leader, which was one with the parties ideals. The economic crisis that left many without jobs also led many people to the Nazi Party.
Under the Furher Cult, people showed full faith and allegiance to the Leader and to his ideals which were nationalization, socialism, and ridding Germany of Communists and Jewish people. As the Leader figure, Hitler was one with his ideals and end goals. He did not even have to show any immediate steps being taken towards achieving the end goals because it was all about the ideal. According to Kershaw, having Hitler as the Leader was what kept the NSDAP together and stopped it from disbanding as a political party.
The NSDAP gained a large amount of its support after the economic crisis. “There was a common feeling of elemental, visceral hatred for the Weimar state itself, for the ‘system’ as it was so often called. Hatred, as Hitler had recognized, was among the most powerful of emotions. That was what he consciously appealed to. This is what drove so many of his followers (Kershaw, 1998: 316).” People were also attracted to the idealism of the Nazi Party and the ideal of a new society. They were also supported the NSDAP because they saw that it was one of the political parties that was not involved in the fall of Germany and the economic crisis.
The economic crisis led the public to look at the NSDAP in a new way and made them decide that it would be the political party they would support. What attracted them about this party was its idealism and hatred for the Marxists and the government that let Germany fall, which were embodies by Hitler as the Leader figure in this Furher cult. So, what is the real reason for the NSDAP gain of support? Was it the Furher cult and belief in the Leader, or was it the economic crisis that made them look at the people in power differently?
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ReplyDeleteI believe that the real reason for the support of the NSDAP can be attributed to both the economic crisis and belief in the leader, as they happened simultaneously. The people of Germany were not just going to hand the power over to anybody; they were not just a brainwashed mass. They listened to Hitler and they thought his direction was one that could lead the country back to prosperity.
ReplyDeleteSo to answer your question, I believe that the economic crisis made the Germans look at the people in power differently, which consequently made them look in other directions for leadership, which they found in Hitler, who had developed the fuhrer cult as part of the parties functionality in the years leading up to the Wall Street crash.
Kershaw writes, "his own recipe for success unchanged: hammer home the same message, exploit any opportunity for agitation, and hope for external circumstances to favour the party" (311). With the Wall Street crash, "the crisis Hitler needed was about to envelop Germany" (311).