Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust)

Peter D. Stachura

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317630722
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia alemana

The most influential and substantial leader, after Hitler, in the pre-1933 National Socialist Party was Gregor Strasser. This book (originally published in 1983 but as yet not superseded) is a comprehensive and scholarly assessment of Strasser's significant and ultimately tragic career, based largely on previously unpublished German archival material. Strasser's importance as a Nazi propagandist, organiser, ideologue and spokesman is examined and the analysis and interpretation which follow are fundamentally revisionist in that many of the accepted ideas about Strasser's career are challenged and shown to be untenable. The book provides important insights into an interesting personality which in turn considerably enhances our understanding of the character of early National Socialism and the politics of the Weimar Republic.

1 The Early Years, 1892–1923

Background

Gregor Strasser was born on 31 May 1892 in the small Upper Bavarian town of Geisenfeld near Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, the eldest of a staunchly Catholic family of four sons and a daughter. The Strassers were originally an old peasant family from the Chiemgau district, but Gregor’s father, Peter Strasser, had broken with family custom by entering the bureaucracy of the Bavarian royal house, the Wittelsbach. He occupied the lower ranks of secretary and then chancellery adviser (Kanzleirat) at the court-house (Amtsgericht) in Windsheim and Deggendorf, both picturesque but obscure small towns in Bavaria.¹ Gregor’s mother, Pauline (née Strobel), originated from a middle-class civil-service family in Dinkelsbühl (Franconia), where her father was warden of the famous ‘German House’ museum, and married Peter Strasser in August 1891.² A second child, Paul, was born in 1895; after serving in the First World War he joined the Benedictine Order as Father Bernhard.³ Otto, the third son, was born in 1897, and of course went on to become politically active during the Weimar era and beyond.⁴ The family was completed by Olga⁵ and by a late arrival, Anton, who became a lawyer in Berlin but who during the Second World War went missing at Stalingrad.⁶

Gregor attended primary school in Windsheim (Franconia) and then received his secondary education at the Prog-Gymnasium in Traunstein and the Gymnasium in Burghausen, in Bavaria.⁷ He was a lively child whose naturally inquisitive mind was encouraged by his Jesuit teachers, and later on in political life Gregor was teased, much to his displeasure, about the jesuitical streak in his thinking.⁸ The atmosphere at home nicely complemented Gregor’s formal school training, for it not only provided warmth and security⁹ but also stimulated a keen interest in contemporary social and political matters. Lying around the house were many newspapers and periodicals, such as Maximilian Harden’s Die Zukunft, which took a critical look at society. Peter Strasser, who was once condescendingly described by Goebbels as being ‘not exactly stupid’,¹⁰ was instrumental in bringing to the attention of his eldest sons the need to appreciate the imperfections of the Wilhelmine Reich and to think about solutions. He often committed his ideas to paper and occasionally had them published under a pseudonym – in deference to his civil-service status. In what might be considered his major work, Das neue Wesen (The New Way), published in 1912 under the name ‘Paul Wegr’, Peter Strasser adumbrated his blueprint for a future German society based on the principles of socialism, nationalism and Christianity.¹¹ The influence of Friedrich List, Adolf Wagner, Adam Smith and Friedrich Naumann was apparent in this small brochure, which was in a rather vague manner a statement on a type of ‘German socialism’. It specifically condemned hereditary monarchy and capitalism, and argued that the working classes be given a more just status in society. Gregor’s subsequent ideological outlook, which was usually associated with ‘German socialism’, was undoubtedly influenced to a considerable extent by his father’s ideas. Father Bernhard Strasser believes Das neue Wesen ‘contained the core of the cultural and political aims which Gregor and Otto were to represent and champion later on’.¹² Gregor consciously underlined the link when he dedicated his first published collection of speeches to his father.¹³ In essence, Peter Strasser was advocating an ill-defined brand of nationalist neo-conservatism which was growing in popularity during the last years of the prewar Reich, and which flourished in the Weimar Republic. This neo-conservative dimension was never far from Gregor’s thought, even during his period of full-blooded ‘socialism’ in the mid-1920s. His home environment and the influence of his father left a permanent mark on Strasser, and his experiences as a soldier in the First World War served to strengthen his evolving social-nationalist Weltanschauung.

