|
|
Adolf turned the "German Workers' Party" (GWP) around from obscurity to solid growth in a very short space of time. The initiatives were all his own. He was by far the best speaker. His knowledge of history, current affairs and politics dwarfed anyone else in his party, and quite possibly already bettered anyone else in Germany. At the next public meeting Adolf persuaded the committee to charge an entrance fee. He was confident. Things were looking up. This time he was the main speaker. All was not plain sailing however. Adolf knew to expect Marxist thugs to disrupt the meeting, as they sometimes did to the larger parties that spoke out against them. The police would possibly cancel the meeting if he asked them for protection. He discreetly arranged for a few army buddies to attend the meeting as well - just in case. On Thursday, 13 November 1919, about 300 people attended. Adolf was scheduled to speak for 15 minutes, but he enraptured his audience for over an hour. Disruptive elements were rapidly and forcibly ejected when they heckled the speaker. The audience gave Adolf a standing ovation. The GWP would from now on be spoken about in Munich. After the third meeting only Anton Drexler had status in the GWP above Adolf. And he was also Adolf's staunchest supporter in the committee.
|
|
|
By holding meetings in halls it was simple to maintain order. But Adolf knew that soon enough he would have to brave the streets and open areas to reach larger audiences. Communist thugs ruled the streets. In the beginning of 1920 the GWP had four army officers and twenty soldiers as members. Not a very effective defense against hundreds of rabid reds in the street. The reds fought with lead pipes and knives. Adolf admired their bravery in fighting for what they believed in. He decided to convert the thugs to his cause. GWP members were instructed by Adolf to turn up in working clothes, so as to be respected by the workin g masses in the streets. Starched collars and suits were verboten. He wanted to attract the best of the workers. The riff-raff would follow later of their own accord. He had to drive a wedge between the red Jewish leaders and their German followers. Member 623 was Ernst Rohm. The membership number was not what it seemed. To make the party look much larger than it was, Adolf started membership from 500. His propaganda skills were showing. Rohm was an important recruit who turned out to be a brilliant organizer. Another most valuable convert was Dietrich Eckart, who mobilized high society to support the new movement. |
A hall accommodating 2,000 people wsa rented for 24 February. A 25-point plan was drawn up to present for crowd approval. Adolf had carefully chosen these points to be acceptable to the vast majority of decent Germans. Converted enemies should readily accept the points. News of the meeting broke and Communists threatened to shoot Adolf at the meeting. On the night, about 400 of the packed hall were Communist thugs. Members in the military with clubs and whips were to keep order. Despite sundry missiles hurled at the speaker, the meeting ended with thundrous applause and acceptance of the 25 points. By the end of the proceedings many undecided hearts had been won over, and many Communist sympathisers had second thoughts. |
 Early GWP meeting place |
|
Meanwhile pressure in Berlin had reached bursting point. The Allies had demanded that over 900 army officers be turned over as war criminals. The Free Corps decided to take over the government, and marched into Berlin. Noske's troops refused to fire on them, and the Weimar government panicked and fled the city. The bloodless coup succeeded and Dr. Wolfgand Kapp was instituted as Chancellor. In Munich, rightists gave their government an ultimatun to abdicate. The government meekly did so and Ritter Gustav von Kahr was installed as leader. The army needed people to coordinate the two successful coups. Dietrich Eckart and Adolf Hitler volunteered for the job, and were gladly accepted. An aeroplane was placed at their disposal and Adolf took his first air flight. The weather was rough and he was miserably sick. But the Communists in Germany had organized a nationwide strike to protest the putsch. Industry ground to a complete halt. There was no water, no electric power, no transport. Kapp was forced to leave. Adolf was forced to return, nothing achieved. In the Ruhr zone Communists, flushed with fresh victory, rose up and occupied the region. 300 policemen and other innocents had been murdered in this coup. In Saxony Communiusts took control of part of the state. Success breeds success, and spontaneous uprisings began throughout germany, accompanied by murder, looring and arson. The disbanded Free Corps were begged to save the country - yet again - and they did, after much fighting and loss of life. Adolf stayed on to view events. |
Berlin was the ultimate Soddom and Gomorrah, the den of every vice and perversion that existed in the world at the time. Adolf realizedf the only way to cleanse this cancer was to destroy the Weimar republic and build anew. Adolf then realized that Berlin would eventually fall to the Communists. and like packed dominoes, so would the rest of Germany. The only way out was to enlist the support of the workers. With strong worker backing Munich could be taken over and used as a springboard to secure Berlin. The Allies demanded the army reduce to 100,000 men. Adolf was discharged. He would now ne without salary, but free to devote all his time to the new party. The name of the party was changed, at Adolf's insistence, to: the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSGWP). This name better explained the goals of the party. |
|
The swastika was now introduced as symbol of the party. The symbol was thousands of years old and has been used by most cultures, including Semites. Adolf designed the party flag, incorporating a black swastika in a white circle on a red background.
