Hitler used his time in prison to write a book (Mein Kampf) and he decided that he couldn't take power by force - he had to work his way up the democratic system but once he had the power he could destroy the system
Once he was released from prison he started building up the Nazi Party so they could take power through democratic means
He saw that Communist were building up there strength through youth organisations and recruitment drives so the Nazis were soon doing the same
In there first election in 1924 they recieved 32 seats in the Reichstag
This encouraged Hitler and he set up a network of local Nazi parties which in turn set up the Hiter youth, the Nazi Students League and other organisations
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Nazis changing tatics
By 1927 the Nazis were still trying to appeal to German workers as they had when the party first started but the 1928 election results showed them they needed to look elsewhere for support as they only gained 12 seats
The workers thought they were doing well in Weimar Germany so the Nazis turned to other groups that weren't doing as well
They found they gained much support from peasent farmers and middle class shopkeepers and small business owners in towns as they were not sharing Germany's economic prosperity
The Nazis highlighted the importance of the peasants in there plans for Germany and offered to help agriculture if they came to power
They praised peasants as pure Germans and propoganda contrasted the clean and simple lifes of the peasants to the corrupt crime ridden cities - for which they blamed the Jews
The fact that Nazis disliked Weimar culture also gained them support among some conservative people in the towns as they thought the Weimar art, literature and films were immoral
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Hitler and Goebbels - Propaganda and the **
In 1925 Hitler enlarged the SA (Stormtroopers) and 55% of them came from the unemployed and many were ex -serviceman from the war
He also set up a new group called the ** who where similar to the SA but were loyal to Hitler personally
Membership of the party rose to 100,00 by 1928
Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels to take charge of Nazi propaganda. He was very effective at spreading the Nazi message
He and Hitler thought the best way to reach 'the masses' was by appealing to there feelings so Goebbels produced posters, leaflets, films, radio broadcasts and organised rallies
Despite all there policies there was no massive breakthrough for the Nazis even with all there hard work they were still a minority party in 1928
They were the smallest party and had fewer seats than the Communists
The success of Stresemann in foreign policy made Germans uninterested in extreme political parties
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