Germany

During the 1930s, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) rose to become the predominant fascist regime in Europe. During the First World War, the nationalist Pan German League had vigorously campaigned for aggressive expansion. After defeat and revolution, Heinrich Clab, the group’s chairperson, brought members together in the northern Bavarian city of Bamberg. The resulting Bamberg declaration blamed Jews for Germany’s collapse and laid out the League’s opposition to the new democratic republic. A whole series of new nationalist movements sprung up across Germany in the early 1920s. At first, the NSDAP struggled to distinguish itself from these other groups. As this Bremen police report suggests, the Party initially had a small membership and narrow reach. In the Weimar Republic, both left- and right-wing political movements staged spectacular parades as a means to promote their cause and to dominate urban space.