Another round of political chaos results in another national election, with disappointing results for the Nazi party.
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Sources
The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans
Germany and the Second World War Volume 1: The Build-Up of German Aggression by Wilhelm Deist, Manfred Messerschmidt, Hans-Erich Volkmann, and Wolfram Wette
Hitler: A Biography by Ian Kershaw
The Third Reich by Thomas Childers
The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
France and the Remilitarization of the Rhineland, 1936 by Stephen A. Schuker
The First Capitulation: France and the Rhineland Crisis of 1936 by R.A.C. Parker (1956)
France, Germany, and the Saar by A.J.P. Taylor (1952)
The Franco-Polish Alliance and the Remilitarization of the Rhineland by George Sakwa
French Intelligence and Hitler’s Rise to Power by Peter Jackson
Great Britain and the Saar Plebiscite of 13 January 1935 by C.J. Hill
Hitler, Intelligence and the Decision to Remilitarize the Rhine by Zach Shore
Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power: January 1933 by Henry Ashby Turner Jr.
Prologue to Peacekeeping: Ireland and the Saar, 1934-35 by Michael Kennedy
Fantasy and Reality in Nazi Work-Creation Programs, 1933-1936 by Dan P. Silverman
Franz von Papen, the German Center Party, and the Failure of Catholic Conservatism in the Weimar Republic by Larry Eugene Jones
Causes and Consequences of the Plebiscite in the Saar by E.W (1955)
The Purge of the SA Reconsidered: “An Old Putschist Trick”? by Eleanor Hancock
The Remilitarization of the Rhineland and its Impact on the French-Polish Alliance by Roman D. Bicki (1969)
Rohm and Hitler: The Continuity of Political-Military Discord by David Jablonsky
The German Roman Catholic Hierarchy and the Saar Plebiscite of 1935 by Guenter Lewy (1964)
Saar Coal After Two World Wars by O.R. Reischer
Schacht’s Regulation of Money and the Capital Markets by Arthur Schweitzer (1948)
The Myth of Chancellor Von Schleicher’s Querfront Strategy by Henry Ashby Turner Jr.
The Struggle for Control of the German Economy by Amos E. Simpson
The Nazi State and German Society: A Brief History with Documents by Robert G. Moeller
Franz von Papen, Catholic Conservatives, and the Establishment of the Third Reich, 1933-1934 by Larry Eugene Jones
Franz von Papen, the German Center Party, and the Failure of Catholic Conservatism in the Weimar Republic by Larry Eugene Jones
British Establishment Perspectives on France, 1936-1940 by Michael Dockrill
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Now get access to special adree versions of all of these episodes plus special patreon only episodes released once a month like the current series on the early evolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy when France Von Poppin was approached with an offer to become Chancellor there was General shock
Around Germany as people tried to determine what the new path of the government would be Hindenberg asked him to create a government which was above parties whatever that really meant General schleker had made many of the arrangements for what the new cabinet would be composed of and he would act as
The man behind the curtain in the early days of the Poppin government he had been instrumental in its creation and he had also saddled it with some required actions once it was in place the most important of these at least when considering the future of Germany was an
Agreement made between schleker and the Nazi party which traded Nazi support for the government for the promise of elections in the summer of 1932 and a removal of the ban on the sa which had been instituted by Bruning before his dismissal Poppin would honor these arrangements and on June 4th he would
Dissolve the reog triggering new elections which were then scheduled to take place on July 31st on June 15th the ban on the essay was then rescinded these actions were all part of the strategy of trying to tie the Nazi party closer to the government and hopefully to eventually bring them into the
Government an action that both slyker and Poppin firmly believed would prompt changes within the Nazi movement it would also remove their oppositional advantage and remove their ability to criticize the government from the sidelines they also hope that it would moderate the entire Nazi movement during this episode we will discuss popp’s
Government and the events that would occur around it and its eventual downfall there would be many problems which faced Poppin during his time as Chancellor one of these problems was the constant violence that after years of greater and greater intensity displayed no signs of dissipating but instead continuing to reach New Heights during
The summer of 1932 in the leadup to the election at the end of July all over Germany there were constant Street clashes between the various paramilitary groups in Prussia alone during the first 3 weeks of of June there would be over 450 distinct instances of multiple groups meeting in the streets and coming
To Bow calls for the government to find some way of restoring order contined to grow louder and louder and it came from almost all Corners it all Corners except of course the Nazis and the Communists whose supporters in the streets were some of the primary drivers of that
