Traditionally, many historians have viewed the German working class as being instrumental to
Hitler’s seizure of power and the electoral success of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in the 1930 and 1932
German Reichstag elections. Although some blue-collar workers did, in fact, support the NSDAP’s rise,
most union members and industrial workers were mostly opposed to Hitler and his agenda. largely
because of Nazi opposition to traditional trade-unionism. Hitler and his closest allies believed that unions
were controlled by foreign interests and were incompatible with their vision of a centralized German
state, and much of the Nazi Party’s early electoral success was owed to significant financial backing from
factory-owners who opposed trade-unions for economic reasons.