Communist Party vs. Nazi Party in Weimar Germany

Communist Party vs. Nazi Party

in Weimar Germany

The German Communist Party (KPD - Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands) was seen as a major rival by the Nazi Party during the years of Weimar Germany in terms of who might acquire national power. Street battles between members of the Communist Party and the SA were common especially during the depression that followed the Wall Street Crash of October 1929. The KPD was able to grow tremendously during the economic crisis. Its radical anti-capitalist rhetoric proved attractive to a large minority of the working class. In elections the KPD went from 10.6 percent (3.2 million votes) in 1928 to 16.9 percent (6 million votes) in November 1932. Its membership doubled in the same time, from 130,000 to almost 300,000. Most of this growth came from the ranks of the unemployed. But despite its phenomenal growth, the KPD was never able to unleash the German proletariat’s revolutionary potential or fundamentally challenge the capitalist system.


Communism: a political system where the government controls the nation’s wealth in the belief that the state should provide should provide everyone with an equal share and where private ownership is very limited.

Capitalism: a system based on private ownership of property and business, and where government control is limited.

Gestapo: the Secret State Police was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe

However, for the Nazis the Communists represented a real threat as the KPD appealed to the working class in Germany at the time of the Weimar Republic. The KPD leadership hoped that the unemployed working class would blame business leaders and those who supported a capitalist society. Numerically there were far more people who could be categorised as working class as opposed to middle/upper class. Therefore a political party that had won over the working class would find itself in a very healthy position when compared to other parties that had not done so. Hitler was ideologically opposed to communism but realised that the KPD did represent a real threat to the Nazis prior to January 1933. The KPD was the largest communist movement outside of the USSR and during the mid to late 1920’s had sought to develop closer ties to the USSR. Probably the most famous leader the KPD had was Ernst Thälmann who was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and shot in 1944, after 11 years in solitary confinement, on the direct orders of Hitler.
Timeline of KPD Influence in the Reichstag

 

Election of May 20^th 1928: the KPD won 10.6% of the vote and 54 seats in the Reichstag.

Election of September 14^th 1930: the KPD won 13.1% of the vote and 77 seats in the Reichstag.
Election of July 31^st 1932: the KPD won 14.6% of the vote and 89 seats in the Reichstag.

 

Election of November 11^th 1932: the KPD won 16.9% of the vote and 100 seats in the Reichstag.

 

Election of March 5^th 1933: the KPD won 12.3% of the vote and 81 seats in the Reichstag.

Prior to the March 1933 election, the KPD had made steady gains in the national elections. However, the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933 and the Reichstag Fire of February 1933 and the consequences surrounding the fire, spelt the end of any political influence that the KPD might have had. The Reichstag Fire was blamed on the KPD and in the immediate aftermath of the fire, KPD leaders were rounded up and were among the first people to be put into the newly created Dachau concentration camp, which was just outside of Munich. After the Enabling Act was passed in March 1933, it was very dangerous for anyone to openly espouse their support for the KPD and the influence of the party swiftly dwindled. Some KPD members fled to the USSR while others spent years in hiding.

Buffer: a smaller country or region lying between larger countries as protection against a possible attack
It was important to the capitalist countries of Western Europe that Germany remained a capitalist democracy. It was a priority of the Allies to create a buffer between western countries such as France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Britain and the communist Union of Soviet Socialists Republic in the east.
This problem was solved for the Allies by Hitler and his Nazi Party as they systematically countered and eliminated the communist threat within Germany.
How did the Nazi Party gain influence over the Reichstag and lesser the power of the KPD in the parliament?

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What illegal activities were orchestrated by the Nazi Party in order to justify an attack on the KPD?

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Explain how the elimination of the KPD and its influence in parliament a long term cause of WWII?
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SOURCE ANALYSIS

THE JEW AND COMMUNISM

Hitler viewed communism posing an equal threat to German society as the Jewish people. Hitler and the Nazis often made no distinction between the two. As such he often blended the images of ‘the Communist’ and ‘the Jew’ and combined them into a single ‘super-threat’.

BOLSHEVISM WITHOUT ITS MASK The material that accompanies this poster reads: "The Bolshevik revolution in Russia was the work of Jewish brains, of Jewish Dissatisfaction, of Jewish planning, whose work is to create a new order in the world. What was performed in so excellent a way in Russia, thanks to Jewish brains, and because of Jewish dissatisfaction and by Jewish planning, shall also through the same Jewish mental and physical forces become a reality all over the world."- Translation by: The American Hebrew, Sept. 10, 1920.

What is the poster’s message?

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What is the significance of the yellow star? What does it represent?

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What is the significance of the red hammer and sickle and the red star? What do they represent?

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Why was this poster created?

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