German National Socialist Workers' Party (Czechoslovakia)

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The German National Socialist Workers' Party ( DNSAP ; Czech Německá národně socialistická strana dělnická ) was a radically ethnic , anti-capitalist , anti-communist and anti-Semitic party of the German minority in the First Czechoslovak Republic .

It was created in May 1918 by renaming from the German Workers' Party (DAP), which was active in Austria-Hungary both in the Austrian heartland and among the German minority in the Czech lands. After the fall of the Habsburg monarchy, it split in 1919 into an Austrian and a Czechoslovak branch. These regarded themselves as “sister parties”, but were organizationally independent. From 1920 there was also a cooperation with the NSDAP in the Weimar Republic. The DNSAP in Czechoslovakia developed into a fascist movement that was increasingly oriented towards German National Socialism . It was dissolved in September 1933 to forestall a ban that was passed on October 7, 1933.

history

Establishment of the DNSAP

Rudolf Jung (around 1921)

The DAP, founded in 1903, was closely linked to the national trade union movement in Bohemia and Moravia and had an anti-capitalist, anti-communist, welfare state, national-ethnic and anti-Semitic program. At a party rally in Vienna on May 4th and 5th, 1918, the renaming to the German National Socialist Workers' Party was decided. Their program was mainly written by the Moravian engineer Rudolf Jung and called for a “consolidation of the entire German settlement area in Europe into the social German empire”, the vigorous protection of German abroad and the legal introduction of the German state language. The old DAP's antagonism towards the Czech workers and foreign workers in general, as well as financial capital, Jews and Marxism, continued. For the first time, however, democratic pluralism was also rejected.

After the collapse of the Danube Monarchy, Hans Knirsch , one of the two remaining members of the DNSAP, addressed the German Chancellor directly on November 11, 1918 on behalf of the "DNSAP Deutsch-Böhmens" and demanded the participation of the German Bohemians and German Moravians in the constituency election National Assembly to connect the Sudeten German territories directly to Germany. Such a project was, however, pointless. The Sudeten German territories were ultimately separated from the Austrian state and assigned to the newly founded Czechoslovakia , which the Treaty of Saint-Germain confirmed. Party chairman at that time was Hans Knirsch.

Czechoslovak branch

On November 16, 1919, the Bohemian-Moravian branch of the DNSAP was re-established as an independent organization under the leadership of Knirsch, Jung and Hans Krebs . The DNSAP was faced with the problem that not only ideologies and structures threatened to diverge, especially since the party in the Sudeten area concentrated more on industrial workers, but in Austria it was more of a civil servants' party with an underdeveloped organization. There were also differences in content.

In 1919, Jung also published the programmatic work National Socialism , which is considered to be the first theoretical guide to National Socialism . In it he made anti-Semitism the second mainstay of the party alongside anti-Marxism and propagated a charismatic leader state in place of democracy . Nonetheless, the DNSAP grew out of its own radical democratic tradition and the collective leadership of several leaders. So the leader principle was rejected in the party. Intra-party decision-making processes followed a democratic model. The DNSAP also came to terms with the pluralism of Czechoslovakia. Since the program adopted at the Dux party congress in November 1919 , she has renounced the Greater German "Anschluss" notions and advocated national cultural autonomy and later national territorial autonomy. Such demands were of course due not least to political tactics. Open Sudeten German irredentism was avoided in order not to run the risk of being banned as a party. This did not detract from the propagation of Greater German and anti-Semitic ideas when appearing in the German Reich and in the provinces.

In an electoral alliance with the German National Party (DNP), the DNSAP won around 5.5% of the votes in the parliamentary elections in 1920 and sent five members to the Czechoslovak House of Representatives . In 1925 she received seven seats in the House of Representatives and three in the Senate , and in 1929 eight members of parliament and four senators. The basic lines of their practical policy were a professional cooperative economic development, land reform , a democratic-federal state policy and moderate anti-Semitism.

Turning to fascism

Hans Krebs (1930s)

While the DNSAP, under Jung's leadership in parliament, endeavored to function as a parliamentary party within the framework of Czechoslovak democracy during the 1920s, the party received a growing number of new, young party members. This was accompanied by a radicalization, which was driven primarily by Hans Krebs, member of the Nazi party leadership, MP and DNSAP chief executive. In addition to the two chairmen, Hans Knirsch and Rudolf Jung, he was the leading party functionary of the DNSAP and aligned the party to the model of the NSDAP . As early as 1920, both Rudolf Jung and Alexander Schilling from the Austrian branch of the DNSAP had made contact with the German Workers' Party (DAP) Anton Drexler in Munich. In August 1920, German, Austrian and Sudeten German National Socialists held the first “intergovernmental conference” in Salzburg. Drexler appeared as a guest speaker at DNSAP in 1922. Knirsch visited Adolf Hitler during his imprisonment in Landsberg am Lech and, like Jung and Krebs, appeared as a speaker at party events of the NSDAP. The main difference to the NSDAP was that the DNSAP, at least externally, maintained the character of a democratic party for a long time. It also relied more on the working class than the NSDAP.

Soon the DNSAP copied the party formations of the NSDAP and founded the National Socialist Youth Association (corresponding to the Hitler Youth ), the German National Socialist Student Union (corresponding to the NS Student Union ) and the Volkssportverband (corresponding to the SA ) including uniforms, symbols and insignia. These formations were ideologically and politically more aligned with Hitler and the “Reich” than their own party leadership. They were strictly hierarchically organized according to the leader principle and pursued irredentist goals.

During the Great Depression , the DNSAP gained considerable popularity. The number of members remained fairly constant with around 30,000 members from 1925 to the beginning of 1930, with 24,000 members, the DNSAP was able to increase its membership to 100,000 by 1932 and achieve some successes in local elections.

