The Nazi Party and Its Capital

Abstract

This article examines the membership profile of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) in Munich, the party's birthplace and political, administrative, and financial center of power. On the basis of an analysis of more than 4,000 members listed in the local NSDAP Membership Register between 1925 and 1930, the authors arrive at four major findings: (a) Party membership expanded slowly but more or less continuously; (b) membership was dispersed fairly evenly across city districts, with no major concentrations of Nazi members; (c) membership was distributed widely and relatively evenly across occupational groups and social statuses, although some occupations showed a higher percentage of Nazi memberships; (d) the proportion of female members in 1925 was relatively high but falls to much lower levels by 1930. These findings are discussed in the context of current scholarship of the changing class, age, and gender composition of the Nazi Party before 1933.