Describe and explain the electoral stronghold of the NSDAP between 1924 and 1928. In 1928, Germany held an election in which the Nazi party performed poorly, receiving only 810,000 votes out of 40 million voters, or 2.6% of all votes. This gave them only 12 seats in parliament.
They did so badly that people did not see Hitler as a threat anymore. Therefore, they lifted the ban on him, and now he could give speeches wherever he liked. The result was a surprise to all the other political parties, as well as Hitler himself, because he had spent four years changing the party and its image. In 1924, Hitler was released from prison after serving four years of imprisonment in Landsberg Castle.
In 1924, Hitler promised that he would not start any putsch; otherwise, the ban on the NSDAP would be lifted. Hitler realized that if he wanted power, then he had to follow the democratic method. Even though he hated democracy and knew it would take much longer than a revolution, he knew he had no other choice. This method was called the path of Legality. The path of Legality was not the path he wanted to go down, but he knew that if he tried to start a putsch again, he would be sent to prison for life, this time around. Moreover, he could not take that risk. Hitler would make the same mistake two times in a row. Now, Hitler was beginning to see himself as a leader too because he had a lot of time to think through all the mistakes he had made and to improve the party further while he was in prison.
Hitler was not allowed to make public speeches in some cities, even though the NSDAP is once again a legal party, because Hitler had such strong influence on people with his oratorical skills. While Hitler was in prison, the NSDAP started to fight and split into smaller branches. Therefore, he had to unite them and assert his leadership. Hitler realized that in order for them to win a place in government, he had to change the entire image of the party.
The Nazi Party is no longer a small local party; it is becoming a national party. Therefore, they needed members of their party all across the country. Hitler created a network of parties, with each party in its own Gau led by a Gauleriter. The Gaue were further divided into Kreis, which were led by Kreislriter. Germany was divided into 35 Gaue, and its boards were very clear and organized. Previously, it was challenging to separate each region because of the lack of organization. The main focus of each region was propaganda, speeches, distributing leaflets, raising funds for the party, and supporting their candidate during elections. The Nazi members would try to recruit influential people in a community to join their party, hoping that their admirers would also become members.
They had a lot of members in that way. Hitler also realized that many party members were trying to attract working-class votes, making it difficult to gain much support from them. They had to look at different classes, like the Mittelstand. This group is usually the worst hit when anything goes wrong, and there are not many parties for them to choose from. Therefore, the Mittelstand became one of the Nazi’s targets and potential voters.
The Nazis also targeted farmers because they were going through a rough time and wanted support from the government. The party would say one thing to the Mittelstand and another to the farmers. It did not really matter what was said as long as the Nazis got into power. They were only saying all of this to get votes and had no intention of fulfilling any of the policies they had told these people. However, the downfall of the party is that Hitler gave each region a lot of independence. Therefore, they could do whatever they wanted in their region as long as they were campaigning for the party. Different regions seemed to have slightly different policies or diverse strategies of campaigning.
It also brought a lot of rivalry into the party. Various regions started to compete with each other to win.
