That was mere window dressing even at their very start - they had started out as one of the associated party of the extreme-right Freikorps paramilitaries, who had been engaged in coups and terrorist acts against socialist Post WWI governments (and French and British troops) in all German regions. There was absolutely nothing left about them or any of their allies.
They had had one fraction that had partially leftist leanings in wanting to redistribute the evil Bolshevist-Zionist International Capital into workers hands rather than among nationally inclined capitalist friends of the party leaders, but these guys were massacred in the 1934 "Röhm-Putsch" - so whatever "left" Nazis there might have been ended in the first big unlawful massacre they ever did...
Much as I take your point, and familiar as I am with the history of the Stahlhelm and the like, I'd have to argue that it was the sort of window dressing that fooled enough of the people, enough of the time -- which is not a bad definition of many kinds of politics, even if few kinds are as repulsive as the NSDAP. The 'workers' (another word shared with the communists) were as enthusiastic supporters of the Nazis as the petit bourgeoisie who were their natural constituents, and the party wasn't that hot on democracy either. In fact, 'National' and 'Party' are the only accurate words in NDSAP, and even those are not hard to criticize. Prior to Hitler there were plenty of patriotic German Jews, so it wasn't very national, and the
Fuehrerprinzip somewhat negates the idea of 'party'. This is what I meant by people thinking of themselves as 'moderates', regardless of their politics. Finding a congenial label, then passively going along with its consequences, is a lot quicker and easier than taking political responsibility.
A thought which occurred to me over lunch is that anyone who is
not prepared to discuss politics and religion should be barred from polite society, and indeed from forums such as this. Here, by definition, a love of photography unites us, while our politics may vary widely. We therefore have a perfect forum for 'meeting' people with other political views.
If we do not discuss things, how are we to know what others think and believe, or thought and believed? If we listen only to those in our own little political ghettos, all that is likely to happen is that our views (no matter what they are) will be reinforced, first to the point of failing to understand others; then to the point of misrepresenting them; and finally to the point of hating them.
Finally, you might appreciate a joke from the John Major days in Britain (the current state of Australian politics reminded me of it): a T-shirt with a picture of John Major, and under it, in Fraktur, "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Kein Fuehrer."
Cheers,
R.
