Nazi Economic Thought and Rhetoric During the Weimar Republic: Capitalism and its Discontents

Abstract

At the heart of Nazism was a radical economic vision and rhetoric that provided the Nazis with an authenticity and legitimacy in their struggle to succeed the free-market capitalist economic system – this was crucial to their successful mass mobilisation and to becoming an acceptable party of government. While many of these views had deep historical and ideological roots in German society, they only became mainstream during the world economic depression. By then the Nazis' uncompromising political-economic demand that Germany could only prosper when overthrowing the Versailles peace order, looking after its national interests and doing things the German way had transformed from fringe view to mainstream consensus. At a time when capitalism's future and Germany's place in it looked bleak, many regarded the Nazis' economic vision entailing state control, autarky coupled with Grossraumwirtschaft and withdrawal from international cooperation in favour of nationalist policies as the most promising economic programme. Meanwhile Nazi rhetoric had become an integral part of a powerful anti-capitalist Zeitgeist, an ‘anti-system’ rallying cry that questioned the core principles of capitalism. Its proponents condemned its selfishness, materialism and unfairness, and instead demanded that the common good had to be protected from individual greed.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Benjamin Ziemann, Raimund Bauer and an anonymous reader for helping to shape this article.

Notes

¹Jan-Werner Müller, Contesting Democracy. Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century Europe (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011).

²Influential for this interpretation was Hermann Rauschning, Germany's Revolution of Destruction (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1939).

³Lutz Raphael, ‘Die Nationalsozialistische Weltanschauung. Profil, Verbreitungsformen und Nachleben’ in Günter Gehl (ed.) Kriegsende 1945. Befreiung oder Niederlage für die Deutschen? Gedanken über die Hintergründe des Rechtsextremismus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Weimar: Bertuch, 2006), pp. 27–42, here 27.

⁴Eberhard Jäckel, Hitlers Weltanschauung. Entwurf einer Herrschaft (Tübingen: R. Wunderlich Verlag H. Leins, 1969); translated as Eberhard Jäckel, Hitler's World View. A Blueprint for Power (London: Harvard University Press, 1981).

⁵Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann, ‘Perpetrators of the Holocaust: A Historiography’ in Olaf Jensen and Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann (eds) Ordinary People as Mass Murderers. Perpetrators in Comparative Perspectives (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), pp. 25–54.

⁶William Brustein, The Logic of Evil. The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925–1933 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 177.

⁷Udo Kissenkoetter, Gregor Straβer und die NSDAP (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1978), p. 119.

⁸Detlev Humann, ‘Arbeitsschlacht’. Arbeitsbeschaffung und Propaganda in der NS-Zeit 1933–1939 (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2011), pp. 57, 114.

⁹Ibid., pp. 114.

¹⁰Quoted in Hans-Erich Volkmann, ‘Die NS-Wirtschaft in Vorbereitung des Krieges: I. Von der Weltwirtschaft zur Groβraumwirtschaft’ in Wilhelm Deist, Manfred Messerschmidt, Hans-Erich Volkmann and Wolfram Wette (eds) Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Band I. Ursachen und Voraussetzungen der deutschen Kriegspolitik (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1979), pp. 177–207, here p. 190.

¹¹Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship. The Origins, Structure and Consequences of National Socialism (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1985), pp. 120, 115.

¹²Kissenkoetter, Gregor Straβer, p. 12.

¹³Christopher R. Browning and Lewis H. Siegelbaum, ‘Frameworks for Social Engineering: Stalinist Schema of Identification and the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft’ in Michael Geyer and Sheila Fitzpatrick (eds) Beyond Totalitarianism. Stalinism and Nazism Compared (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 231–265, here p. 238. While a new generation of scholars took workers' attraction to Nazism very seriously (see Conan Fischer, (eds), The Rise of National Socialism and the Working Classes in Weimar Germany (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1996)), Marxist historians continued to dismiss Nazi anti-capitalist ideology and rhetoric as totally disingenuous. See Joachim Bons, Nationalsozialismus und Arbeiterfrage. Zu den Motiven, Inhalten und Wirkungsgründen nationalsozialistischer Arbeiterpolitik vor 1933 (Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1995).