Violence eventually ppin would be forced to ban all political rallies and political demonstrations for the last two weeks of July out of simple fear that it would continue to escalate this seems like a reasonable response but really only served to prevent the more moderate parties from holding party
Rallies there was a much smaller effect on the violence from those groups who were already predisposed to not follow government instructions Papa would also decide to depose the government of Prussia during the summer of 1932 Prussia was led by a cabinet of social Democrats which would not have a majority support within the
Prussian land and tag due to the massive increase in support for the Nazi party in 1932’s earlier elections however in Prussia before a cabinet could be removed there had to be a new government that did have a majority of support a majority that was never going to happen
Due to the highly charged political atmosphere with mounting frustrations with the actions of the social Democrats which were only in control by default in the continuing violence in Prussia Poppin decided to remove the cabinet to accomplish this goal he would greatly aided by schleker who was able to
Produce some very dubious evidence that the Prussian government was working closely with the Communists in the hopes of overthrow the government this gave Poppin the pretense that he needed to remove the pressian leaders when they then refused he would remove them from office by force eventually martial law
Would have to be declared in Berlin in hopes of maintaining control along with these decisions Poppin was also dealing with an erosion of support for his position as champ Chancellor Poppin had been selected for the position in the hopes that he would be able to bring the support of the center party however
During the summer of 1932 Poppin support from the center would begin to Decay rapidly for much of the center party the construction of the new cabinet including the role that schleker and others played in its creation was nothing short of a betrayal of the viar legacy of both social reform and
Democratic policies Poppin was already precariously placed in terms of political allies but then as the center party deserted him he was forced to try and find new friends to continue his government when the results were tallied for the July election it was clear that it was another huge victory for the Nazi
Party and to a much lesser extent the Communists the Nazi party would increase its support by a staggering 19 percentage points bringing it up to a total of 37% of the vote the Communist Party would increase by just over 1% which brought them up to 14% of the the
Total the social Democrats and the national People’s Party would see some small reductions and the center party would actually see a small uptick with these mostly quite large parties shifting downwards only a few percentage Points each where did the support for the Nazi party come from well during the
1930 election there had been several parties that had received between 1 and 5% of the votes these were smaller parties generally on the rightwing of German politics and also generally representing a very spe specific group of people or a very specific geographical area examples of this type
Of party were the German People’s Party the German Farmers party the Reich party of the German middle class among some others to put it bluntly for these smaller parties 1932 or at least July 1932 was a political Massacre they would enter the election controlling over 150 Reich stag seats between them and
Depending on who you include in that group they would exit the 19 19 32 election with just half of that number this drastic reduction in the smaller parties in the Reich stock was due in no small part to a shift in their supporters to the Nazi party just the
Latest in a series of shifts as more moderate parties on the right saw their supporters shift their support to the far more revolutionary message of the Nazi party with their latest and a long line of successes at the voting box Hitler and the Nazi leadership entered into
Negotiations with sler for an entry of the Nazi party into the the government Hitler set the price for his entry very high Hitler would have to be made Chancellor he would get to install his choices as the Premiership of Russia the German and Prussian Ministers of the interior and the Minister of Justice
Economy and Aviation Geral would also be able to create a new propaganda Ministry and schleker would be offered the role of Minister of Defense obviously giving all of these positions over to Hitler and those that he chose for them was a high price to pay and would have given
Given the Nazi party essentially absolute control over the government at this point schleker was not willing to give away so much control and so once again it appeared that the Nazis would not enter into the cabinet while Hitler was making demands and that would never really change there was once again
Growing concerns about the morale of the sa there was a growing disillusionment among the members of the party that wanted action for the previous 2 years they had been in an almost constant state of campaigning with a seemingly endless set of marches and demonstrations and agitations all over
