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| National Social Democratic Party of Germany National-Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands | |
|---|---|
 Sword and Hammer of the National Social Democratic Party | |
| Former leader | Wilhelm Buck
Ernst Niekisch Wilhelm Zaisser Adolf von Thadden |
| Founder | Wilhelm Buck
Kuno von Westarp Paul von Hindenburg Franz Seldte Ernst Niekisch Hermann Muller |
| Slogan | Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes Free) |
| Founded | 1933 |
| Dissolved | 1971 |
| Merger of | Social Democratic Party of Germany
German National People's Party German Workers Party |
| Succeeded by | National Front |
| Youth wing | Nationalsozialistische Jugend |
| Ideology | Nationalism
Factions Strasserism |
The National Social Democratic Party of Germany was the ruling party of Germany from 1933 to 1971 (with the exception of a brief period in 1952) and formed after the ascendency of WIlhelm Buck to the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Buck allied with right-wing nationalist, conservative, and regionalist parties to oppose the leftist Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and far leftist Communist Party of Germany from achieving control over the workers.
Throughout its first years in government, the NSPD developed a monopoly on power by becoming an extremely broad tent party. In addition, the NSPD would nationalize several industries and raise the pay of workers along with increased social security; increasing their popularity. The NSPD would shift from a broad tent populist movement into a more national revolutionary line with the ascension of Ernst Niekisch in 1936. Niekisch would pursue extreme militarization of the country in order to combat the threat of global socialism and to prepare for an eventual war with France and the Soviet Union.
After the German victory in World War II, the aging Niekisch would keep an ever more
Chancellor Ernst Niekisch, Prominent Ideologue of the NSPD
totalitarian grip on power, though opposition factions in the party could never be eradicated. Niekisch sought to coopt socialism and turn it into a nationalist force to use against the international socialist alliance. He also sought coexistence with the socialist powers and the implementation of some of the socialist policies that the more economically advanced United States was using. Niekisch also sought to attain absolute power by removing his final obstacle: the german aristocracy and oligarchy.
Starting in 1950, as the Kaiser was growing ill, Niekisch began to fiercely criticize the Kaiser and the German bourgeouis for allowing such inequality in the country. The Chancellor sought to eliminate the monarchy once and for all in order to shatter the power and credibility of his reactionary conservative opponents. Niekisch would soon enter into a power with Crown Prince Louis Ferdinand. Niekisch would prevent the Prince's coronation and attempt to pass a vote to abolish the monarchy which the parliament rejected.
Soon, monarchist elements in the party would orchestrate a coup against the national revolutionary faction, leading to the ascension of Kaiser Louis Ferdinand I as temporary dictator. Louis Ferdinand would allow for general elections in 1952 and Kurt Georg Kiesinger, a christian democratic politician, would be elected as part of an anti-NSPD coalition.
While Louis Ferdinand would initially be supportive of this government for its eight months before nationalist violence would flare up against the government and Wilhelm Zaisser, the commander-in-chief of the Volkspolizei, would convince the Kaiser that the coalition government threatened stability. The Kaiser had regained power after the monarchist coup in 1951, and Ferdinand now had the power to dismiss the chancellor and appoint Zaisser as new chancellor. The Reichstag objected and the Volkspolizei would march into the building and force the reichstag to recognize Zaisser's chancellorship.
This resulted in widespread uprising across the country in 1953. These uprisings were crushed and any social progress made by the Kiesinger government and brought about an even more totalitarian government effectively ruled by the Volkspolizei. This didn't last long as Zaisser's government would prove unable to manage social tensions in Germany or maintain control over the German sphere.
In 1957, the ultranationalist and ultraconservative Adolf von Thadden would be appointed by Kaiser Louis Ferdinand. Von Thadden would model himself after Otto von Bismarck, attempting to centralize the state while maintaining Germany's web of alliances and satellites. Thadden also waged a new Kulturkampf against various new social practices and movements that would emerge in the 50s and 60s to protect German culture from "degeneracy". Thadden's rule marked the most intensely reactionary and conservative period in NSPD rule and was marked by the overall decline of the German Empire as well as the continual receding of German influence. This conservative rule was deeply opposed by a new generation of youth exposed to the culture and politics of the west. In 1967, this outrage would foment into the Students movement, where socialist Rudi Dutchke would proclaim a "long march through the institutions of power". Dutchke's movement would gain a lot of steam but would ultimately be decapitated when Dutchke would be assassinated by a far-right anti-communist student now likely believed to be a government agent. A flare up in strikes and trade union activity would follow and the Thadden cabinet would attempt to pass laws outlawing and limiting the radical leftist ideologies of communism, marxism, and anarchism. This would anger even more of the population and radicalize the socialist movement, leading to the formation of the militant Red Army Faction in 1970. The RAF would grow in size and wage urban guerrilla warfare throughout 1970 to 1971. The RAF, the militant anarchist SAF, and the militant left-communist trade union SAB would form a united revolutionary government after siezing control of the city of Berlin in 1971. Soon the NSPD would collapse as the once loyal oligarchs would scramble to jump ship to other parties. Much of the NSPD leadership would be tried for crimes against humanity by the German revolutionary government for the high deathcount of their regime, sometimes estimated to be between 22 - 25 million people. The left-wing faction of the NSPD would oppose the von Thadden government after the assassination of Dutchke and would reinvent itself as the National Front. The National Front would inherit much of the NSPD's former political machine, though they would distance themselves from their predecessor's atrocities.