‘These Masses Are What Matter’

Abstract

The worsening economic depression, which led to over 6 million unemployed workers in Germany by the end of 1932, helped to create an atmosphere of social tension and political crisis, which was heightened by a succession of elections. As well as several regional elections, there were in quick succession two ballots for the presidency of the Weimar Republic in March and April 1932, and national elections for the Reichstag in July and November. Almost as important as the feverish campaigning which accompanied these elections were the constant negotiations between politicians, businessmen, generals, and bankers, all directed to the formation of a stable government. A succession of Chancellors, relying increasingly on the support of the President to rule by emergency decree, wrestled with the problems of growing political extremism on the right and the left. Their political intrigues were conducted in an increasingly confrontational atmosphere, where violence became horribly commonplace. Hundreds were killed in rioting and in political murders. Rumours of a Communist revolution, or of an SA ‘march on Berlin’, provoked anxious questions about the stance of the Reichswehr in the event of a complete constitutional breakdown.

On 14 September 1930 our party numbered 293,000 members, and today, on 1 January 1932, it has already gone past 800,000. On 1 January 1931 there were about 100,000 men in our SA and SS organisations; today, on 1 January 1932, well over 300,000. The number of our supporters is right now more than 15 million! It is a procession of victory without parallel in the history of our Volk … Comrades, we march into this year as fighters, in order to leave it as victors. Long live our glorious national socialist fighting movement! Long live our eternally beloved German Volk! Germany awakes!

Hitler’s ‘New Year Declaration’ in the Völkischer Beobachter, 1 January 1932.¹