PDF file: History - Advanced Higher - Germany - Education Scotland

Source H
A National Socialist report on a meeting in Berlin in February 1927.
On the 11 th of this month the Party held a public mass meeting in the Pharus (Beer)
Halls’ in Wedding, the real working class quarter, with the subject: ‘The Collapse of
the Bourgeois Class State’. Comrade Goebbels was the speaker … When the meeting
was opened by Comrade Daluege, the SA leader, there were, as was expected,
provocative shouts of ‘On a point of order!’ … Within seconds both sides had picked
up chairs, beer mugs, even tables, and a savage fight began… The fight was quickly
decided: the KPD left with 85 wounded … On our side we counted 3 badly wounded
… When the police appeared the fight was already over. Marxist terrorism had been
bloodily suppressed …
(from Nazism:1919-1945 Vol I ,J Noakes and G Pridham (Eds), University of Exeter,
1983)
Source I
In 1927 Gregor Strasser explains why he became a National Socialist.
How did all those tens of thousands in all parts of Germany become National
Socialist? Perhaps I may be allowed to recall how I became one … Before the war
we did not bother with politics … (During the war) the best soldiers were frequently
those who had least to defend at home. He co-operated, he did his duty unfailingly…
Because we had become nationalists in the trenches we could not help becoming
Socialists in the trenches … Those who have fought together with us and who are
hostile towards the nation because it has not bothered with them must be emancipated
so that Germany will in future be strong and the master of her enemies.
(from Nazism:1919-1945 Vol I ,J Noakes and G Pridham (Eds), University of Exeter,
1983)
Source J
At an election meeting in March 1928 Hitler speaks on nationalism and socialism.
We can conclude that bourgeois nationalism has failed, and that the concept of
Marxist socialism has made life impossible in the long run. These old lines of
confrontation must be eradicated along with the old parties, because they are barring
the nation’s path into the future. We are eradicating them by releasing the two
concepts of nationalism and socialism and harnessing them for a new goal, towards
which we are working full of hope, for the highest form of socialism is burning
devotion to the nation.
(from Nazism:1919-1945 Vol I ,J Noakes and G Pridham (Eds), University of Exeter,
1983)
Source K
The ‘Voelkischer Beobachter’analyses Election results on 31 May 1928.
… The election results from the rural areas in particular have proved that with a
smaller expenditure of energy, money and time, better results can be achieved there
than in the big cities. In small towns and villages mass meetings with good speakers
are events and are often talked about for weeks, while in the big cities the effects of
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 69