You Needed Them

Sorry about the late post.

While we have spent much of the past two months talking about Hitler, it was refreshing to focus on the atmosphere of a specific German town, and understanding the mindset of the German people. I was very intrigued by the dramatic relationship between the SPD and the NSDAP that Allen spends much of part one discussing. The violent confrontations between the two showed me a much more divided Germany than I had been taught about in the past. The Nazis cunningly used these standoffs to help “radicalize politics” by turning the mostly demonstrative SPD of Northeim into a more militant, and thus dangerous group, which would only feed the Nazi propaganda machine of a communist revolution (51). Whether it was opening up a soup kitchen to feed the homeless during the depression, or flying the symbolic flag even though it was banned in Prussia, the Nazi’s were always forceful and bold, yet they were still revered by their increasing majority in Northeim.

As things got worse with the depression in 1932-33, Allen describes a completely different Northeim, no longer full of “oblivious folk,” instead “violence was at its peak” (92). It now “resembled two armed camps,” both factions became increasingly militarized, and with the SPD so extreme to counter the Nazis, the once dominant more middle of the spectrum political part had been defeated. Most external factions, like the press or business corps were either too afraid or already curtailed by the Nazi’s influence. When the SPD saw their voting numbers first decrease in 1932, they began clawing for survival, desperate to hold onto whatever they could. Unfortunately for them it seems like this only curtailed the now obvious shift of power.

It is easy to picture and learn about the Nazi’s rise to power, but experiencing it from a town’s point of view and hearing individual stories pulls back the void and takes away from the mystery of just how could the Nazis come to power. It both humanizes the situation in that I feel like I can understand why people turned to the Nazis, why fear of economic woes and personal safety, coupled with the forceful propaganda of the NSDAP would satisfy ones worries, would make them feel like they are a part of something. It seems like that it was started it in Northeim, what invited the Nazi party into the town, and once there, they spread like wildfire. Eventually it reached the point where they didn’t need you, you needed them, and it was too late for the SPD or any other opposition force to do anything.