A main reason for gaining so little political success in elections before 1929 was due to the failure of the Munich Putsch in 1923.
Hitler and the SA (Sturm Abteilung – Storm Troopers) stormed into a meeting of the Bavarian government and announced that he would overthrow them, however he was unsuccessful in doing so. The next day when he tried to overthrow them again he was met by armed police officers and was arrested and later sent to prison where he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle).The public outlook of the situation made them appear violent with no respect for authority or for law and order which perhaps lowered his popularity. As part of Hitler’s sentence, he was not allowed to give speeches before like he had done.
At one of his Nazi Party meetings, a historian had worked out that the frequency of his voice was 28 vibrations per second louder than an average angry man. His speeches had been largely admired and had attracted the public to at least listen to the Nazi Party.Without the speeches, it became less popular to listen to the Nazis. Hitler’s appearance was very unusual for the time which not only decreased the popularity of the Nazi Party but also made his seem like a comedy figure as his appearance was compared to Charlie Chaplin because of his unusual moustache.
After being wounded in World War One by mustard gas, his voice was harsh and perhaps alarming which made his speeches sound angry and wild.Although this also made his speeches unique as many saw them as purposeful. His views were very radical for the time as many workers for whom the Nazi’s were trying to appeal to) would vote for the Social Democratic Party and those more interested in politics would perhaps vote for the Communists. In his book Mein Kampf Hitler criticized the Jews for basically everything that was wrong with Germany and with society.
He blamed them for everything that had gone wrong with Germany and as approximately 505,000 people out of a total population of 67 million in 1933 were Jewish; these views were not taken well or widely supported as they were so radical. He said in speeches that Aryians (white Europeans) were superior to all other races and as many Germans could possibly have relatives or in fact themselves not be Aryian, this view was not taken well and decreased the popularity for the Nazi Party and for Hitler.There was little/no support for the Nazi Party from the middle class as the views were too extremist, they were more restrained and worried of the violence of the Nazis as it could cause protests, revolutions and a breakdown of the law and order system. During this time the Weimar Republic also became increasing popular and successful due to the councilor Gustav Stesseman, which contributed to the lack of success of the Nazi Party. Stresseman was the councilor of the German People’s Party which was a national liberal party, they combined views of socialists and liberalists.Stresseman made the Weimar Republic popular by cooperating with other nations as he hoped this would make them seem a peace loving country and therefore eliminate the Treaty of Versailles which had left Germany so hard done by.
He helped to set up the Dawes Plan in 1924, this was between Britain, the USA, France and Germany and it was an agreement from the USA to help Germany pay the large reparations only when they could. The USA gave Germany a loan.By doing this there was spare money to stabilize the economy by investing and building new factories; the USA saw Germany’s potential and invested in them. In 1925, Germany signed the Locarno Pact under Stresseman’s orders; it was an agreement between France, Belgium and Germany to not fight with each other. In 1926, Stresseman led Germany to join the League of Nations as a new reformed ‘peace-loving’ nation.
Finally, in 1928 Stresseman formed the Kellog-Briand pact where sixty countries joined together to not fight against each other.The middle class were better off with Stresseman and the success of the Weimar Republic that they saw no need to change and vote for a radical party which seemed to go against everything Stresseman had set up which had made Germany such a successful country which had a larger, faster economic growth than Britain or France. These factors all contributed to the lack of success of the Nazi Party and as they were doing so well there seemed no need to change party as the country was not going through any hardship as it later was with the depression and hyperinflation.
