Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/05/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:32 PM 5/31/02 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote: >Fascinating, Marc, but I guess it all depends upon where one gets ones >history - or which historians one believes. The British historian Ian >Kershaw makes it quite clear in his stunning two volume biography of Hitler >that while many industrialists turned their noses up at the ill-mannered >ruffians who peopled the Nazi party in the pre-takeover days, they were, at >the same time, helping to finance the party. > >No, I don't have page cites at hand - read the two volumes. I guarantee - in >all seriousness - you'll enjoy the read. Obviously I have read both volumes of Kershaw, BD. I suspect you are confusing apples and oranges. The implication of the original posting was that it was the support of capitalists which made real the success of the Nazis during the late 1920's and early 1930's, and that isn't so. As Kershaw (and Shirer and Toland and others) point out, Hitler's electoral success -- and most of his money -- came from middle-class contributions and from farmers, while his mass vote success came from industrial workers for the most part. The monies obtained from industrialists and financiers was important but it was relatively trivial (something on the order of 25% of Party contributions in 1931, I believe, the highest pre-takeover year) compared to that obtained from other sources. And the money obtained from Party membership dues was that great again, while fairly significant profits were obtained from Nazi publishing efforts, such as the VOLKISCHER BEOBACHTER and DER ANGRIFF. By comparison, more than two-thirds of the Bolshevik income between 1900 and 1917 came from very wealthy investors and industrialists. It was the contributions of the very people Lenin had vowed to liquidate which enabled him to conduct his internecine doctrinal pissings in Geneva and miss the '05 Rebellion and almost miss the February Revolution, as well. In the end, the Bolsheviks killed off almost all of these contributors, precisely has Hitler had a number of German industrialists and bankers done away with - -- and, yes, Hitler was aware of the parallel and seems to have been much amused by his taking a direct leaf from the Marxist-Leninist procedural manual. Marc msmall@infi.net FAX: +276/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html