With the international rise of populist, alt-right politicians who claim to love democracy I was wondering the following: Did the Nazi's claim to support democracy in their election campaigns?
It seems hard to imagine that they would really run a campaign in which they openly claimed that they wanted to abolish democracy. Nowadays at least, claiming that would destroy someone's credibility so no politician's openly says that (even though it might be their actual intention to dismantle democracy...). Just wondering, I couldn't find anything on this.
To no extent. As Joseph Goebbels said:
“We are an anti-parliamentarian party that for good reasons rejects the Weimar constitution and its republican institutions. We oppose a fake democracy that treats the intelligent and the foolish, the industrious and the lazy, in the same way. We see in the present system of majorities and organized irresponsibility the main cause of our steadily increasing miseries.
So why do we want to be in the Reichstag?
We enter the Reichstag to arm ourselves with the weapons of democracy. If democracy is foolish enough to give us free railway passes and salaries, that is its problem. It does not concern us. Any way of bringing about the revolution is fine by us." (Völkischer Beobachter, 30.04.1928)
Or the NSDAP program from 1920, where it says in #6:
"We oppose the corrupting custom of parliament of filling posts merely with a view to party considerations, and without reference to character or capability."