Nazi history: The center was on the right

Restored half-timbered houses, shopping areas and a small lake on the outskirts of town: that is the first impression of Pfungstadt. Pretty unspectacular. So why did the American historian David E. Arns choose this small town in southern Hesse for his research project, in which he examined how Nazi fascism was able to establish itself in Germany?

One reason is the author’s family connections. His wife Gudrun Kahl comes from a well-known, middle-class Pfungstadt family and opened many a door for Arns to people in the city who could tell him about developments in the late 1920s and early 30s. The second reason lies with Arns’ doctoral supervisor William Sheridan Allen, who had already written a book in 1965 about the path of the Lower Saxony town of Northeim into National Socialism; This work also recently appeared under the title “We didn’t want that – the National Socialist seizure of power in a small town in 1930”. In 1965, Allen not only had to anonymize the names of all the protagonists, but also changed the name of the city. Northeim became Thalburg.

Research in diving

20 years after the end of the Nazi regime, former Nazis were – still or again – in important positions throughout the Federal Republic of Germany; they wanted to keep quiet about the past. Despite the global awakening of 1968, this had not yet changed significantly at the beginning of the 1970s. This may also be one reason why David E. Arns’ work on Pfungstadt, which was methodically based on the pioneering work of his doctoral supervisor, is now appearing very late in German. Today, when Arns’ book is published, any “secret language” can finally be dispensed with; Not only the location, but also the people involved appear under their real names.

At the beginning of the book, Arns describes the subject of his research as follows: »Pfungstadt is a small German town that has never been mentioned in history books, neither during the Weimar Republic nor during the Third Reich. Based on the efforts of people in cities like Pfungstadt … the members of the NSDAP built a political structure that reached all the way to the top, where Adolf Hitler stood.” The historian uses Pfungstadt as an example of who led the way for the Nazis paved the way for power: “Democracy died in Pfungstadt because of the short-sighted view of the middle class, a short-sightedness caused by the seemingly insoluble economic crisis.”

Creeping fascisation

Arns explains how the fascistation of the middle class in Pfungstadt begins gradually. Initially, the local branch of the NSDAP had no influence on the city’s politics, but that was to change in 1928: »The NSDAP saw its main goal as breaking the strong position of the workers. She didn’t forget the middle class.” On January 25, 1928, for example, an article appeared in the “Pfungstädter Anzeiger” with the explicit heading “Middle class rise up.”

According to the author, the business-related organizations initially insisted on their party-political neutrality. From the beginning, their main points of attack were the workers’ movement, which was divided into the SPD and KPD, and the trade unions. The medium-sized companies polemicized against excessive government spending and complained about the supposedly excessive tax burden on the economy. They declared war on any social policy; unemployed people in particular, whose numbers had increased significantly, were to be used for forced service.

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The book makes it clear how a Pfungstadt voting community called the “Steinmetz-Martin List” after its two protagonists increasingly intensified the class struggle from above. The members of the list presented themselves as the voice of economic reason in resistance to ideology-driven policies that allegedly harmed the common good. This was not only a declaration of war on the two wings of the workers’ movement and the trade unions, but also on the attempts to organize the unemployed, whose numbers rose sharply after 1930 in the wake of the global economic crisis. Only later did it become clear that Steinmetz and Martin, who had always portrayed themselves as free from ideology, had long since cooperated with the NSDAP. After 1933, she and her friends enforced – economically mediated – Nazi rule in Pfungstadt.

Who betrayed us?

But Arns’ research was also interested in the actions of the SPD and KPD in Pfungstadt. His sympathy clearly lies with the SPD, while he accuses the KPD of “dogmatism” and “illusionary politics” in several places. This may be justified in some cases, but in other cases the author’s positioning raises questions: for example, his criticism of the trade unions and the unemployed organization, where they did not focus on moderation but instead made more radical demands. Not aligning politics with what can actually be implemented within capitalism is a completely appropriate class position today and was 90 years ago. The aim of the KPD policy was not to supposedly tame capitalism through a few reforms. Rather, the communists propagated fighting demands that were intended to advance the revolutionary organization of the masses.

Unemployed people, whose numbers had increased significantly, were to be used for compulsory service.

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The chapter in which Arns describes that members of the SPD and KPD at the grassroots spontaneously worked together when the Nazis wanted to march is revealing – despite all the divisions in the workers’ movement. As in other cities, an anti-fascist united front from below also functioned in Pfungstadt. On March 5, 1933, after the NSDAP and its German nationalist allies had won a majority in the Reichstag in elections that had already been marked by Nazi terror, the SPD, KPD and unorganized anti-fascists in Pfungstadt were determined to fight against the right-wing government. In this way, the intentional hoisting of the swastika flag at the Pfungstadt town hall could once again be prevented. It was not until March 7th that the local Nazis, with the help of external SA forces, managed to attach their banner to the top of the town hall.

Between these two days in early March 1933 lies the defeat of the anti-fascist forces in the city, for which, according to Arns, the SPD leadership is responsible. On the evening of March 6th, members of the SPD and KPD were waiting for the return of an emissary who was supposed to negotiate with the Hessian SPD politician Wilhelm Leuschner about a call for resistance against the Nazis in power. Arns writes: “The messenger returned in tears with the sad news that the highest authorities would not resist the Nazis. … Nazism would triumph over sluggish leadership and a lack of resistance.”

Dark topicality

Nevertheless, it becomes clear in the book that organized workers – despite their party-political divisions – were hostile to the Nazi movement for a long time. “The bourgeoisie, not the workers, are responsible for the Nazi triumph in Pfungstadt,” emphasizes Arns at the end of his book. What the historian states here for a small town in southern Hesse can be generalized: Fascism can only come to power if the organized workers are demobilized or crushed with the support of the middle class.

The German-language publication of “The Road to the Nazi Dictatorship” is a late tribute to the author and historian David E. Arns, who died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 47. His brother Robert Arns wrote the foreword to the German translation. The publication would not have been possible without the commitment of Renate Dreesen, who has been involved in researching Jewish history in Pfungstadt for years. The activist of the city’s initiative “Bunt ohne Braun – Alliance against the Right” writes in the blurb: “For us, this work, which was created over 50 years ago, is of inestimable value and shockingly topical. Unfortunately, many things are happening today that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.«

David E. Arns: The path to the Nazi dictatorship. The history of Pfungstadt 1928 to 1935. The bookmaker, 268 pages, 16 €.