Germany during that time the party had experienced a great series of electoral successes after the July elections the Nazi party was by far the largest political party in the nation garnering more support at The Ballot Box than the next two parties combined and yet they were still not in control of anything
Not only were they not in control of the national government they were not even a member of it these feelings caused some m members of the party to begin to once again question their future support and others began to contemplate more radical independent action in August the sa was
Ready and waiting for their orders to march on Berlin to replicate melini’s march on Rome and to take over the national government by force all they needed was the order to be given but it was an order that would never Come get cash for clothes at Plato’s Closet in North Charleston in West Ashley it’s so easy recycle earn cash repeat we pay cash on the spot for your trendy gently used clothing shoes and accessories at play’s closet we buy All Seasons all day every day it’s time to
Clean out your closet and cash in bring in your denim graphic te’s athletic wear shoes Handbags and more sell your styles to Playdoh closet for cashh then do it again play’s closet located in West Ashley on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and North Charleston on Rivers Avenue The problems within the party were only heightened after a meeting between Hitler and Hindenberg on August 13th in the official communic that was released by The Office of the President it would state that the president quote regretted that har Hitler did not see himself in a position to support a national
Government appointed with the confidence of the Reich president presid and he had agreed to do so before the reag elections end quote it also publicized Hitler’s demands for a very large role in any government along with many of the Ministries stating that Hitler demanded quote complete control of the state with
These demands and perhaps a slightly biased viewpoint on them now public knowledge it turned the demand for the chancellorship from a simple Desire by Hitler a strong desire into almost a question of Honor after his demand had been made public to settle for anything less would have been to appear that he
Had backed down from what he had asked for meanwhile he firmly rejected any calls from the sa for a more violent approach to power determined to remain in the legal realm which had served the party so well over the previous years while the rejection of Hitler’s demands
Were causing some issues within the Nazi party and the sa for the government there were far greater problems at hand with all approaches to Hitler having been rebuffed or put at such a price that they were not acceptable to schleker and Poppin and Hindenburg the two had to find some other path forward
The only other option was to continue forward with the system already in place a cabinet that was stuck with minority support but which could continue to rule based on presidential decree however it was clear that this was not a long-term possibility given the resistance of many groups within the Reich stag like the
Nazis and the Communists and so a new plan was created Ian Kershaw would explain this new plan in Hitler a biography like this quote First Advanced by interior Minister freehair Wilhelm Von gaale earlier in August for dissolving the Reich Stog and postponing new elections in order to provide time to undertake a
Far-reaching reduction in the powers of the Reich dog through restricted franchise and a two-party system with a non-elected first chamber the intention was to end party rule once and for all necessary for such a drastic step were the support of the Reich president and the back in of the army to combat the
Expected opposition from the left and possibly from the national socialists this solution for a dissolution of the Reich Stog and postponement in breach of the Constitution of Elections beyond the 60-day limit described was put to Hindenberg by poppin at a meeting on August the 30th end
Quote so in summary their plan to fix the government was to blow it all up and hopefully restructure the viar Constitution the public reason would that would be released for this action would be to claim that the national state of emergency currently existed and it would be the only way to reduce the
Amount of political violence occurring in the streets while the entire plan seems a bit extreme there were lawyers prepared and arguments made ready to convince at least enough of the public that it was not just legal and possible but that it was the only viable path forward there were many problems with
This plan most of which are not worth discussing because it would not get past the first one which was the dissolution decree whereby the Reich doog would be dissolved by presidential order which had to be read and accepted by the reag when the reag reconvened on August 30th
The Nazis and the center party joined together and elected Goring to be the president of the Reich stock this gave him a good amount of power over the running of the chamber within the confines of its parliamentary structure on September 12th the reichstag would hold its first real working session and
