Becoming a Nazi Town: Culture and Politics in Göttingen between the World Wars

Introduction: Guns, Opera, and Movies in a Nazi Town

Introduction: Guns, Opera, and Movies in a Nazi Town “Politics doesn’t belong in the town hall!” So claimed in May 1924 the leaders of Göttingen’s Apolitical List, a coalition of right-leaning organizations that had formed a political party to run in local elections. Their call went on: Politics doesn’t belong in the town hall! That is the solution from nineteen Fatherland clubs, economic associations, and undersigned women’s groups! Politics doesn’t belong in the town hall! That is the solution for all voters who don’t want one-sided, party-political ligation [Gebundenheit ] or paternalism [Bevormundung] in their representative’s work on economic, cultural, and social issues in the town hall. The groups that forged this anti-party were chiefly occupational organizations. Many were explicitly nationalist like the Young German Order and Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet) Association of Front Soldiers.1 They had only christened the Apolitical List a couple of weeks earlier but fully expected to garner at least 15 percent of the vote by poaching from various nationalist parties. Advocating “home [Heimat] and fatherland above all special interests of party politics,” they believed the List “most clearly demonstrated the degree to which parliamentary politics in our town has already been vanquished.”2 And in fact they did receive the largest share of votes (21.5 percent) in local 1924 elections. Afterward leaders boasted that many Göttingers “have convincingly proven the accuracy of the claim that ‘Politics doesn’t belong in the town hall.’”3 The Apolitical List sent six men that year of varying backgrounds to the City Council, and they put retired Forest Director Hermann Kautz, an early Nazi Party (NSDAP ) member, on the superior city Magistracy.4 The Apolitical List dissolved a few months later but formed the core of the Nazi Party’s political representation .5 On one level these groups’ rejection of “politics” reflected their opposi- 2 Becoming a Nazi Town tion to democratic wrangling in local government. But their position underscored a deeper desire to find solutions to Göttingen’s problems elsewhere. A standard political history of Göttingen would trace this anti-politics to the downfall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Third Reich in 1933. This book will instead argue that we should look elsewhere to understand the rise of Nazism and take seriously the claim that “politics doesn’t belong in the town hall.” Beyond the Apolitical List’s obvious frustration with parliamentary procedure, their appeal sought to solve serious social and economic problems outside the traditional political process. This study explores the broader implications of this desire. Specifically, it offers a cultural history of how Göttingen became a Nazi town. In their daily cultural activities, Göttingen citizens created ideas that resonated with and even prefigured Nazism. And as Hitler’s regime took shape beginning in 1933, these cultural activities helped anchor Nazi policies to established practices in Göttingen, turning this Nazi town into a city supportive of the Third Reich. Cultural practices thus became venues for working out political issues beyond the town hall. Studying Nazism as a political force outside party politics helps explain how Germans made the transition from the Weimar Republic to the Third Reich. I trace that move by treating the interwar years as a single epoch, bookended by the ruptures of the two world wars. Göttingen is an effective venue for analyzing this tumultuous period. A city of about 45,000 inhabitants between the world wars, it was large and diverse enough to experience a wide range of cultural activities yet small enough to reveal their finer workings. In order to describe the concrete ways cultural life changed during these years, this study looks closely at three examples: sharpshooting, the Göttingen Händel Opera Festival, and cinema. Each one connected public and private activity in revealing ways, and together they capture the breadth of cultural activity in Göttingen. These activities, as well, allow us to study cultural groups and practices that appealed broadly to Göttingers, as well as local ideas, institutions, and individuals shaping cultural development in town. For each case study, I identify an important turning point in 1925, 1928, and 1930, respectively, when leading participants and observers began shaping that cultural activity in ways that ultimately lent support to Nazi ideas. These shifts helped make the ideas behind Nazism integral parts of Göttingers’ daily lives. Together with changes in party politics, these significant cultural...