Nazi nationalism and populist support in interwar Germany

Politics

Nationalist Rebirth

During the inter-war years, Nazism strengthened its populist support by emphasizing its nationalist ideology, thus drawing on the German traditions of the 19th century and gaining strength from the disillusion that had set in after the defeat in World War I. Hitler's policies for Germany included the resurgence of a Greater Germany, by instilling the German people with a renewed sense of purpose in order to inspire, "the miracle of Germany's emergence as a nation" (Berwick, 20). This rejuvenated nation would also include Austria and the German-speaking people who had been lost to Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1919. Before 1933, Hitler played on the unjustness of the Versailles Treaty and, between 1933 and 1939 repeatedly claimed that he was reasserting the national rights of Germany, which included the publicly popular issue of territorial claims (Payne, 1995). Therefore, the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936, the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939, the Anschluss with Austria in 1938 (Berwick, 47), and the Polish question of 1939 (Berwick, 54) served to both increase the size and power of the Third Reich, and to further secure the support and respect of the German people.

The Nazi style of nationalism, however, was closely associated with a historical distrust, and, dislike, of all forms of democratic representation and indeed of all left wing politics (Eatwell, 24). The Weimar Republic was attacked as responsible for the humiliating aftermath of 1919 and Liberals were dismissed with contempt, but it was the Socialists and Communists that attracted Hitler's most intense hatred (Eatwell, 111). In view of their international beliefs and ideologies, the Socialist and Communist movements were perceived by Nazism as being opposed to nationalism and the ideals of a strong German state (Carsten, 1970).