The Nazi Seizure of Northeim

What struck me most about the first part of Allen’s work was evolution of the importance of politics in this town in Germany. Allen said that the town was really not that involved in politics unless it was election time. This changed greatly in the early 1930s. The town seemed to be a battleground for the different politics and parties that were prevalent during this time. The people were bombarded with meetings, rallies, and speeches. It seemed impossible to escape. Newspapers were being written taking different positions and speeches were heard all over the city attacking different groups. The politics of the day were not some far away idea that the people of Northeim were hearing about. They were involved in and experiencing the changing Germany. It seems like an overwhelming time to be alive in, having to choose sides in a battle for what would become the new German government.
One way that I found interesting to get people involved in the politics were the different Nazi clubs that were developing in Northeim. It was interesting to hear the motivations for one young man joining the Nazi youth group. He said, “I decided to join independently simply because I wanted to be in a boys club where I could strive towards a nationalistic ideal. The Hitler Youth had camping, hikes, and group meetings” (pg.76). He goes on to say that it was not until later that the group had any political aim. It is interesting to me that he seems to act like he was naïve of positions of the Nazi party. Although I think it is understandable if he was very young. This was a clever idea to form a community and sense of cohesion in a young group of boys, really the future of German politics. They were united under their club, the Nazi youth. It was fun and gave the boys a sense of pride. It would be easy to see how easy it would be to work politics into this club later. Once there is a united group of people it would be easy to unite an idea around them, especially if they were young. The women groups were also interesting. In Northeim they were not that impressive or prevalent, but their existence was interesting in itself. Especially when we consider Hitler’s view on women, he certainly did use them to his political advantage. Propaganda was used not only with the girls club, but also to show the depravity of the Socialists. It was reported that a swastika was ripped off a woman. Even the existence of the brown shirts was important. There were so many different groups for people to join to be part of the Nazis. The large middle class played an important role in this. There were different niches for people to fit into. Even in this relatively small town the Nazis and the politics worked its way in to being a major part of people’s lives.