|
 |
Rudolf Hess, another important member of the party, would later rise to become the deputy leader of the party. Rudolph had fought in the Free Corps with distinction. After the British confiscated his father's business, Rudolf became a furniture salesman. He showed great talent as recruiter and fund raiser. Another convert was Alfred Rosenberg. He had been present in Russia during the Marxist revolution and realized Jews had instigated and almost exclusively led the movement. |
|
As meetings of the NSGWP became larger and more frequently held, security became a major problem. The "Red Front" or other left-wing or Marxist groups would always be present to disrupt and heckle, and would often launch physical attacks against officials or public at these meetings. The 150 military-trained supporters could not always be on call since they were widely spread out and all had to earn a living, so in practice only a fraction could be available to protect a meeting at any one time. The NSGWP was accused of forming a paramilitary movement so, in 1920, Adolf decided to name the group the "Sport Section" or SA (Sportabteilung) to disguise their true purpose, which was that of physical defense. As the SA grew stronger, they eventually became able to disrupt meetings of the left, returning the favor and reducing the risk from Marxist groups. Later the SA would be renamed the "Storm Section" (Stormabteilung), still known as the SA. |
|
General Ludendorff was famous for his bold and imaginative leadership during wartime. Once he rode alone to a fort be believed had been captured from the enemy, only to see on arrival that it was still in enemy hands. Instead of trying to escape, he remained calm and demanded that the fort surrender to him. - They did. Adolf did the same on a smaller scale when he came across four French soldiers in a trench during World War-1. He pretended he had supporting troops right behind him and demanded they lay down their weapons and surrender. - They did.
|
Jewish activists occasionally got beaten up when they disrupted an NSGWP meeting. This led to public accusations of beating up "harmless Jews", and Adolf decided to ban Jews from attending his meetings. This would inevitably lead to charges of anti-semitism, but that no Jew could complain he was beaten up if he knew he was not allowed to attend, and that was the lesser evil. Rapidly the NSGWP spread to other towns and cities. Adolf would be the main speaker at most public meetings, but could not attend everything. He regarded most of their main speakers as lacking the necessary drive, and was constantly on the lookout for better talent. After one year the NSGWP membership had grown to over a thousand, and meetings could now draw crowds of over 3,000. But the growth of the NSGWP was pitifully slow when compared to the growth of Communism. Communist power was growing by leaps and bounds and they regularly revealed this by industrial strike action. General Ludendorff, the World War-1 hero, recognized the inevitability of a Communist victory, and searched for a viable alternative that could stem the tide. He found nothing... except Adolf's tiny NSGWP. No other party with an anti-communist program appealed to the masses of ordinary workers. General Ludendorff and Adolf were introduced, and a program of future action was discussed. The disbanded Free Corps could be united under the NSGWP as a cohesive force. Once they were strong enough to take over power the General would be the military head and Adolf the political head of state.
