Who Paid the Nazi Party?
Like the assumption that Ford could have funded Hitler because they had similar views about Jews,
Pool also makes the same assumption about Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England,
Schacht's friend, because Norman was also antagonistic towards Jews (and the French). He deplored
the economic chaos wrought on Germany by the Versailles diktat and the adverse impact that was
having on world trade. On that score, he could have funded the Nazi party, but there is no evidence
for it. Pool's book is useful however insofar as he shows, despite himself, that the Nazi party was not a
tool of big business.
I. G. Farben, for example, often depicted as one of the plutocratic wirepullers of the Nazi regime, and
as the center of a Third Reich industrial death machine, was headed by liberals. Pool states that from
its formation in 1925 I.G. Farben gave funding to all parties except the Nazis and the Communists.
Not until 1932, with the NSDAP as the biggest party in parliament, did two representatives of the firm
meet Hitler to get his views on the production of synthetic fuel. 59 Not surprisingly, Hitler was in favor,
given that it was an important factor in an autarchic economy. However, the matter of funds for the
party was not raised.
The upshot that we learn from Pool in regard to Nazi party funding is that, quoting economist Paul
Drucker:
The really decisive backing came from sections of the lower middle classes, the farmers, and working
class... As far as the Nazi Party is concerned there is good reason to believe that at least three-
quarters of its funds, even after 1930, came from the weekly dues.... And from the entrance fees to
the mass meetings from which members of the upper classes were always conspicuously absent.
