January 30th 1933. Rivers of fire flooded the streets of Berlin. The flames seemed endless; a strange new light crashing over each block. The brownshirts sang victory songs as they marched with their torches. Crowds of men, women, and children cheered wildly. With an outstretched arm, Adolf Hitler, saluted his adoring supporters from his balcony. They had helped turn this failed painter, this Austrian corporal, into the chancellor of Germany. Who were Nazi voters? What did they want? How did Hitler captivate them?
The Nazi Base
The Nazi lust for street violence might make us assume party supporters were mostly poor, urban young men. While brawling paramilitaries grabbed headlines, they were only a fraction of Nazi support. Instead, before 1933, most Nazi supporters were middle and upper-middle class German Protestants. These “ordinary Germans” were a mix of conservatives, rural voters, and business people.
We’d like to think that a radical party like the Nazis must have attracted all types of radicals, but that’s not true. By looking at elections from 1928 to 1932, when the Nazi vote exploded from 2.6% to 37.3%, it becomes clear that the Nazis won over former supporters of right and center-right parties. Those parties lost two-thirds of their support during those four years. While some urban workers voted Nazi, most voted for the left-leaning Social Democrats or the Communists. The Nazis owed their rapid rise to middle-class Protestants, who were nationalist, conservative, and Germany’s dominant social group. Voters who supported the Nazis saw a changing world that simultaneously assaulted Protestant sensibilities, German identity, and economic security.
The German “Values” Voter
Before WWI, Germany saw increased immigration from Imperial Russia, its backwards, autocratic neighbor. Many of these immigrants were Russian Jews fleeing persecution. After WWI and the Russian Revolution, many Catholics fled across the porous German border from the East. These migrants brought customs and ideas that clashed with conservative German values. For the Jews, their overrepresentation as left-leaning politicians, academics, and professionals also stoked anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
While right-wingers decried Eastern immigration, the also condemned the cosmopolitan atmosphere of 1920s Germany. Berlin was the vanguard for the gay rights and women’s rights movements. In the 1920s, the capital had over 100 gay or lesbian clubs and bars. The post-WWI Constitution gave women the vote, and throughout the 1920s, ever more women filled prominent professional and scientific positions across Germany. These advances directly challenged the chauvinist culture of Germany’s aging elite. These men considered the liberal Weimar Republic a decadent disgrace.
At the same time, social changes upended the business world. In the late 19th century rapid industrialization turned Germany into a powerhouse, but also created tensions between wealthy employers and poor workers. Worker organizations became a political force. While labor rights had stalled during WWI, afterwards, unions continued their struggle for better pay and working conditions. Conservative leaders reacted with fear to the pro-labor positions of their Social Democratic opponents. Business owners were terrified that labor’s power would lead to worker-owned collectives or worse: Socialist revolution. The Nazis aggressively took a pro-business stance as part of their violent opposition to Communism.
German conservatives also blamed their economic woes on international forces. The gold standard yoked world currencies together, and massive British and American loans to rebuild war-torn Europe deepened economic ties between nations. Meanwhile, international trade became an increasingly important to national growth. These facts helped the 1929 Wall Street Crash to grow into the global Great Depression. In Germany, political posturing and bad economic policies made the Depression far worse. However, many Germans held globalization and international finance responsible for their suffering. Many right-wingers viewed the Depression as further proof of a Jewish conspiracy.
Nationalism and anti-Semitism were already central to the far-right worldview following WWI. Germany’s defeat was a shattering blow to the national psyche. Before the war, Germany was the dominant Continental power: leading Europe in industry, science, and technology. The 1919 Versailles’ Treaty blamed Germany for starting the war. The treaty forced Germany to pay reparations, give up its overseas colonies, and limit its military. Militarists and conservatives viewed Versailles as a national humiliation and a deliberate international plan to keep Germany poor. In their minds, Germany was the victim of an unjust global order, and Nazi plans to rebuild the military and dominate Europe could make Germany great again.
Getting Them in Their Gut
Beyond any issue, Hitler created an emotional connection with his base. Nazi supporters reveled in his dramatic style and found his unconventionality refreshing. Most of all, Nazi voters loved the nationalist fantasy Hitler offered them.
Hitler’s first turn in the national spotlight came after his failed Munich coup in 1923. At his treason trial, he railed against the Weimar Republic. He decried the government as the real traitors; the “November criminals” who had surrendered Germany’s freedom in 1918. In doing so, the fiery orator became a celebrity. With this newfound status, he spent his prison sentence writing these ideas into Mein Kampf. Once released, Hitler masterfully used newspapers and radio to consistently share his radical messages with millions. His protégé, Joseph Goebbels, understood that “any press is good press,” and ensured the Nazis dominated media coverage through their increasingly provocative behavior.
In Goebbels’ propaganda, Hitler was the ultimate political outsider whose bombast and inexperience proved his sincerity. The Nazis portrayed the Weimar government as corrupt elites beholden to Jewish and international interests. As such, the government was the enemy of “real” Germans. “Real” Germans meant Conservative Protestants, who were increasingly dissatisfied by the new world around them. This world teemed with new nations, new ideologies, and new immigrants. This world challenged the pre-eminence of Protestant Germans domestically and Germany’s pre-eminence internationally. Hitler’s base was frustrated with parliamentary politics and demanded radical change. Hitler embodied this radical reactionary change as he proclaimed himself the savior of traditional Germany.
Ultimately, Hitler’s base loved the myths he told them about themselves. Since 1918, conservative mythology held that Germany defeated not on the battlefield but on the homefront by Jews, Socialists, and pacifists. This was demonstrably false, German ran out of reserves in 1918 and Jews disproportionately served in the German army. However, truth detracted little from the fantasy of a valiant unconquered Germany. In addition to this revisionism, Hitler told ethnic Germans that they were a master race, a race of destiny. These racial ideas grew from the militarist dream of German domination over its Eastern neighbors. Hitler appealed to members of the Protestant German middle-class who saw their ethnic and national identities under threat. The people that enabled Hitler’s rise chose to give in to the base human instincts of hatred and tribalism. They chose to follow a charlatan because he offered a compelling fantasy. Eventually, that fantasy would nearly bring the world to its knees.