¹⁴Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich (London: Penguin Books, 2003); Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1989–1936: Hubris (London: Penguin Press, 1998); Conan Fischer, The Rise of the Nazis (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002); Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998).

¹⁵Detlef Mühlberger, The Social Bases of Nazism 1919–1933 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Jürgen Falter, Hitler's Wähler (Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 1991); Gerhard Paul, Aufstand der Bilder. Die NS-Propaganda vor 1933 (Bonn: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., 1990).

¹⁶Anthony McElligott (ed.), Weimar Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Ursula Büttner, Weimar. Die überforderte Republik 1918–1933 (Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2008); Hans Ulrich Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte. Vierter Band. Vom Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs bis zur Gründung der beiden deutschen Staaten 1914–1949 (Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2008); Eberhard Kolb, The Weimar Republic (London: Routledge, 2005); Heinrich August Winkler, Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie (Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 1998); Hans Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996).

¹⁷William W. Hagen, German History in Modern Times. Four Lives of the Nation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Martin Kitchen, A History of Modern Germany. 1800–2000 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006); Mary Fulbrook, History of Germany, 1918–2000. The Divided Nation, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002).

¹⁸Klaus Holz, Nationaler Antisemitismus: Wissenssoziologie einer Weltanschauung, new ed. (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2010), pp. 362–364.

¹⁹Jeffrey Herf, Reactionary Modernism. Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 190f. On Feder, also see Joan Campbell, Joy in Work, German Work. The National Debate, 1800–1945 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. 244, 303; Albrecht Tyrell, ‘Gottfried Feder and the NSDAP’ in Peter D. Stachura (ed.) The Shaping of the Nazi State (London: Croom Helm, 1978), pp. 48–87, here p. 51.

²⁰Campbell, Joy in Work, pp. 313f.

²¹Werner Bührer, ‘Wirtschaft’ in Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml and Hermann Weiβ (eds) Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1997), pp. 108–122, here p. 108.

²²Henry Ashby Turner, Jr., German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 78–81.

²³Rainer Zitelmann, Hitler. Selbstverständnis eines Revolutionärs (Stuttgart: Herbig, 1987), p. 228.

²⁴For example, see Kershaw, Hubbris, p. 152.

²⁵Avraham Barkai, Das Wirtschaftssystem des Nationalsozialismus. Ideologie, Theorie, Politik 1933–1945, new ed. (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, 1988 [original 1977]).

²⁶Zitelmann, Hitler.

²⁷Hitler, speech in Munich, 25 August 1920, in Eberhard Jäckel (ed.) Hitler. Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1980), pp. 205–219, here pp. 206, 217.

²⁸Zitelmann, Hitler, pp. 69f.

²⁹For this and the following see Albrecht Ritschl, Deutschlands Krise und Konjunktur 1924–1934. Binnenkonjunktur, Auslandsverschuldung und Reparationsproblem zwischen Dawes-Plan und Transfersperre (Berlin: Akademie Verlag GmbH, 2002), pp. 24, 237.

³⁰Quoted in Campbell, Joy in Work, p. 315.

³¹Hitler, speech in Munich, 13 August 1920, in Jäckel, Aufzeichnungen, pp. 184–204, here pp. 193f.

³²Hitler, speech in Munich, 28 July 1922, in ibid., pp. 656–671, here p. 661; Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. Zwei Bände in einem Band. Ungekürzte Ausgabe (Munich: Frz. Eher Nachf., G.m.b.H., 851.–855. Auflage 1943), pp. 51, 234.

³³Hitler, Mein Kampf (1943), pp. 157ff.

³⁴Ibid., pp. 498ff.

