The anatomy of a Volkspartei: the sociography of the membership of the NSDAP in Stadt- und Landkreis Wetzlar, 1925-1935

Abstract

Der Beitrag analysiert anhand der Mitgliederlisten der NSDAP deren sozialstrukturelle Zusammensetzung in einer deutschen Kleinstadt mit vorwiegend protestantischer Bevölkerung. Im Zentrum der Auswertung und Interpretation stehen die Mitgliederzu- und abgänge der Partei während der 'Kampfzeit' bis 1933 und nach der 'Machtergreifung'. Die Daten zeigen anhand des sozialstrukturellen Merkmals 'Berufszugehörigkeit', daß es sich bei der NSDAP eindeutig um eine 'Volkspartei' gehandelt hat, d.h. ihre Rekrutierung und Mobilisierung verlief quer durch alle Schichten der Bevölkerung. Die Unterlagen über die Bewegungen im Mitgliederbestand und die schichtmäßige Zusammensetzung befinden sich heute im Hessischen Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden. (pre)

'The analysis of the sociography of the NSDAP membership presented here is based on a complete set of data provided by a register of new members joining the party in Wetzlar town and county between 1930 and 1933, along with branch census returns drawn up in 1934 and 1935 relating to 46 of the 62 branches and cells established by the NSDAP in the region by 1933. These data permit not only a very detailed, comprehensive examination of the social contours of the membership mobilized by the NSDAP in a predominantly Protestant, rural and small-town milieu, but also throw light on the question as to which occupational groupings were involved in the relatively high membership turn-over which the party suffered from in its so-called Kampfzeit, an aspect of the Nazi Party about which we know little that is specific to date. The data show that the NSDAP mobilized a following in the Wetzlar region which transcended class divides, making the party a Volkspartei in social terms. In Wetzlar town and county the Nazi Party secured a membership whose occupational and class profile was astonishingly variable from branch to branch. The almost totally male, and predominantly young, membership was subjected to a high rate of membership turn-over in the early 1930s, in which the volatility among the working-class members drawn to the party before 1933 is particularly striking.' (author's abstract)