Strasser’s original intention had been to become a doctor, but his parents’ modest financial circumstances were insufficient to sustain the lengthy period of training involved. After taking his school-leaving certificate (Abitur), therefore, Strasser chose instead to become a chemist, which entailed fewer years of study, and he began his apprenticeship in the small town of Frontenhausen in 1910 at the age of 18. During this time he earned pocket money by writing short articles on various subjects for the local newspaper in his mother’s home town of Dinkelsbühl. He was a conscientious student and completed his three-year apprenticeship with the award of a first-class certificate. Further study was required at university level, however, and by the time war broke out he had already taken courses at the University of Munich.¹⁴ There was always a tinge of regret in Strasser that he did not make it to medical school, and years later, in a speech clearly coloured by his own experience, he criticised the German educational system for discriminating against the less well-off, and thus for failing to develop talent and ability among a majority of the nation.¹⁵ In 1914 the outbreak of war immediately disrupted his studies, for he volunteered for army service along with his two brothers, Paul and Otto. A decisively formative period in Gregor’s life was about to begin.

Strasser joined the First Bavarian Foot Artillery Regiment on August 18 1914 and during the next four years saw substantial service at the front, fighting in a number of major battles, including Vimy, Lens, Verdun, Lys and the Somme.¹⁶ He was a brave and popular soldier, being awarded several high decorations, among them the Iron Cross First and Second Class, in August 1918 and May 1917 respectively, and the Bavarian Military Service Cross, Fourth Class with Swords, in October 1917. Rising from the rank of corporal in May 1915 to junior officer four months later, and then to lieutenant of the Reserve in January 1916, Strasser suffered fairly serious wounds which continued to trouble him right into his political career.¹⁷ He was held in high regard by his comrades and superiors not only for his courage but also for his exemplary patriotism, humour and devotion to duty. In a glowing testimonial, his last battalion commander, Captain Fürholzer, described him as being of

smart military appearance. A complete character, who fully proved himself in the field in every possible way … and especially distinguished himself by his personal élan, energy, faithfulness to duty, and ability. He discharged every aspect of a lieutenant’s responsibilities in outstanding fashion … I can only express my highest praise of him for the special skill with which he handled the most difficult, galling and dangerous tasks. There was no job too laborious or too dangerous for him to undertake on a voluntary basis. To his subordinates Strasser was a just, kindly but also resolute master. In officers’ circles Strasser was, on account of his particular gregariousness, very popular. For me personally, he was for a whole two years a close, congenial colleague whose intelligent advice I listened to willingly and whose cheerful disposition often took us through difficult moments.¹⁸

In later political life Strasser repeatedly looked back to his ‘Fronterlebnis’ years as the best of his life, emphasising their importance in shaping his political beliefs.¹⁹ They reinforced the nationalism and social awareness which he learnt at home. He felt the comradeship of the trenches could be translated into a true socialist community in civilian life, in which class differences and privilege no longer mattered and in which the principle of achievement (Leistungsprinzip) determined an individual’s status. He remarked in 1932:

… it was a real experience getting to know people in trenches at the front … we, like Hitler and so many others, we were volunteers, we were a team, and remained so in a way which would not happen in peacetime.… There was comradeship.… In the war it did become clear to me: with a person whom one understands absolutely, and with whom one has thrown back a hundred attacks, must we become deadly enemies on account of differing economic interests?²⁰

Strasser was not unique among National Socialist leaders, of course, in acknowledging the importance of the war to the subsequent ideological and spiritual basis of Nazism. The war was the first and most crucial political event for many in the NSDAP, strengthening an already existing authoritarian outlook and a belief that might was right.

