National Socialist Freedom Party

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The National Socialist Freedom Party ( NSFP ) or National Socialist Freedom Movement ( NSFB ; both also for short NF ) was a right-wing extremist German party made up of the German Volkish and National Socialists in the Weimar Republic , which existed only for a short time in the years 1924/25 and as a list association or parliamentary group .

history

Emergence

After the crackdown on the Hitler putsch in November 1923, the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) , which at the time was predominantly active in southern Germany, was banned. Hitler , imprisoned for the attempted coup, commissioned Alfred Rosenberg with the continuation of the NSDAP, for which Rosenberg founded the Großdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft (GVG). Rosenberg had already advocated participation by the National Socialists in the summer of 1923; According to internal correspondence, by December 1923 at the latest, he sought to participate in the elections in the alliance with the German National Freedom Party (DVFP). The DVFP, which was initially also banned after the attempted coup and was largely restricted to northern Germany, emerged in 1922 as a split from the German National People's Party (DNVP). In contrast to the National Socialists, the DVFP, which was re-approved in February 1924, had parliamentary experience. Rosenberg and Gregor Strasser agreed in January 1924 with the DVFP leader Albrecht von Graefe on a common approach to the upcoming elections.

Both voter participation and the alliance with the Deutschvölkische were controversial among the National Socialists and were rejected by an “anti-bourgeois” wing around Hermann Esser and Julius Streicher . Esser and Streicher ousted Rosenberg from the leadership of the GVG, which from then on rejected any parliamentary activity by the National Socialists. Similar positions were taken by the North German National Socialists such as Ludolf Haase . Hitler initially behaved inconsistently in the conflicts: in conversations with like-minded people he refused to participate in the elections; at the same time, he influenced the list of candidates.

Reichstag election in May 1924

In the election campaign for the Reichstag election on May 4, 1924 , the German Volkish and National Socialists agitated against the democratic-parliamentary system, the position of the Jews in Germany, the Versailles Peace Treaty and the Dawes Plan . What was called for was a ethnic state without class struggle and with a professional representative body. A party program that went beyond everyday demands did not materialize because the programmatic ideas of Ernst about Reventlows , Gottfried Feders , Reinhold Wulles and Artur Dinters diverged widely.

Members of the NSFP at the opening session of the Reichstag on May 27, 1924, from left to right: Konrad Schliephacke , Albrecht von Graefe , Heinrich Blume , Ernst Röhm , unknown

German Volkish and National Socialists competed on regionally differently named election proposals, which were linked to the Reich election proposal United Lists of the German National Freedom Party and the National Socialist German Workers' Party . The original agreement between Graefe and Rosenberg provided that the German Volkish and National Socialists had the final decision on the list of candidates in 17 and 18 constituencies, respectively. While the candidates were being drawn up, the National Socialists were systematically disadvantaged by the Deutschvölkische, so that in the electoral districts north of the Main, candidates from the DVFP were almost exclusively eligible for election. Likewise, the promising places in the Reich election proposal were predominantly occupied by the German Volkish.

The list association gained 32 seats in the May election. About a third of the MPs were NSDAP members: Hans Dietrich , Gottfried Feder , Wilhelm Frick , Emil Gansser , Hans Jacob , Christian Mergenthaler , Ernst Röhm , Fritz Tittmann and Theodor Vahlen . The National Socialist Hermann Kriebel was in custody and never took up his mandate; at Paul Rahl a Nazi party membership is not known for sure. Erich Ludendorff could not be assigned to either party. During the second electoral term , two MPs from the German Social Party joined the NF, Friedrich Stock and Hans Kurth .

The journalist Konrad Heiden counted many of the MPs among the "old folk" wandering scholars "and" Vereinsmeier [n] ". The Social Democrat Paul Levi saw the Völkische as a "movement of declassed", headed by a "troop of bankrupt generals". A social profile of the NSFP MPs comes to different results: Almost half of the MPs had a university degree. A disproportionately large number of MPs were party functionaries and civil servants, while workers, entrepreneurs, merchants and craftsmen were barely represented or not at all. However, just under a third of the MPs could be rated as “social relegators”, as they were supposedly low-paid leaders of a political movement with little chance of success at the time, according to historian Martin Döring.

Attempt of a national collective party

Immediately after the election, the DVFP and NSDAP announced that the joint parliamentary group would be called the National Socialist Freedom Party . The German nationalists dominated the parliamentary group leadership, with Graefe parliamentary group leader and Reventlow being his deputy. The ambitions of Ludendorff and the Deutschvölkische went far beyond a parliamentary group and aimed at the creation of a völkisch rallying party: a resolution published by the parliamentary group at the end of May - ostensibly also in the name of Hitler - amounted to “an order to merge the Volkish outside the Reichstag”. This met with Rosenberg's protest. From the perspective of the National Socialists, a purely bourgeois rival party was emerging that offered little room for its own radicalism. From the early summer of 1924, Hitler expressed himself as a radical opponent of any parliamentary activity.