³⁵Peter D. Stachura, Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983), pp. 49, 51; Ernst Piper, Alfred Rosenberg. Hitlers Chefideologe (Munich: Blessing, 2005), p. 147. Less dismissive of Strasser as a person but still contemptuous about his policies are Kissenkoetter, Gregor Straβer; and Humann, ‘Arbeitsschlacht’.

³⁶Gregor Strasser, ‘Speech in Bavarian State Parliament’, 9 July 1924, in Gregor Strasser, Kampf um Deutschland, Reden und Aufsätze eines Nationalsozialisten (Munich: Franz Eher Nachfolger GmbH, 1932), pp. 11–35. Also see Gregor Strasser, ‘Nationale Wirtschaft. Zum Abschluss des internationalen Eisenkartells’, 12 June 1925, in Gregor Strasser, Kampf, pp. 43–49.

³⁷Gregor Strasser, ‘Ziele und Wege’, Nationalsozialistische Briefe, Nr 1, beginning of July 1927.

³⁸There is a clear continuity between these visions and Nazi economic policies during the Third Reich. Adam Tooze argued that a ‘nationalist programme of self-assertion [‘foreign debts’, ‘currency and rearmament’] … was the true agenda of Hitler's government'. See Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction. The Making & Breaking of the Nazi Economy (London: Penguin Books, 2006), p. 33.

³⁹Bodo Uhse, ‘Mecklenburg vor der politischen Entscheidung – Gegen Paris. Für die deutsche Freiheit’, Niederdeutscher Beobachter, 21 June 1929; ‘Innerer Ruhrkampf’, National-Zeitung, 15 December 1930.

⁴⁰Zitelmann argued that Hitler distanced himself from Feder's crude theory towards the end of the 1920s, and that his critique of the capitalist system increased steadily in later years. See Zitelmann, Hitler, pp. 299, 304, and pp. 262, 494.

⁴¹For a Nazi proposal see for example Hans Krebs, Paneuropa oder Mitteleuropa? (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher-Nachf., 1931).

⁴²Humann, ‘Arbeitsschlacht’, p. 55

⁴³Paul, Aufstand der Bilder, p. 197.

⁴⁴An English translation is available at http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/sofortprogramm.htm [accessed 25 April 2013].

⁴⁵Barkai, Wirtschaftssystem, pp. 47f.; Volkmann, ‘NS-Wirtschaft’, p. 202.

⁴⁶The plan is printed in Gottfried Feder, Kampf gegen die Hochfinanz, 6th ed. (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher-Nachf., 1935), pp. 371–382.

⁴⁷See Humann, ‘Arbeitsschlacht’, p. 34; Volkmann, ‘NS-Wirtschaft’, pp. 178, 185ff; Ritschl, Deutschlands Krise. For a growing convergence between liberals and Nazis on economic matters see Eric Kurlander, ‘“Between Detroit and Moscow”: A Left Liberal “Third Way” in the Third Reich’, Central European History, 44:2 (2011), pp. 279–307.

⁴⁸Barkai, Wirtschaftssystem, pp. 25, 91. Also see Volkmann, ‘NS-Wirtschaft’, pp. 71, 190ff.

⁴⁹Barkai, Wirtschaftssystem, pp. 72ff; Herf, Reactionary Modernism.

⁵⁴Ibid., p. 189.

⁵⁰See Wolfgang Hock, Deutscher Antikapitalismus. Der ideologische Kampf gegen die freie Wirtschaft im Zeichen der grossen Krise (Frankfurt/Main: Fritz Knapp Verlag, 1960). This is the only brief survey on the topic. While it is useful, it is very dated and does not include the NSDAP.

⁵¹Herf, Reactionary Modernism, p. 25.

⁵²Ferdinand Fried [alias Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann], Das Ende des Kapitalismus (Jena: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1931).

⁵³Adolf Hitler, Letter to Adolf Gemlich, 16 September 1919, http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/NAZI_HITLER_ANTISEMITISM1_ENG.pdf [accessed 7 June 2013].

