The German Question, Part One Hundred Nine

"The Rise of Hitler and The Nazis" Part Two/A
"Hitler The Political Upstart"

The leadership of the German Workers Party liked Hitler and he quickly became one of its leaders. A few months later the name of the party was changed to the "National Socialist German Workers Party" (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) in hopes of attracting more members. The party tended to meet in beer halls in the Munich area, and Hitler began giving speeches at these meetings; something at which he excelled, and he eventually became the major speaker for the party at events. The Treaty of Versailles, highly unpopular in Germany, gave Hitler and the party new material to use against political opponents, and use it they did. Membership increased. By October 1922, Benito Mussolini became premier of Italy. Mussolini's Italian Fascist Party was strikingly similar to the now developing Nazi Party of Germany.* This gave Hitler and the Nazis hope that they too could come to power in Germany. The reparation payments and the subsequent occupation of the German industrial region of the Ruhr** gave more ammunition to right wing extremism in Germany, and the Nazi membership continued to climb, escalating from its few dozen early on, to perhaps somewhere between fifteen and twenty thousand, but still far from one of the major political parties.

Next..."Hitler & The Nazis March Toward Power"

* Nazi is simply an abbreviation of the "Nationalsozialistische" part of the party name, and the common terminology called members either "National Socialists," or "Nazis," as spitting out the whole party name every time could take the better part of an hour.

** For more on the Ruhr occupation, see:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/05/german-question-part-ninety-nine.html

and

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/05/german-question-part-one-hundred.html

 

WORD HISTORY:
Marshal (mare + shalk)-This word's meaning has changed considerably over the years, making it very interesting, and many of you will be surprised. It is a compound, so I'll deal with its two parts separately. The first part, "mar," is actually "mare," which seems to trace back to Indo European "markh(o)," although some sources believe it may have been borrowed into Indo European, or at least some dialects, from Asiatic languages, but its basic meaning was simply "horse," and was not gender specific; however, Old Germanic had "markaz," which meant "female horse." The Germanic dialects that became Old English gave Old English "miere," also "female horse," but interestingly the variant "mearh" meant "male horse." Later the word was altered to mare/mere," before settling on "mare." There are forms in other Germanic languages, and secondary meanings developed, often in derogatory form about "women," at times replacing the original meaning of "female horse." German has "Mähre," which is now archaic for "mare, female horse," having been replaced in modern times by "Stute." The German term came to be used for "old horse," as a secondary meaning, which then came to be applied, "unflatteringly," to older women. Low German Saxon has "Mähr," and it now means "an old horse." West Frisian has "merje," meaning "mare." Danish has "mær," which lost the "female horse" meaning, but not the "female" aspect, as it means "a loose woman, " and also "a woman difficult to get along with." Dutch has "merrie, "= "mare." Swedish has "märr"="mare." Icelandic has "meri"="mare." Norwegian has "merr"="mare," but also used in a vulgar way toward women.
The second part, "shal," in the next article.