Describe and explain how and why Hitler and the Nazis came to power in Germany with particular reference to the period - November 1918 to August 1934.
Describe and explain how and why Hitler and the Nazis came to power in Germany with particular reference to the period - November 1918 to August 1934
Before the Great War in 1914 Germany was a rich and prospering country. The end of the war in 1918 and between 1933 reduced Germany to a weak and struggling country. There are many reasons for the fall and rise of Germany during this time, which ultimately results in the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.
After the war Germany found defeat in the First World War difficult to accept. Their did not accept that they had been truly defeated: they thought their government had been 'stabbed in the back' by left-wing Germans who lacked patriotism.
There were many problems that arise from the war, these were matters, which the German Empire was responsible, but for which the 'November criminals' took the blame.
The Germans were forced to sign the diktat' of Versailles in 1919. This made Germany very weak financially because there were charged extremely high reparations, ?6 500 million. It also became economically weak because there suffered losses in materials; there followed poverty and serious food shortages; also the reparations had to be paid of in materials as well as money. Germany had lost its empire, these places formally owned by Germany were know called mandates. They were going to be run by the League of Nations. Germany had also lost all moral and national pride because of the defeat and the 'war guilt clause' which was part of the Treaty. The Rhineland was demilitarised because it was close enough to France and Belgium for Germany to invade, its armed forces were reduced to 100,000 men, only volunteers, without armoured vehicles, aircraft, or submarines and only six warships.
Many people in Germany were afraid that the communists would take over Germany. They were afraid because the votes for communists had gone up. Also it was quite likely for the communists to take over because the German communists, sparticists tried in 1919. Communists had also taken over Russia in 1917. The communists appealed to the working class, people who worked in factories with long hours and low pay. They believed each person should work according to their capacity and receive according to their needs. They wanted the government to own everything, like private land and businesses.
Businessmen, landowners and upper and middle class didn't want or like Communism. They didn't want their land or business to be owned by the government. Their reaction was to give support and money to the Nazis party, in hope that they would drive out Communism and get enough votes to take over Germany.
With the support and money from the upper class etc, Hitler was given the chance to build up, arms, uniform and publicise the Nazi party with the money and support given in result of the fear that the Communists created.
When Kaiser Wilhelm ...
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Businessmen, landowners and upper and middle class didn't want or like Communism. They didn't want their land or business to be owned by the government. Their reaction was to give support and money to the Nazis party, in hope that they would drive out Communism and get enough votes to take over Germany.
With the support and money from the upper class etc, Hitler was given the chance to build up, arms, uniform and publicise the Nazi party with the money and support given in result of the fear that the Communists created.
When Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and fled, a republic was declared, and a right-wing socialist, Fredrich Ebert, headed a new government, a coalition of several parties, including the Democrats and the centre. Germans accepted this because they thought a republic would get a better deal from the allies
Elections were held in 1919 to choose a constituent assembly to devise a new constitution. It met in the small university town of Weimar in February 1919, chosen because the major cities of Germany, especially Berlin, were suffering outbreaks of disorder involving extremists of both the right and the left. It was not intended that Weimar should become the capital of Germany permanently, and in fact the capital was moved back to Berlin as early as 1920.
From the beginning there were weaknesses in Germany's new system, it was difficult to make decisions because there were so many parties in the Reichstag. It was hard to pick a chancellor who had the support of most the Reichstag.
The new government had to accept the post- war treaties, so many Germans because of the loss of territory, the 'War guilt' clause and the reparation hated them. There were many outbreaks of trouble, and Ebert agreed to form the Freikorps, a body of soldiers to keep the peace who belonged to the government.
The Weimar republic was finding it hard to pay the reparations. France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr, the richest industrial part of Germany, they decided to take coal and other resources instead. This led to fury in Germany; the German government organised a campaign of passive resistance. The miners went on strike and refused to help the French. In order to pay the miners the German government printed huge amounts of money. This led to hyperinflation in Germany. Money became worthless and prices soared.