The war convinced Strasser of the rottenness of the Wilhelmine Reich. He criticised its failure to evolve ‘a united concept of the state’, its perpetuation of social and class tensions, and its inability to integrate the workers into society.²¹ Consequently, he argued that neither the Hohenzollern monarchy nor the social and political structures which had underpinned it could ever be restored:

… we young ones had nothing to do with this old system. In the fiery breath of the war we young ones fearfully realised how empty were the concepts of this system … We young Germans of the Great War had nothing, nothing at all in common any more with the rotten world of the old system and saw it fall apart without regret.²²

On another occasion, he was equally blunt:

… any attempt to restore the old ‘quiet and order’ of 31 July 1914 is partially stupid, partially criminal, in any case, useless and reactionary, since on 1 August 1914 a revolution broke out which … will bring forth a new world.²³

His concept of a ‘second revolution’ which would complete the beginning made by the events of 1914 in doing away with the old Empire frequently turned up in his speeches during the 1920s as a further manifestation of his antipathy to the prewar state.²⁴ This ‘second revolution’ meant not so much a violent overthrow of the Weimar Republic as a spiritual transformation in the hearts and minds of Germans which would witness the eradication of the materialistic urge in society. In this context, the November Revolution of 1918 was denounced in equally vehement terms by Strasser:²⁵ ‘We hate that day and despise its supporters (just as we hate its fruit, the present state!).’ It was not a proper revolution, he added, but a mere revolt ‘born out of cowardice, depravity, incompetence and treason’. He hated it ‘because it betrayed, consciously betrayed, the national interests of the German people … we hate this revolt … and we know that the form and spirit of this revolt of 9 November 1918, and its fruit, the present state, must be thoroughly rooted out by a German revolution …’.

Strasser, like other NSDAP leaders, later displayed an acute awareness of the interaction between the November Revolution and the ordinary man in the street, and in the Third Reich the regime was constantly alert to the dangers for Germany’s ambitions in foreign affairs which might arise from a disaffected population, particularly from its working-class segment.

As a thoroughly convinced nationalist, Strasser spoke out just as sharply against the ultimate indictment, as he saw it, of the Kaiser’s Reich, the Treaty of Versailles, which he pledged his ‘whole life and death’ to destroy,²⁶ and its war-guilt clause, a stain ‘burdening every single German and robbing him of his honour’.²⁷ But there was at least one aspect of those troubled years of the war which Strasser found a perpetual source of inspiration – the performance of the ‘front generation’, and the consequent hope that it would lead the way to Germany’s resurrection.²⁸ He once remarked that ‘every national leader, minister and parliamentary deputy must be a front soldier’,²⁹ and liked to describe the NSDAP in the early 1930s as being ‘disciplined like the old army’.³⁰ As a result of his own military experiences, Strasser remained an unashamed militarist, arguing throughout his political career that the values of the front soldier were morally and ethically superior to those of ordinary civilians.³¹ He made this viewpoint abundantly clear on numerous occasions. Speaking in the Reichstag in 1928 during the debate concerning the construction of a new battle-cruiser, he stressed his total support for the army and the virtues of Prussian militarism, announcing ‘National Socialists are militarists’.³² In a later speech he affirmed that ‘the coming dictatorship will be the dictatorship of the front soldiers’,³³ a view consistent with his belief that ‘for a man military service is the most sincere and valuable form of participation in the state’.³⁴ Strasser took care in later years to ensure that ‘as a party of front soldiers’ the NSDAP catered for the interests of former soldiers and war-wounded, reacting indignantly to reports that certain branches were not treating this section of society with due respect and understanding.³⁵

The loss of the war, the abdication of the Kaiser and the November Revolution ushered in a prolonged period of social, economic and political upheaval in Germany which was made worse by escalating inflation and the outrage felt at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. As central government desperately sought to impose its control over the situation, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary trends set in, causing widespread confusion and anxiety. It was not an attractive prospect for the millions of demobilised German soldiers who swarmed back into a generally unappreciative society. Unemployment, displacement, despair and often even ridicule were the lot in store for many of them. Strasser was one of the many thousands of ex-servicemen who felt acutely alienated from the new Germany. His sense of disorientation following his discharge from the army in December 1918 was underlined by a petty but rather poignant incident which took place on the day he and his company of men returned home. Strasser recounted what happened when a representative of the Landshut Soldiers’ Council approached him, in these words:³⁶

There he stood, the ragamuffin [Haderlump], and chattered and chattered on with his stupid swine grunts that he had learnt by heart about the International, the victorious proletariat, the bloodthirsty generals and warmongers, the sweat-squeezing capitalists and stockbrokers. I sat up there on my nag, which I furtively nudged against the fellow so that he was always having to step backwards again and again, and I said nothing and slowly collected a whole mouthful of spit. Finally...