Hitler's followers: studies in the sociology of the Nazi movement

Abstract

This is a systematic, detailed evaluation of the social structure of the Nazi Party in several regions of Germany during its so-called Kampfzeit phase. Based on new and extensive archival material, much of it left untouched since the end of the war until Dr Mulberger uncovered it, Hitler's Followers demonstrates that the Nazi Party and its major auxiliaries, the SA and the SS, mobilized support which was remarkably heterogeneous in social terms. Contrary to the middle-class thesis of nazism advanced by numerous scholars in the pre and post-war periods, the author reveals that in addition to followers from the middle classes, the Nazi Party enjoyed strong support among the lower class and that it was indeed - as it claimed to be at the time - a people's party or Volkspartei, in which all classes were represented. author's previous publications include The Social Basis of European Fascist Movements (Croom Helm 1987) and he was a contributor to The Formation of a Nazi Constituency by Thomas Childers.