In August 1923 Stresmann became chancellor of Germany.
By November 1923 Hitler believed the moment had come for him to topple the Weimar government. The government was preoccupied with the economic crisis. Stresmann had just called off Germany's passive resistance in Ruhr.
On November 8, Hitler hijacked a local government meeting and announced he was taking over the government of Bavana. The old war hero Ludendoff joined him.
Nazi storm troopers began taking over official buildings. The next day, however, the Weimar government forces hit back. Police rounded up the storm troopers and in the brief exchange of shots 16 Nazis were killed by the police.
The rebellion broke up into chaos. Hitler escaped in a car while Ludendorff and the others stayed to face the armed forces. Hitler had miscalculated the mood off the German people. In short tem the Munich Putsch was a disaster for him.
People did not rise up to support him. He and the other lead ing Nazis were arrested and charged with treason.
At the trial however, Hitler gained enormous publicity for himself and his ideas as his every word was reported in the newspapers. The 24-day trial meant that his views were spread throughout Germany for the first time. In fact, Hitler so impressed the judges that he and accomplices got off very lightly. They found Hitler guilty of treason but sentenced him for only five years in prison with the chance of early release for good behaviour, usually if someone was found of treason it carried a life sentence, he was released after 9 months.
Hitler's failure taught him that, as long as the army supported the republic, he could not gain power through an armed coup. He decided to abandon ideas of seizing power, turn the Nazis into a parliamentary party, if necessary to form coalitions with other parties and to win over the army and industrials to fund the party.
Stresmann was the chancellor of Germany and he brought hyperinflation to an end and called of the strikes in Ruhr. In 1924, Stresmann signed the Dawes plan with Britain, France and the USA. Under the plan, Stresmann said that Germany would re-start paying reparations. The French agreed to leave the Ruhr and the Americans said they would lend money to help German industry. In 1925, Stresmann signed the Lacarno pact. Under this he said that Germany would accept the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Following this, in 1926 Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations.
In 1929, the young plan replaced the Dawes plan, reparations would be reduced by one- quarter of the amount, and Germany was given 58 years to pay them.
Germany had begun to recover but they still depended on US money. Life was beginning to look better for Germany thanks to the work of Stresmann. But he died in October 1929, just before the disaster of the Wall Street Crash. The plans he had agreed would only work if the USA had enough money to keep lending to Germany.
In the 1920's, the Nazi Party had made very little progress, and its Reichstag representation was down to twelve by 1928, but the Great Depression provided this and the other extreme parties with their big chance.
On the 24th October 1929 the New York stock exchange on Wall Street crashed. The USA stopped lending money to Germany. In addition, like other countries. Germany was badly effected by the slump in the world trade, which followed. Factories were forced to close and millions of jobs were lost. In Germany by 1932 there were over 6 million Germans unemployed. This, it seemed was a catastrophe without quick solutions.
In Germany and several other countries democracy got the blame for the bad state of affairs, and that had significant results. Economic and political problems meant that countries turned to dictators. Countries like Germany decided to expand into other countries, threatening peace. The breakdown of trade led to lots of international tension.
The new Weimar government broke down between 1929 -1933. They couldn't do any thing to help improve the conditions caused by the depression; people saw the Weimar republic as weak and useless. They left the impression that they did not no how to handle the depression, unemployment, falling wages and poverty. People also thought that because Germany was a democracy it was weak, people started to not like being a democracy. People turned to groups like Hitler's Nazis who promised strong government and better life.
Many Germans found Nazism appealing; Hitler had a good speaking style and passionately believed he was right. When Hitler had first been publicised he and his party wasn't very organised, but when they appeared again they had uniforms and were organised. The money and support he had got from the middle/upper class and businessmen help him create a good image. When he was in public there was often use of searchlights, which were the height of technology at that time.
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