Importance of youth

votes in Nazi Germany

With the end of the First World War in 1919 Germany is left in a state of
economic, social and national collapse.
Hitler rises to power in the National Socialist German Workers Party or
commonly known as the Nazi Party (1919-1921) .
Hitlerjugend Hitler Youth formed in 1922.
Economic Depression of 1929 propels the rise of the Nazi party.
Elections of 1930 see Nazi Party receiving 18.3% of the vote and winning 107
seats in Parliament, becoming a powerful force in German politics.
By 1933 Elections, under Hitler as Chancellor of the coalition of the government,
the Nazi party wins 43.9% of votes and a majority of 288 seats.
By 1934 a plebiscite is held in which 90% of people vote in favor of making Hitler
both leader of the nation and Reich chancellor. By this time Nazi policies are
already in force: opposition parties banned, SS functional and Anti-Semitic
policies beginning.

Background

 Studying the Parliamentary elections in Germany between the period of

1928 and 1932 one can see a dramatic increase in votes gained by the
Nazi Party: From only 2.6% of total votes gained in 1928 to 37.4% in
1931.
These votes can be attributed to new voters gaining franchise at the age
of 20. There were an estimated 5.7 million new voters in 1930.
German Political Sociologist Heinrich Steifler argued that not only were
there new voters being added but between the period of 1928 and 1933
but about 3 million older voters died out.
Steifler also argued that in 1928 there was a reserve of about 3.5 million
young voters who had never voted. It only took a radical party like the
Nazi Party to mobilize them.
Hitler Youth program replaced the youth wings developed by the Church
and other organizations. Gave young boys and girls uniforms, power and
ideology. Youth were indoctrinated to love and follow Hitler
unquestionably.
Importance of youth votes

 Germany had been intentionally humiliated

internationally by being made to sign the Treaty of
Versailles.
Germany was banned from having a large standing army,
was made to pay war reparations to the allies and had
territories partitioned away from it.
The Weimar Government was very weak and ineffectual.
There was unabated political violence and unrest.
There was a fear of Communist takeover.
The economy of the country was in a very poor state.
There were very little jobs and high inflation.
State of Germany after WWI

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to prominence due to their policies, all of which
appealed to the youth:
Blamed Socialists, Jews, the older politicians of other parties and other nations
for the state of Germany after the War.
Rejected payment of War reparations by Germany to Allied Nations.
Wanted to revive the German Army.
Had an aggressive foreign policy: Wanted to take back the lands that had been
partitioned away from Germany after the war.
Talked about ideas of National Pride and Destined Greatness.
Had a revolutionary and militaristic ideology.
Adolf Hitler was an enigmatic leader, around which a personality cult began to
form.
The Nazi youth wing: Hitlers youth was a very distinguished organization.
The Nazi Party recruited a lot of young people: in 1932 the average age of party
members was 32 years.

The Nazi Partys youth-centric policies

The Nazi Party used all forms of mass media to push forward their agenda
into the minds of its citizens:
Movies
Books
Newspapers
Posters
Radios
Books
Speeches
Rallies
A lot of these were aimed towards the youth. Hitler Junge Quex was a very
famous movie, which depicted the life and death of Herbert Norkus, A Hitler
youth who was shot dead by a Communist Youth wing.

Use of Propoganda

 Using the psychodynamic theory of personality development, Professor

Loewenburg argues that children who were born or were very young
during the time of World War I in Germany composed the young voters
of Germany in the 1920s.
Traumatic experiences of being raised in the war and especially in the
post-defeat atmosphere had huge effects on the personalities of these
children.
The children who were born or raised during the First World War had
grown up in a home where there was no father figure around and
mother was either away working in the factory or anxious.
These children saw the father figure return from war humiliated and
embarrassed
As they grew up, they saw the collapse of traditional institutions and
authority and thus turned towards Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Not only did Hitler give them a conduit threw which they could express
their anger, he also become a maternal and paternal figure for them.
Voter Behavior

Bibliography
Geary, Dick. "Who voted for the Nazis?" History Today October 1998.
History Learning Site. Impact of World War One on the Weimar
Republic. 30 October 2013
<http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/weimar_impact_world_war_one.ht
m>.
Loewenburg, Peter. The Psycho-historical origins of the Nazia youth
cohort. Psychological report. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1985.
The History Place. Hitler Youth - Road to Power. 1999. October 2013
<http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-road.htm>.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. WORLD WAR I:
AFTERMATH. 31 October 2013
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007429>.