|
"sozialistische" in their party names, so rendering the word in English as "socialist" reflects some translation issues, but it also reflects a deliberate propaganda choice. The (centrist) socialist party called itself the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD - German Social Democratic Party); in an attempt to siphon votes from them, Julius Streicher formed a Deutschsozialistische Partei (DSP - roughly, German "Socialist" Party) which had no actual socialist agenda but was virulently anti-Semitic in character. In 1920, the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP - German Workers Party, the original core of the Nazi party) renamed itself the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP - National Socialist German Workers Party) as part of an effort to collect membership from the German rightwing, and Streicher's DSP eventually dissolved itself into the NSDAP. These name games reflected some of the political realities of Germany after WWI: the country had initially collapsed into a state of crisis, marked by an ongoing conflict that included the Spartacists' attempt at revolution, its suppression by rightwing remnants of the military, and subsequent rightwing coup efforts like the Beerhall Putsch. In the context of the highly fragmented Weimar political landscape, the Nazis attempted to destabilize the SPD centrist coalition with street violence while simultaneously misleading the public about their actual agenda, by using almost anyone who willing to speak in public as a Nazi speaker in this or that small town, most of these folk, of course, being dropped as the Nazis consolidated power
|