Although the Stalhelm was officially a non-party entity and above party politics, after 1929 it took on an anti-republican and anti-democratic character. Its goals were a German Dictatorship, the preparation of a Revanchist program, and the direction of local anti-parliamentarian action. For this reason its members distinguished themselves from the NSDAP as "German Fascists". Among their further demands were the establishment of a Greater Germanic People's Reich, struggle against Social Democracy, the "mercantilism of the Jews" and the general liberal democratic worldview, and attempted without success to place candidates favorable to the politics of a German expansion to the East.