Poppin would be present however he did not bring the dissolution decree with him to the opening of the session for reasons that are not entirely clear almost immediately the leader of the Communist reag delegation introduced an amendment to the order of the day which was a censure of the government a
Vote for censure was the reverse equivalent of the dissolution decree it dissolved the government by order of the reog and then allowed the Reich stock to set the dates for the next election when this amendment was introduced there were no objections before voting could commence the Nazi delegation asked for a 30-minute
Adjournment now during this 30-minute period two important things happened the first was that Poppin who had been caught unawares as he would later say sent a messenger to his office to get the dissolution order the second was that the Nazi re stag members decided to join with the Communists in the vote for
Censure joining with the Communist in this way was not a simple Prospect the two parties were the greatest political enemies in Germany and joining together might cause publicity problems for especially for the Nazis who were joining in on a communist proposed Motion in this case there seemed to be
No alternative when the session restarted Poppin requested the floor so that he could present the dissolution decree which would end the session immediately before any votes could happen but for some reason guring did not see him funny how that happens sometimes instead guring began the vote on the motion to censure Poppin then
Became quite frustrated and literally walked up to guring and put the dissolution order on his desk and guring continued to ignore it and let the vote proceed an important bit of info here is that the decree was in a red container the traditional container for such a dissolution decree so everyone knew what
It was as expected the censure motion passed with a staggering 513 votes in support and just 32 two against it was only after the vote had been counted that guring read out the dissolution decree which had been signed by President Hindenburg and former Chancellor Poppin given the fact that
The chancellor who had signed the decree was no longer Chancellor due to the censure vote guring declared that the decree was no longer valid the Reich doog then dissolved itself setting the date for new elections for November 6 the plan by schleker and Poppin to delay
A set of Elections was just as Dead on Arrival as the dissolution decree while the political parties prepared for the next elections it also took some effort to prepare the German people the elections which would take place in November would be the fifth national elections to take place in Germany in
1932 which is a lot parties had been almost non-stop campaigning for almost a year and there were concerns that the German voter was simply growing tired of a constant election cycle even among the non party there were serious signs of lagging enthusiasm both within the party
And from voters as always Hitler went on a Non-Stop speaking tour of Germany but unlike in previous elections the attendants at these events were far less than at full capacity the party hid the reality as much as it possibly could and there were efforts to bring supporters
In from other areas if it was felt that local rallies would not fill the seats but there was no hiding the fact that attendance was flagging from party members when the election occurred the total number of votes made it clear that the German people were either lacking either in enthusiasm or belief that
Their votes even really mattered because 1.4 million less people would turn out to vote even though total registered voters was up by 150,000 the results for the Nazi party would for the first time indicate that not just was their political rally attendance in Decline but also their
Support from voters they would lose a total of 2 million votes in 34 seats in the Reich stock once again the social Democrats would also lose seats 12 this time although the Communists would once again increase their support this time by 11 this shift in support on the left
Meant that what had started as a 2 to1 Advantage for the social Democrats in 1930 at 143 to 77 seats was now down to just 121 to 100 a clear sign that the Revolutionary left was rapidly overtaking the more moderate social Democrats the big winners in the election though would be the more
Traditional conservative parties and the national people’s party and the People’s Party would both see their seat allocation increase a sign of a recovery of these parties after the complete disasters that had been experienced in 1930 in early 1932 the Nazi party was still the largest in the Reich stock with 33%
Which was 14% more than the social Democrats but there were concerns for the first time that maybe the party had reached its peak this was coupled with the fact that after almost a year of constant campaigning the Nazi party was simply out of money while it was generally expected that the National
Organization with its ability to interface with and and utilize large donors would help support local and Regional groups by the summer of 1932 that flow of funds had instead reversed and money was flowing out of local and regional party groups to the national headquarters in Munich to keep it going