⁵⁵For this and the following see Quadragesimo Anno Encyclical of Pope Pius XI on Reconstruction of the Social Order, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno_en.html [accessed 25 April 2013].

⁵⁶For the Oswald von Nell-Breuning Institute see http://www.sankt-georgen.de/nbi/institut/pater-v-nell-breuning-sj/ [accessed 7 June 2013]. Also see Franz-Josef Stegmann and Peter Langhorst, ‘Geschichte der sozialen Ideen im deutschen Katholizismus’ in Walter Euchner, Helga Grebing, F.-J. Stegmann, Peter Langhorst, Traugott Jähnichen and Norbert Friedrich (eds) Geschichte der sozialen Ideen in Deutschland, 2nd ed. (Essen: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2000), pp. 599–862.

⁵⁷Hitler, Mein Kampf (1943), pp. 168, 257.

⁵⁸Ibid., pp. 164, 168.

⁵⁹Gregor Strasser, ‘Nationaler Sozialismus’, Nationalsozialistische Briefe, Nr. 34, 15 January 1927.

⁶⁰Gregor Strasser, ‘Götzendämmerung des Marxismus’, 25 April 1926, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 117–124, here p. 119.

⁶¹Zitelmann, Revolutionär, p. 257.

⁶²Friedrich Dessauer, ‘Bolschewismus und Weltbürgertum’, Hochland, 2 (1931), pp. 481–500, here p. 490.

⁶³Ibid., p. 483.

⁶⁴Ibid., p. 499.

⁶⁵Günther Gründel, Die Sendung der jungen Generation. Versuch einer umfassenden revolutionären Sinndeutung der Krise (Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1932), p. 308.

⁶⁶Similarly, Dessauer demanded ‘a cooperative economic system that has its place in a Christian social system’. See Dessauer, ‘Bolschewismus’, p. 490.

⁶⁸Gregor Strasser, ‘Wir und die anderen’, 20. June 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 62–71, here p. 70.

⁶⁷Timothy S. Brown focused on the interaction between Nazis and communists at the grass-roots level and used the concept of ‘authenticity’. Among other things, he highlighted anti-capitalism as an important point of connection. However, Brown sees Nazi anti-capitalism as a phenomenon of the ‘Nazi left’ and largely restricted to ‘heartfelt rank-and-file’ anti-capitalism of radical working-class Stormtroopers. See Timothy S. Brown, Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance (New York; Oxford: Berghahn, 2009), esp. pp. 12f, 53ff.

⁶⁹Gregor Strasser, ‘Nationaler Sozialismus’, Nationalsozialistische Briefe, Nr. 34, 15 February 1927.

⁷⁰Alan Bullock, Oliver Stallybrass and Stephen Trombley (eds), The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, 2nd ed. (London: Fontana Press, 1990), p. 791; Otto Wels, speech dated 23 March 1933, Verhandlungen des Reichstages. Stenographische Berichte, vol. 457, Berlin 1933, pp. 32–34.

⁷¹Gregor Strasser, ‘Die Lüge der Demokratie’, 26 May 1926, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 124–128; Strasser, ‘Gedanken über die Aufgaben der Zukunft’, 15 June 1926, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 129–139; Strasser, ‘Die Sozialdemokratie. Eine Abrechnung’, 15 June 1926, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 191–197.

⁷²‘Kann ein Christ auch Nationalsozialist sein?’, Niedersächsische Tageszeitung, 24 January 1931.

⁷³Brown, Weimar Radicals.

⁷⁴Bullock et al., Modern Thought, p. 106.

⁷⁵Heinrich August Winkler, Von der Revolution zur Stabilisierung. Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung in der Weimarer Republik 1918 bis 1924 (Berlin: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., 1985), pp. 437ff, 446ff; Heinrich August Winkler, Der Schein der Normalität. Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung in der Weimarer Republik 1924 bis 1930 (Berlin: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., 1988), pp. 321ff, here p. 324.