During a national conference in Weimar on August 16 and 17, 1924, Hitler tried unsuccessfully by telegram to dissuade Gregor Strasser from participating in the NSFP leadership. Final organizational decisions have been postponed in Weimar. The conference went back to an initiative by Ludendorff, who wanted to position himself as the leader of the association. After the conference, tensions between the German Volkish and National Socialists grew in the parliamentary group. Ludendorff could not do justice to the leadership role intended for him and attributed the tensions to "forces working in secret". He accused individual MPs of being members of an order of druids - allegations that further diminished his reputation in the group. From the end of August Ludendorff stayed away from the Reichstag.

At the end of October 1924, the merger of the DVFP and the NSDAP was formally completed under the name of the National Socialist Freedom Movement (NSFB or NF). The background to this was the upcoming election of the Reichstag, which - according to a call from Ludendorff, Graefe and Strasser - created the compulsion to share. The Völkische Block in Bavaria joined the NSFB as a regional association. The appeal was mostly rejected by leading National Socialists; Hitler also rejected the NSFB. North German National Socialists and the GVG called for an election boycott.

On February 14, 1925, the NSFB actually dissolved again when Ludendorff, Graefe and Strasser resigned from leadership. Hitler was released from custody on December 20 and, in negotiations with the Bavarian Prime Minister Heinrich Held, achieved a readmission of the NSDAP, which was re-established on February 27. On February 16, leading politicians of the DVFP founded the German National Freedom Movement (DVFB).

Reichstag election in December 1924

In the Reichstag election on December 7th , the NSFB only won 14 seats. Compared to the May election, the economic situation had stabilized; Moreover, the propaganda effect of the Hitler putsch and the trial against the putschists was missing . Nine MPs were from the DVFP, four from the NSDAP. Then there was Ludendorff. Different attitudes towards the election of the Reich President led to the organizational separation of the two parties in the Reichstag in March 1925: the NSDAP nominated Ludendorff; the DVFB supported Karl Jarres .

When the MP Georg Best left the DNVP parliamentary group in May 1925, there was again the possibility of forming a parliamentary group, for which 15 members were required. Best joined the Völkische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Völkische Arbeitsgemeinschaft) that was formed in June and was viewed by the National Socialists as a "marriage of convenience". In February 1927, MPs Kube, Reventlow and Stöhr left the DVFB after internal party disputes. Reventlow and Stöhr immediately joined the NSDAP, which thus had more MPs than the DVFB. Demands by the NSDAP to leave the leadership and chairmanship of the Völkische Arbeitsgemeinschaft to them were rejected by the DVFB. The faction broke up in March 1927 when the NSDAP members left. At the end of the legislative period, the non-attached members of the NSDAP (Dietrich, Feder, Frick, Kube, Reventlow, Stöhr, Strasser) or as members of the "Völkisch Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Völkisch-National Block)" ( Graefe , Henning, Ramin, Schröder, Weidenhöfer). Seiffert and Best belonged to the People's Rights Party ; Ludendorff was non-party.

List of NF Reichstag members

Any earlier or later mandates from other political groups are not taken into account in the list below.