Persecution, Dissolution and Prohibition

Eger 1938: A banner with the words "DNSAP" is shown

The Czechoslovak authorities, on the other hand, increased their surveillance of the DNSAP. On February 29, 1932, the Czechoslovak Interior Minister ordered the dissolution of the popular sport . Leading officials were arrested and charged with violating the law for the protection of the republic in the “people's sport trial”. Although no concrete irredentist acts were proven, the court concluded from the diverse personal and organizational contacts that the DNSAP belonged to the National Socialist movement and that the DNSAP formations were guilty of the “attack on the republic”. There were sentences of between one and three years in prison. On February 23, 1933, the Czechoslovak parliament lifted the immunity of DNSAP MPs Krebs, Junge, Leo Schubert and Rudolf Kasper . In the months to come, the party leadership constantly expected the party to be banned. When the confirmation of the verdict from the "Volkssport Trial" became apparent, the DNSAP dissolved itself on September 28, 1933. Hans Krebs and Karl Viererbl , and a few months later also Rudolf Jung, fled to Germany. On October 7th, the DNSAP was officially banned. The mandate holders of the DNSAP lost their offices.

The Sudeten German Party , founded on October 1, 1933 under the leadership of Konrad Henlein , became the new political home of DNSAP supporters .

See also

literature

Secondary literature

  • Michael Wladika : Hitler's generation of fathers. The origins of National Socialism in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2005, ISBN 3-205-77337-3 . (In particular chapter "3. The DNSAP", pp. 577–621.)
  • Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement . In: Bohemia 32, 1991, ISSN  0523-8587 , pp. 23-38.
  • Ronald M. Smelser : Hitler and the DNSAP. Between Democracy and Gleichschaltung . In: Bohemia 20, 1979, ISSN  0523-8587 , pp. 137-155.
  • Ronald M. Smelser: Nazis without Hitler. The DNSAP and the first Czechoslovak Republic . In: East Central Europe 4, 1977, ISSN  0094-3037 , pp. 1-19.

Own representations

  • Rudolf Jung: National Socialism. His basics, his career and his goals . 2nd completely revised edition. Deutscher Volksverlag Boepple, Munich 1922.
  • Hans Knirsch: History of the DNSAP (1933)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andrew G. Whiteside: National Socialism in Austria before 1918. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. 9 (1961), p. 349 ( PDF ).
  2. ↑ Michael Wladika: Hitler's generation of fathers. The origins of National Socialism in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Böhlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3205773373 , 582.
  3. ↑ Michael Wladika: Hitler's generation of fathers. The origins of National Socialism in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Böhlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3205773373 , pp. 584-587.
  4. ^ Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 67; Ronald M. Smelser: The Sudeten Problem and the Third Reich, 1933-1938. From national politics to national socialist foreign policy. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 9783486485813 , p. 48.
  5. ↑ Michael Wladika: Hitler's generation of fathers. The origins of National Socialism in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Böhlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3205773373 , pp. 598f., 615–618.
  6. ↑ Michael Wladika: Hitler's generation of fathers. The origins of National Socialism in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Böhlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3205773373 , 599.
  7. ↑ Michael Wladika: Hitler's generation of fathers. The origins of National Socialism in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Böhlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3205773373 , p. 624.
  8. ↑ Ronald M. Smelser: The Sudeten Problem and the Third Reich, 1933-1938. From national politics to national socialist foreign policy. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 9783486485813 , p. 49.
  9. ^ Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement. In: Bohemia. 32 (1991), p. 25.
  10. ↑ Ronald M. Smelser: The Sudeten Problem and the Third Reich, 1933-1938. From national politics to national socialist foreign policy. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 9783486485813 , p. 51; Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement. In: Bohemia. 32: 25 (1991); Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 73 f.
  11. ^ Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 74.
  12. ^ Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 73.
  13. ↑ Ronald M. Smelser: The Sudeten Problem and the Third Reich, 1933-1938. From national politics to national socialist foreign policy. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 9783486485813 , p. 51 f.
  14. ^ Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement. In: Bohemia. 32 (1991), p. 26 f.
  15. ↑ Uta Jungcurt: Pan-German extremism in the Weimar Republic. Thinking and acting of an influential minority. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2016, p. 150.
  16. ^ Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 71.
  17. ^ Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement. In: Bohemia. 32 (1991), p. 27 f.
  18. ^ Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 74.
  19. ↑ Ronald M. Smelser: The Sudeten Problem and the Third Reich, 1933-1938. From national politics to national socialist foreign policy. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 9783486485813 , p. 49 f.
  20. ^ Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement. In: Bohemia. 32 (1991), p. 28 f.
  21. ^ Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement. In: Bohemia. 32 (1991), p. 32. With these figures also Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 76. Ronald Smelser gives the number of at least 61,000 members for 1932. Ronald M. Smelser: The Sudeten Problem and the Third Reich, 1933-1938. From national politics to national socialist foreign policy. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 9783486485813 , p. 52.
  22. ↑ Ronald M. Smelser: The Sudeten Problem and the Third Reich, 1933-1938. From national politics to national socialist foreign policy. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 9783486485813 , p. 53; Jörg Osterloh: National Socialist persecution of Jews in the Reichsgau Sudetenland 1938-1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783486579802 , p. 76. Andreas Luh mentions a different chronology: On September 28, 1933, an extraordinary DNSAP party congress took the necessary precautions. On October 2, the opinion of the Supreme Court of Czechoslovakia became known. On October 3, Jung dissolved the party in order to protect the party's assets. The party ban followed on October 4th and the verdict was confirmed on October 7th. Andreas Luh: The German National Socialist Workers' Party in the Sudetenland. Volkish Workers' Party and Fascist Movement. In: Bohemia. 32 (1991), p. 36.

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