⁷⁶Winkler, Normalität, pp. 38–40, 730–732.

⁷⁷‘Für Mittelstand und Landwirtschaft’, Der Filter, Nr. 16, 9 July 1932; ‘Reaktion und Mittelstand’, Der Filter, Nr. 16, 9 July 1932.

⁷⁸‘“Die Strasse Frei”. SA in Heidelberg. Rückblick’, Heidelberger Beobachter, 10 January 1931.

⁷⁹Bullock et al., Modern Thought, p. 745.

⁸⁰Fritz Sauckel, ‘Der Arbeiter und sein Recht auf eine soziale Revolution’, Der Weckruf, 24 August 1928; Joseph Goebbels, ‘Der Sieg am 17. November’, Der Angriff, 24 November 1929; ‘Bergpredigt’, Niederdeutscher Beobachter, 4 June 1932.

⁸¹Brown, Weimar Radicals, p. 1.

⁸²Otto Renz, ‘Durch Überwindung des Klassenkampfs zur Überwindung des Kapitalismus’, Die Deutsche Zukunft, 1 Jg, Heft 1, June 1931; Asendorf, ‘Die Deutsche Revolution!’; ‘Reaktion und Mittelstand’, Der Filter, Nr. 16, 9 July 1932.

⁸³‘Kennst Du Deine Heimat?’, Der Sturm, 30 July 1932; ‘Politiker’, Ulmer Sturm, 24 January 1931.

⁸⁴Karg, ‘Dem Führer’, Nationalsozialistische Führerbriefe, 4, 1932.

⁸⁵‘Staat oder Chaos’, Uckermärkischer Kurier, 11 September 1930.

⁸⁶Winkler, Normalität, pp. 502ff, here p. 504.

⁸⁷Dessauer, ‘Bolschewismus’, p. 494.

⁸⁸‘Sozialismus und Eigentum’, Der Angriff, 14 November 1929.

⁸⁹Gregor Strasser, ‘Nationaler Sozialismus’, 4 September 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 72–77, here p. 76.

⁹⁰Hitler speech in Schleiz (18 January 1927), online at ‘Nationalsozialismus, Holocaust, Widerstand und Exil 1933–1945. Online-Datenbank. De Gruyter’ [all future references from this online database are ‘NS-Database’], Document-ID: HRSA-0235.

⁹¹For this section see in particular the following two speeches: Hitler speech in Nuremberg (9 June 1927), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0310; Hitler speech in Munich (3 June 1927), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0306.

⁹²Hitler, speech in Munich, 12 April 1922. In Jäckel, Aufzeichnungen, pp. 607–617, here p. 614.

⁹³Brown, Weimar Radicals, p. 4.

⁹⁴Alex Schilling, ‘Die Lösung der sozialen Frage im Geiste des Nationalsozialismus’, Volk und Gemeinde. Monatsblätter für nationalen Sozialismus und Gemeindepolitik, Folge 2 (1923).

⁹⁵For this and the following, see Hitler speech in Munich (6 March 1929), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0575.

⁹⁶For example, see Gregor Strasser, ‘Zum Abschluss des internationalen Eisenkartells’, 12 June 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 43–49; Gregor Strasser, ‘Wir und die Agrarzölle’, 18 June 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 49–55.

⁹⁷ Reichswart, Nr. 31, 30 July 1932.

⁹⁸ Landsberger Generalanzeiger für die gesamte Neumark, 22 May 1928.

⁹⁹Dr Rosikat, ‘Völkische Gliederung und Propaganda’, Nationalsozialistische Briefe, 15 March 1926.

¹⁰⁰Hitler, speech in Munich, 19 November 1921, in Jäckel, Aufzeichnungen, pp. 521–523, here p. 521; Zitelman, Revolutionär, pp. 277. Also see Gregor Strasser, ‘Das Versailles der deutschen Volkswirtschaft’, 13 September 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 78–81, here pp. 79f.