|
 The "Volkischer Beobachter" newspaper bought by the GWP |
The Volkischer Beobachter (German Folk's Observer) newspaper was on the verge of bankruptcy. Adolf decided to buy it. His old ties with the military, and his new links with General Ludendorff now paid dividends, and the 120,000 marks were raised to buy the paper. Hermann Esser, the party's best orator after Adolf, was appointed as editor. Adolf and his friends would now test the might of the pen in newsprint. Some loyal followers could even earn a small salary as journalists. |
 Hermann Esser, Newspaper editor and NSGWP party leader |
Poster sketch by Adolf Hitler "National Socialism will free Germany from the lie of Sole Guilt" |
The decadent arts inspired and funded by leftists and Communists now featured as the NSGWP held pickets to prevent or disrupt offensive plays and performances. Eventually the mere threat of such a picket was enough for the police to close down the performance with no further action necessary. NSGWP popularity rose with this success. |
 Myron's Discus Thrower. Adolf admired this sculpture and bought it |
 1919 cartoon depicting what the Versailles Treaty means to Germany |
Aftereffects of the Versailles treaty were felt keenly as the population went hungry that winter. Food riots erupted. Communist groups took advantage of the situation to call out strikes, which further impoverished the people. Discontent was rife and Adolf called for a mass-meeting in the largest Auditorium in Munich, the Zirkus Krone, which could accommodate 9,000 people. It was a gamble. To attact the crowds Adolf had two trucks covered in red and adorned with swastika flags. Supporters would drive around the city, shouting slogans and throwing out pamphlets. Marxists were outraged. Such audacity was normally their hallmark. Adolf would later write:
|
Then, on 7 March 1921 the French army invaded the Rhineland. Their excuse was that Germany was behind on their reparations payments. German passions and nationalism were aflamed and NSGWP fortunes grew apace. The Bavarian government requested a meeting with the NSGWP leadership and minister President von Kahr received them. Adolf was now 32 years of age. Other small Nationalist political parties now began dissolving and forming local chapters of the NSGWP. Adolf was not interested in democratic mergers. He would not be clouded by the lack of vision of other leaders. The German Socialist Party (GSP), however, was larger than the NSGWP it was out of the question that they would disband to follow the NSGWP. Adolf was pressed for a merger. He resisted and his committee insisted. Adolf threatened to resign, which left the committee in a pretty pickle for without Adolf there was no NSGWP. The committee backed down, but later conducted merger talks in secret. |
"May
the hand wither that signs this treaty"
|
When Adolf learned of the secretive merger talks between the NSGWP and the GSP he voiced his opposition but the committee members were adament. Adolf resigned. With shock the committee members realized they lad lost their only trump card for negotiations. Three days later Adolf listed his conditions for returning to the party. The main point was his demand for sole authority. Only he would make major decisions in the NSGWP from now on. Concessions and mergers were out of the question:
The committee stalled and pontificated. Hatred against Adolf began to sprout wings. Over the next month rumours spread by mouth and pamphlet that Adolf was of Jewish descent, or that he was in league with the Jews. A united committee was determined to bring Adolf to heel and dampen his ideals to bring him more in line with their modest political goals. The "Hitlerisajew" rumour spread and stuck. Now totally alienated, adolf somehow had to pull himself out of the pit dug by his committee. |
Without prior knowledge of the committee, Adolf launched a new meeting. To discount the leflets and other propaganda against him, even his posters attacked the Jews. The meeting would be a gamble, but a gamble that he calculated he would win. If few supporters turned up, his position in the NSGWP would crumble, but if a large audience showed up his position would be greatly enhanced. On 6 July, 6,000 people came to hear the leader speak. They knew that Adolf had a sense of direction that other leaders lacked. He spoke out against the enemies of Germany. He spoke out against the Jews, and against those that spread lies against him. The rumours would
not completely stop because of the meeting, but his leadership was demonstrated
with mass-support. After a week the committee capitulated. That evening another mass meeting was held and Adolf was introduced as the "Fuhrer" (The Leader). Now it was just a metter of time. By 1923 the NSGWP had 50,000 members. They would restore the greatness of the German Fatherland; because they worked together as one. By 1932 the NSGWP would become the largest political party in Germany. |
|
|
|