NSDAP
SECOND PART 1923-1930

After hiding in a friend's house for several days, Hitler was arrested and put on trial for high treason.
If found guilty, Hitler faced the death penalty.
While in prison Hitler suffered from depression and talked of committing suicide.
However, it soon became clear that the Nazi sympathizers in the Bavarian government were going to make sure that Hitler would not be punished severely.

At his trial Hitler was allowed to turn the proceedings into a political rally, and although he was found guilty he only received the minimum sentence of five years.
Other members of the Nazi Party also received light sentences and Eric Ludendorff was acquitted.

Hitler was sent to Landsberg Castle in Munich to serve his prison sentence.
While there he wrote Four Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice. Hitler's publisher reduced it to My Struggle (Mein Kampf).

Hitler was released from prison on December 20, 1924, after serving just over a year (11 Months) of his sentence.
The Germany of 1924 was dramatically different from the Germany of 1923.
The economic policies of the German government had proved successful.
Inflation had been brought under control and the economy began to improve.
The German people gradually gained a new faith in their democratic system and began to find the extremist solutions proposed by people such as Hitler unattractive.
Hitler attempted to play down his extremist image, and claimed that he was no longer in favour of revolution but was willing to compete with other parties in democratic elections.
This policy was unsuccessful and in the elections of December 1924 the NSDAP could only win 14 seats compared with the the 131 obtained by the Socialists (German Social Democrat Party) and the 45 of the German Communist Party (KPD).

The German elections of 1928, where even worse, less than 3% of the people voted for the Nazi Party.
This gave them only twelve seats, twenty fewer than they achieved in the May, 1924 election.
However, the party was well organized and membership had grown from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in 1928.
Interesthing to know is, that one of the new members was Joseph Goebbels. Hitler first met him in 1925.
Both men were impressed with each other. Goebbels described one of their first meetings in his diary: "Shakes my hand. Like an old friend.

In an attempt to obtain financial contributions from industrialists, Hitler wrote a pamphlet in 1927 entitled The Road to Resurgence.
Only a small number of these pamphlets were printed and they were only meant for the eyes of the top industrialists in Germany.
The reason that the pamphlet was kept secret was that it contained information that would have upset Hitler's working-class supporters.
In the pamphlet Hitler implied that the anti-capitalist measures included in the original twenty-five points of the NSDAP programme would not be implemented if he gained power.

Around that time, the well known Heinrich Himmler joined the party.

Hitler was impressed by Himmler's fanatical nationalism and his deep hatred of the Jews.
Himmler believed Hitler was the Messiah that was destined to lead Germany to greatness.
Hitler, who was always vulnerable to flattery, decided that Himmler should become the new leader of his personal bodyguard, the Schutz Staffeinel (SS).

In the General Election held in May, 1928, the Nazi Party won only 14 seats, while the left-wing parties, the German Social Democrat Party (153) and the German Communist Party (54) still continued to grow in popularity.

Reichstagswahl 14.09.1930

In the General Election that took place in September 1930, the Nazi Party increased its number of representatives in parliament from 14 to 107.
Hitler was now the leader of the second largest party in Germany.
The German Social Democrat Party was the largest party in the Reichstag, it did not have a majority over all the other parties, and the SPD leader, Hermann Mueller, had to rely on the support of others to rule Germany.
After the SPD refused to reduce unemployment benefits, Mueller was replaced as Chancellor by Heinrich Bruening of the Catholic Centre Party (BVP).
However, with his party only having 87 representatives out of 577 in the Reichstag, he also found it extremely difficult to gain agreement for his policies.
Hitler used this situation to his advantage, claiming that parliamentary democracy did not work.
The NSDAP argued that only Hitler could provide the strong government that Germany needed.
Hitler and other Nazi leaders travelled round the country giving speeches putting over this point of view.
What said depended very much on the audience.
In rural areas he promised tax cuts for farmers and government actin to protect food prices.
In working class areas he spoke of redistribution of wealth and attacked the high profits made by the large chain stores.
When he spoke to industrialists, Hitler concentrated on his plans to destroy communism and to reduce the power of the trade union movement.
Hitler's main message was that Germany's economic recession was due to the Treaty of Versailles.
Other than refusing to pay reparations, Hitler avoided explaining how he would improve the German economy.