¹⁰¹Wilhelm Koenen, speech dated 29 August 1924, Verhandlungen des Reichstages. Stenographische Berichte, vol. 381, Berlin 1924, pp. 1068–1070.

¹⁰²Reinhold Wulle (Nationalsozialistische Freiheitsbewegung), speech dated 29 August 1924, Verhandlungen des Reichstages. Stenographische Berichte, vol. 381, Berlin 1924, pp. 1068–1081, here p. 1078.

¹⁰³For this and the following see Hitler speech in Zwickau (15 July 1925), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0060. Also see Gregor Strasser, ‘Der Weg der Gewerkschaften’, 15. September 1929, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 241–252, here p. 247.

¹⁰⁴Gregor Strasser, ‘In letzter Stunde. Warnrufe vor Locarno’, 13 September 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 81–87, here p. 86. Also see Gregor Strasser, ‘Zum Abschluss des internationalen Eisenkartells’, 12 June 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 43–49; Gregor Strasser, ‘Die Deutsche Volkspartei’, 1 March 1928, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 206–212.

¹⁰⁵For example, Alfred Weber (DDP) claimed that the nature of capitalism changed around 1880 when it became impossible to open up new spaces. See Alfred Weber, Die Krise des modernen Staatsgedanken in Europa (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1925), p. 71. Also see Zitelmann, Revolutionär, pp. 308ff.

¹⁰⁶Hitler speech in Weimar (8 February 1931), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0885.

¹⁰⁷See Rüdiger Graf, ‘Either-Or: The Narrative of “Crisis in Weimar Germany and in Historiography”’, Central European History, 43:4 (2010), pp. 592–615; Rüdiger Graf, Die Zukunft der Weimarer Republik. Krisen und Zukunftsaneignungen in Deutschland 1918–1933 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2008).

¹⁰⁸Gregor Strasser, ‘Zwischenbilanz’, 5 August 1931, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 293–299, here p. 293.

¹⁰⁹Ibid., pp. 293–299.

¹¹⁰Gregor Strasser: first radio speech of a Nazi on 14 June 1932, printed in Gregor Strasser, ‘Die Staatsidee des Nationalsozialismus’, Volk und Gemeinde. Monatsblätter für nationalen Sozialismus und Gemeindepolitik, 7:32 (1932), pp. 89–96.

¹¹¹Gregor Strasser, ‘Nationaler Sozialismus’, 4 September 1925, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 72–77, here pp. 72f.

¹¹²Gregor Strasser, ‘Der Letzte Abwehrkampf des Systems’, 1 January 1931, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 317–325, here p. 319, 327f.

¹¹³For this and the following, see Konrad Studentkowski: ‘Zeitenwende! Zwischen Ich = Zeit und Wir = Zeit’, Die Deutsche Zukunft, 7 December 1931.

¹¹⁴Hitler, Politik der Woche-Artikel (27 Juli 1929), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0629.

¹¹⁵Fritz Helke ‘Brennendes Europa’, Die Deutsche Zukunft, 9 February 1932, pp. 254f.

¹¹⁶Dirk Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt. Judenfeindschaft in der Weimarer Republik (Bonn: Dietz, 1999), p. 254.

¹¹⁷Primary sources for this section and other parts of this article are based on a sample of 26 NSDAP newspapers from across Germany: Der Allemanne (Baden); Der Führer (Karlsruhe); Heidelberger Beobachter (Heidelberg); Der Weckruf/Coburger Nationalzeitung (Coburg); Nationale Volkszeitung (Hof); Der Stürmer (Nuremberg); Braunschweiger Tageszeitung (Brunswick); Hessen-Post (Darmstadt); Nassauer Beobachter (Wiesbaden); Niederdeutscher Beobachter (Schwerin); Der Angriff (Berlin), Berliner Arbeiterzeitung (Berlin); Die Berliner Front (Berlin); Reichswart (Berlin); Die Schwarze Front (Berlin); Der Märkische Adler/Beobachter (Berlin); Niedersächsische Tageszeitung (Hanover); Niedersachsen Stürmer (East Hanover); Der Sturm (Kassel); National-Zeitung (Essen); Trierer Nationalblatt (Trier); Westdeutscher Beobachter (Cologne); Der Filter (Paderborn); Der Freiheitskampf (Dresden); Der Nationalsozialist (Weimar); Ulmer Sturm/Ulmer Tagblatt (Ulm).

