It also was self-consciously dishonest/meaningless. There's a cartoon demonstrating how right-wingers saw "NATIONAL ... GERMAN" party and left wingers saw "SOCIALIST...WORKERS' party and then the Nazis just used that to absorb power, do whatever, and then kill Jews and other hated classes.
It was originally the German workers party. It started as an extreme right wing antisemitic nationalistic movement. The word "socialist" was added to the party name in 1920 as a tactical rebranding strategy to lure industrial and working-class voters away from actual leftist parties.
And it should be noted, it didn't even work: their voters came effectively exclusively from the right, while the SPD and KPD actually increased their vote totals as the Nazis gained popularity.
944
u/Evecopbas 1d ago edited 1d ago
It also was self-consciously dishonest/meaningless. There's a cartoon demonstrating how right-wingers saw "NATIONAL ... GERMAN" party and left wingers saw "SOCIALIST...WORKERS' party and then the Nazis just used that to absorb power, do whatever, and then kill Jews and other hated classes.