Election results

Results of the National Socialist Freedom Party in the Reichstag elections in 1924
Constituency May 1924 December 1924
Germany United lists * 1,918,329 6.6% 907.242 3.0%
1 East Prussia Völkisch social freedom block 87,822 8.6% 62,236 6.2%
2 Berlin German Volkische Freedom Party 39,930 3.6% 17,807 1.6%
3 Potsdam II German Volkische Freedom Party 56,597 6.5% 26,273 2.9%
4th Potsdam I. German Volkische Freedom Party 50,873 5.8% 25,751 2.8%
5 Frankfurt Oder German Volkische Freedom Party 40,578 5.0% 26,524 3.2%
6th Pomerania German Völkischer Wahlverband Pomerania 65,630 7.3% 38,229 4.2%
7th Wroclaw German Volkische Freedom Party 37.905 4.0% 13,649 1.4%
8th Liegnitz German Volkische Freedom Party 8,885 1.5% 9,078 1.5%
9 Opole German Volkische Freedom Party 11,865 2.6% 8,200 1.5%
10 Magdeburg Völkisch social freedom block 43.184 4.9% 27,292 3.0%
11 Merseburg Völkisch social block 62,098 8.7% 31,424 4.3%
12 Thuringia Völkisch social block 110.604 9.9% 60,317 5.4%
13 Schleswig-Holstein Völkisch social block 55,417 7.4% 20,513 2.7%
14th Weser-Ems Völkisch social block 48.993 7.4% 33,072 4.8%
15th East Hanover Völkisch social block 43,437 8.6% 22,200 4.4%
16 South Hanover-Braunschweig Völkisch social block 77,068 7.6% 34,019 3.4%
17th Westphalia north Völkisch social block 37,167 3.5% 13,646 1.3%
18th Westphalia south Völkisch social block 19,109 1.5% 14,317 1.1%
19th Hessen-Nassau Völkisch social block 66,604 5.6% 29,086 2.5%
20th Cologne-Aachen Völkisch social block 13,322 1.5% 5,241 0.6%
21st Koblenz-Trier Völkisch social block 6,987 1.3% - -
22nd Düsseldorf East Völkisch social block 38,274 4.0% *** 16,614 1.6%
23 Düsseldorf West Völkisch social block 19,791 2.6% **** 7,259 0.9%
24 Upper Bavaria-Swabia Volkish bloc 164,565 17.0% ***** 55,777 4.8%
25th Lower Bavaria Volkish bloc 46,246 10.2% ***** 16,748 3.0%
26th Francs Volkish bloc 230.010 20.7% ***** 94,336 7.5%
27 Palatinate Volkish bloc 21,071 5.7% 8,229 1.9%
28 Dresden-Bautzen Völkisch social block 43,807 4.5% 15,153 1.5%
29 Leipzig Völkisch social block 55,336 7.9% 13,212 1.8%
30th Chemnitz-Zwickau Völkisch social block 70,717 7.7% 39,338 4.2%
31 Württemberg Völkisch Social Block ** 50,786 4.1% 25,275 2.1%
32 to bathe Völkisch social block 45,049 4.8% 19,160 1.9%
33 Hessen-Darmstadt Völkisch social block 17,893 2.9% 8.212 1.3%
34 Hamburg Völkisch social block 37,757 6.0% 14,479 2.3%
35 Mecklenburg German Volkische Freedom Party 92,952 20.8% 54,576 11.9%
* Full name: United lists of the German National Freedom Party and the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
** Full name: Völkischsozialer Block (German Workers 'Party, National Socialist Workers' Party, Deutschvölkische Freedom Party).
*** In constituency 22 (Düsseldorf East) started as the Völkisch Social Block (National Socialist Freedom Movement).
**** In constituency 23 (Düsseldorf West) started as a Völkisch social block.
***** In constituencies 24 (Upper Bavaria-Swabia), 25 (Lower Bavaria) and 26 (Franconia) started as Der Völkische Block, National Socialist Freedom Movement of Greater Germany.

literature

  • Martin Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". The National Socialists in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic (= contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Vol. 130). Droste, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-7700-5237-4 (At the same time: Heidelberg, University, dissertation, 1999: The National Socialists in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. ).
  • Reimer Wulff: The German National Freedom Party 1922–1928. Marburg 1968, (Marburg, University, dissertation, 1968).

Individual evidence

  1. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 45 f.
  2. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 48 f., 52 f.
  3. Wulff: The German National Freedom Party 1922–1928. 1968, pp. 40 f., 55-60.
  4. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, pp. 66, 431-433.
  5. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, pp. 66, 118-121.
  6. Negotiations of the Reichstag, Volume 383, Appendix No. 583 (Supplement to No. 3)
  7. ^ Konrad Heiden : History of National Socialism. The career of an idea. Rowohlt, Berlin 1932, p. 178. Quoted from Döring: “Parliamentary arm of the movement”. 2001, p. 396.
  8. ^ Paul Levi in ​​the Reichstag on July 25, 1924 ( online ). Quoted in Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 395 f.
  9. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, pp. 401-403.
  10. ^ Manfred Weißbecker : German Volkische Freiheitspartei (DVFP), 1922-1933. In: Dieter Fricke (Hrsg.): Lexicon for the history of parties. The bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties and associations in Germany (1789–1945). Volume 2: German League for the League of Nations - general association of Christian trade unions in Germany. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7609-0877-2 , pp. 550-558, here p. 554.
  11. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 68.
  12. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, pp. 66-69.
  13. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 53.
  14. Wulff: The German National Freedom Party 1922–1928. 1968, p. 52 f.
  15. Erich Ludendorff: From general to world revolutionary and pioneer of German creation. Volume 1: My memoirs from 1919 to 1925. Ludendorff et al., Munich et al. 1940, p. 335. Quoted from Döring: “Parliamentary arm of the movement”. 2001, p. 72.
  16. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 72.
  17. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 73.
    Wulff: The German Volkische Freiheitspartei 1922–1928. 1968, p. 54.
  18. Wulff: The German National Freedom Party 1922–1928. 1968, pp. 66-74.
  19. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 73 f.
  20. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 77.
  21. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 79.
  22. Wulff: The German National Freedom Party 1922–1928. 1968, pp. 136, 139, 150 f.
  23. Döring: "Parliamentary arm of the movement". 2001, p. 84 f.
  24. Negotiations of the Reichstag, Volume 422, Appendix No. 4229 (Supplement to No. 3)
  25. ^ Elections in the Weimar Republic. In: gonschior.de, accessed on October 23, 2016.