¹²⁰Fritz Sauckel, ‘Der Arbeiter und sein Recht auf eine soziale Revolution’, Der Weckruf, 24 August 1928.

¹¹⁸Campbell, Joy in Work, pp. 308–320.

¹¹⁹See Klaus Holz's analysis of Hitler's speech on anti-Semitism on 13 August 1920. Holz, Nationaler Antisemitismus.

¹²¹Max Domarus, The Complete Hitler. A Digital Desktop Reference to His Speeches and Proclamations 1932–1945 (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2007), see speeches on 27 January 1932 and 15 June 1932.

¹²²Hitler speech in Weimar (28 October 1925), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0081.

¹²³ Hitler speech in Schleiz (18 January 1927), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0235.

¹²⁴Hitler speech in Landshut (17 June 1927), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0314.

¹²⁵Hitler speech in Weimar (8 February 1931), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0885.

¹²⁶Zitelmann, Revolutionär, pp. 122ff., 491.

¹²⁷Hitler speech to HJ in Munich (15 November 1931), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-1044; Hitler decree Nr. 4 (28 November 1931), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-1049; Hitler speech in Jever (12 May 1931), ‘NS-Database’, Document-ID: HRSA-0946.

¹²⁸Gregor Strasser, ‘Gedanken über die Aufgaben der Zukunft’, 15 June 1926, in Strasser, Kampf, pp. 129–139, here pp. 132ff.

¹²⁹Baldur von Schirach, ‘Baldur von Schirach’, Die Deutsche Zukunft Monatsschrift des jungen Deutschland, 5 October 1931.

¹³⁰Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, p. 347.

¹³¹Cornelia Rauh-Kühne, Katholisches Milieu und Kleinstadtgesellschaft. Ettlingen 1918–1939 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke Jan Verlag, 1991); Manfred Gailus, Protestantismus und Nationalsozialismus. Studien zur nationalsozialistischen Durchdringung des protestantischen Sozialmilieus in Berlin (Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 2001); Caroline Wagner, Die NSDAP auf dem Dorf. Eine Sozialgeschichte der NS-Machtergreifung in Lippe (Münster: Aschendorff, 1998).z

¹³²Frank Bajohr, ‘Dynamik und Disparität. Die nationalsozialistische Rüstungsmobilisierung und die “Volksgemeinschaft”’ in Frank Bajohr and Michael Wildt (eds) Volksgemeinschaft. Neue Forschungen zur Gesellschaft des Nationalsozialismus (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2009), pp. 78–93, here pp. 90f.

¹³³Feder, Kampf, p. 379.

¹³⁴Gregor Strasser, speech dated 10 May 1932, Verhandlungen des Reichstages. Stenographische Berichte, vol. 446, Berlin 1932, pp. 2510–2521, here p. 2514.

¹³⁵ Der Nationalsozialist, December 1929.

¹³⁶Büttner, Weimar, p. 478.

¹³⁷Brown, Weimar Radicals, p. 97.

¹³⁸Theo Balderston, Economics and Politics in the Weimar Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 84; Barkai, Wirtschaftssystem, p. 44; Brustein, Logic of Evil, p. 146.

¹³⁹Since the late twentieth century the term ‘anti-Capitalism’ has been associated with a global movement that was born at the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organisation in December 1999. See Simon Tormey, Anti-Capitalism: A Beginner's Guide (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2004), p. 1.