This made it ever more challenging for local groups to perform the actions that were expected of them during campaigns like hosting rallies and printing leaflets which they had done in large numbers during previous efforts the decline in support for the party prompted an immediate internal investigation led by GBL this investigation revolved around
Discussions of the situation within the various regions and cities in Germany and then using those conversations with local party leaders to try and get some idea of why the November election had seen the Nazis lose so much support support one of the problems was the large middle class support for the Nazis
That they had built up before the election the party determined that many of these supporters had moved to support other parties due to two main reasons Hitler’s unwillingness to enter into the government in August and they continued an aggressive efforts of the party to gain more support among workers to quote
An internal report the decline in our votes can in many ways be attributed to the fact that Hitler did not enter the government many quite simply have no understanding of our explanation as middle- class support for the party waned there had been no other group in
Which support for the party had grown to compensate along with this erosion of support in the middle class the sa and the radical members of the party were also on the verge of what seemed like Mutiny during late 1932 there would be several cases where local sa leaders
Simply refused to cooperate with or even take orders from local Nazi officials at the same time many of those local party officials were losing faith in the ability of the sa and even questioning whether or not there was still an overall positive force for the party some were beginning to question whether
Or not the seemingly random violence and disorder caused by the sa was actually helping or was in fact detrimental to the party’s aim by pushing some segments of the German population away from the party a few District reports would claim that this was just as much of a problem
For the party as election fatigue or the Flight of the middle class of course in these reports it is impossible to ignore the fact or the many cases anyway that this was just local officials trying to find a scapegoat for the failure of the efforts of the party in their districts
But that does not mean that their concerns were completely invalid when all of this information was collated at the national level there were several conclusions maybe the most important was that there was a growing concern among the party leaders that they were losing the protest vote which had been so
Important to the party in previous elections the Nazi party and the National Socialist movement as a political force had always been a protest movement they were protesting against the government against those that the government worked with and the decisions that had been made over the previous decade by November 1932 the
Nazis had participated in and done very well in several national elections using this message however there was a problem that this caused for the party you can only campaign on a platform of political protest so many times before you have to start finding a way to either make meaningful changes or adequately explain
To the people supporting you why those changes cannot be made this was especially true for the Nazi leaders who after the first 1932 election were the largest political party in Germany and yet somehow with so much support they had not been involved in any actual governing it was imperative that
Something change and quickly or more of the party supporters might lose Faith or as garbles would say in his diary months before in April 1932 we have to come to power in the near future or we will win ourselves to death in these elections with Hitler once again
Refusing to enter into a government on November 17th the Poppin cabinet resigned and there were new discussions involving Hindenburg Poppin and schleker about how to form a new government moving forward Hitler would meet with Hindenberg once again he was offered the position of Chancellor but only if he
Could create a workable majority in the reog which was basically impossible he could also enter a coalition and form a minority government but in that scenario he would be offered the position of Vice Chancellor it was very likely that in such an arrangement Poppin would retain his position as Chancellor Hitler would
Refuse the second option again going with the All or Nothing Chancellor strategy he would also reject the first option because even if he could find a majority which would be difficult Hindenberg put so many conditions on his acceptance of of Hitler as Chancellor including the ability of the president
To name the foreign and defense ministers and limiting Hitler’s ability to put any limits on presidential decrees with Hitler’s refusal of these options the German government was in much the same position that it had been in during late May trying to form a new government that would rule by
Presidential decree with very little real support in the Reich they would try one more time to make this work when General schleker would be named Chancellor in December 1932 an event which we will discuss next week and also discuss why it went so poorly for him