The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922-1945

by William Sheridan Allen

T o the Socialists the Nazis were a threat only insofar as they might attempt an armed coup d’état. Serious politics was a matter of rational appeals and positive results. Since the NSDAP seemed incapable of either, they could not constitute a political threat.

But effective propaganda need not be logical as long as it foments suspicion, contempt, or hatred.

But the prime effect attained by the Nazi meetings was achieved simply by their numbers. If you wanted an energetic party this was it.

Girmann let it be known that his goal was to make Northeim the first town in Germany to be completely without church members. But his fulminations and threatening measures only increased the quiet opposition of the intensely Lutheran community. He was apparently afraid to simply arrest the pastors or to forcibly prevent church attendance because the higher offices of the Nazi party would not permit that. So instead he had the Hitler Youth break up meetings of confirmation classes, pelt the crucifix on the town church with snowballs, and spy on the pastor—in hopes of recording an incriminating statement that would justify Gestapo action.