Mittelstand During Nazi Germany

As with the peasantry, the lower middle class was an important source of electoral support for the Nazis up to 1933. Hitler’s Third Reich would depend on the Mittelstand for continued support and Nazi policies aimed to have middle class approval. Hitler’s dictatorship protected them from exploitation of big business elites and from working class poverty. As with the peasantry, the fortunes of the middle class were mixed.

The German middle classes, particularly the lower middle class or Mittelstand of shopkeepers, clerks, trades people and skilled crafter workers, were Hitler’s most enthusiastic supporters during his rise to power. From the start, the regime started to fulfil some of the election pledges to the Mittelstand:

• The establishment of new department stores were banned on May 12, 1933.
• Half the consumer cooperatives were forced to close by 1935.
• Competition in craft trades were curbed by the introduction of new regulations.
• Cut-price competition between big businesses was banned.
• State and party agencies preferential to small businesses.
• The state made available low interest loans and a share of confiscated Jewish trade.
• Given small grants for investment

The Mittelstand welcomed the restoration of political stability, the imposition of wage controls and the punishment of what they considered to be anti social elements such as vagrants, the work shy and homosexuals. They also won temporary protection from competition from department stores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand