German Leadership

Naziism - the road not taken.

Gregor Strasser (left) with his lawyer, Roland Freisler, 1930. Strasser served in a number of Nazi Party posts - including that of Reich Organisation leader - between 1921 and 1932, when he was effectively forced out of the Party by Hitler. He was an extremely capable organiser, who could claim substantial "credit" for the survival of the Party in the period following the "Beer Hall Putsch", and for developing a coherent, centralised national organisation subsequently. One of his protegés in this effort was another brilliant organiser/bureaucrat, Heinrich Himmler. Strasser was also Goebbels' predecessor as Nazi propaganda chief - always a core interest in the Party. Unfortunately for Strasser, his prominence (in north Germany in particular) identified him as a potential rival to Hitler for Party leadership. The resulting tension was greatly magnified by the fact that Strasser (assisted by his brother, Otto) was the leading Nazi paladin of the "left Nazi" tendency in the Party, a tendency that was particularly strong in north Germany. This group advocated social revolution (along Socialist lines) in a radical nationalist context, based on an unyielding anti-capitalist/anti-Semitic stance; a position markedly opposed to the "pragmatic" stance that countenanced an understanding with capitalists, conservatives and reactionaries (if not Jews) in the interests of obtaining power. An early adherent of "left Naziism" (until "turned" by Hitler) was Joseph Goebbels who - in the early Berlin years - went so far as to issue a manifesto emphasising the common ground between Berlin's Nazis and Communists, and an invitation (unrequited) to co-operative action. Of course, the Hitlerite, "pragmatic" tendency won out. Starting with the 1926 "Bamberg Conference", Hitler began the process of suppressing "left Naziism", something he had effectively accomplished by 1932. Gregor Strasser was murdered in a prison cell, either by the Gestapo or by a special SS detail, apparently on Hitler's direct orders, in the course of the "Night of the Long Knives" purge, 1934. By that stage, he had declined from Nazi palidin to the status of "unfinished business". Best regards, JR.