The Dynamics of Mobilisation: The Nazi Movement in Weimar Berlin

What made it possible for the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) to evolve from a fragmented political sect to a movement with an unprecedented potential for political mobilisation by the early 1930s? Based on the Nazi movement in Berlin, this article seeks to explore a new approa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kjøstvedt, Anders G. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2013
In: Politics, religion & ideology
Year: 2013, Volume: 14, Issue: 3, Pages: 338-354
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:What made it possible for the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) to evolve from a fragmented political sect to a movement with an unprecedented potential for political mobilisation by the early 1930s? Based on the Nazi movement in Berlin, this article seeks to explore a new approach to the growth of the NSDAP which synthesises organisational refinement and a new look on Nazi propaganda prior to 1933. Through the creation of cells in residential areas and the workplace, by educating and training party cadres and through the insistence on Kleinarbeit as an alternative to mass propaganda, these developments interacted with each other, and were an attempt to project Nazism as an ideology and a political movement into spaces that had previously been closed to it. Both developments should be considered as bottom-up mobilisations of the party's grass-roots and were the results of a conscious, long-term strategy that aimed to bring about a radical transformation of German society. Together they helped transform the Nazi movement into a flexible mass movement with the ability to mould an inchoate and diverse group of sympathisers into an integrated body of committed and skilled activists.
ISSN:2156-7697
Contains:Enthalten in: Politics, religion & ideology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/21567689.2013.820433