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Organising National Socialism: Nazi Organisation in Sweden and the Netherlands, 1931–1939

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Kunkeler, Nathaniël  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4542-9594

Abstract

jats:pThis article compares the party apparatuses of the National Socialist Movement of the Netherlands and the National Socialist Workers’ Party of Sweden. These two parties, founded in the 1930s, both to some extent mimicked the organisational model of Hitler's party in Germany. While this has been frequently noted, the deployment of this model in practice has not been analysed in any detail. The article explores the specific characters of the Swedish and Dutch fascist party organisations diachronically vis-à-vis propaganda, member activism and internal cohesion, highlighting their changes, successes and failures. The comparison reveals that the party apparatus was highly dependent on the specifics of national infrastructure, demographic distribution and urbanisation and the physical landscape, with notable consequences for internal party cohesion and morale. In the final analysis the relative appeal and popularity of the parties is shown party be the result of how the Nazi organisational model was deployed in practice within each national context.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

Journal Title

Contemporary European History

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0960-7773
1469-2171

Volume Title

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)