Working Association of the North and West
Formed on 25 January 1926, in Hanover, the Working Association of the North and West represented Northern and West German Nazi factions, intending to balance the original movement centered in Munich, in South Germany. Gregor Strasser was its leader, Otto Strasser its chief of propaganda, and Joseph Goebbels a writer. The editorial and propaganda arm was called the Kampfverlag,It was not an immediate challenge to the leadership of Adolf Hitler, but Hitler did hold a countermeeting in Bamberg on 14 February.[1]
The northern wing was more committed to left-wing revolutionary socialism than was Hitler, and even considered joining with the Communists to expropriate royal properties. This infuriated Hitler, as he had received contributions from those past leaders, as well as conservative industrialists. Strasser and Goebbels had held a 22 November 1925 meeting to do away with Hitler's "reactionary" 25-point platform of 1920. Gottfried Feder attended, and became angry that his theories on interest were not included. [2] After the Bamberg meeting, however, Goebbels became increasingly loyal to Hitler, and broke with Strasser in August 1928.[3]
According to Goebbels' diaries, the Association intended to liberate Hitler from a Munich clique that had corrupted the true Nazi program. They saw this clique as including Max Ammann, Herman Esser, Alfred Rosenberg and Julius Streicher. [4]
The issue over which Hitler would break the Association was expropriation of the property of the princely houses. [5]
References
- ↑ Joseph Nyomarkay (1967), Charisma and Factionalism in the Nazi Party, University of Minnesota Press, p. 81-82
- ↑ Ian Kershaw (2000), Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris, W.W. Norton, p. 274
- ↑ William Shirer (1960), The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon & Schuster, pp. 126-128
- ↑ Nyomarkay, p. 87
- ↑ Joachim Fest (1973), Hitler, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 249-251