By 1930 the situation had changed drastically. As a consequence the German bourgeoisie decided to put its full weight behind the fascist movement. Big business poured in millions of marks into the Nazi party. Fritz Thyssen, head of the steel trust, in his book I Paid Hitler, openly admitted handing over one million marks to Hitler personally. He was also instrumental in winning sections of the bourgeoisie over to the Nazis: “I did in fact bring about the connections between Hitler and the entire body of Rhenish-Westphalian industrialists…in consequence of this a number of large contributions flowed from the resources of heavy industry to the treasuries of the National Socialist Party.” Thyssen estimated that this brought in over two million marks each year. According to the historian William Shirer, “In fact the coal and steel interest were the principal sources of the funds which came from the industrialists to help Hitler over his last hurdles to power in the period between 1930-33.”
Up until this point, the Nazi party did not look a threat to the labour movement or the Republic. Yet within two years it went from becoming the weakest party in the Reichstag to the second largest.
For the ruling class, repressive, brutal measures in defence of its interests were nothing new. They are prepared to take the most ruthless action in defence of their power and income. But the turn towards fascism marked a decisive stage, a qualitative change, in the attitude of the bourgeoisie. Fascism is a special form of reaction connected to the death agony of capitalism. Trotsky once commented that it was “the distilled essence of imperialism.”
For capitalism under “normal” conditions, the best form of government is its cheapest form: bourgeois democracy. The capitalists see the state – armed bodies of men in defence of private property and their appendages – as a costly, necessary evil. If not held in check by parliamentary government, then the state bureaucracy and military caste can grow out of proportion and consume an enormous amount of the surplus value. Bourgeois democracy also provides a valuable safety valve for the discontent of the masses. To paraphrase Marx, the masses could say what they liked as long as the monopolies decided. Capitalism in crisis, however, forces the bourgeoisie to drive down wages to below subsistence levels, to force the worker into a semi-slave existence. Democratic rights won by the proletariat – freedom of speech, the right to organize, to strike, to vote – become obstacles to the capitalist class in their effort to drive down conditions. The capitalists turn towards greater state repression and even the establishment of Bonapartist regimes (military-police dictatorships). Yet Bonapartism is still insufficient to destroy completely the organizations of the working class, and a special form of reaction is therefore required to perform this task – fascism.
In Germany the proletariat had won big concessions from the bourgeoisie during the 1918 revolution. Farm labourers in eastern Germany for the first time won the right to organize. As a result the chief industrialist, Stinnes, warned, “Big business and all those who rule over industry will some day recover their influence and power!” They were forced to stomach the concessions and bide their time. They now looked to fascism to restore their profits over the bones of the German proletariat.