Hitler rise to power, question 2

Short-term causes such as, The Economic Depression and The Enabling Act, also caused Hitler come to power. Firstly, the economic depression was the trigger for Hitler’s rise to power because in extreme situations people look for extreme solutions; and this extreme solution was the Nazis, as evidence shows in 1932. The number of unemployed Germans was around 5,603,000, and the number of Nazi seats in the Reichstag was 230 (37.3%), the maximum they achieved before Hitler was named chancellor. So Hitler took advantage of the situation and started promising people jobs, the abolishment of the Treaty of Versailles, and other things they wanted to hear. So the people started voting for the Nazis and their popularity increased a lot so did the number of seats in the Reichstag. Secondly, the enabling act was the main the reason why the Nazis stayed so long at power and why Hitler became the President as well as Chancellor (the Fuhrer), the Enabling Act permitted Hitler to assume complete control of Germany, he became a Dictator. With this act, Hitler could pass laws himself without the approval from the Reichstag for four years, so using this law he eliminated all political opposition and after the four years all of the Reichstag was Nazi so they surely approved his laws. That is the reason why he stayed 12 years in power; from 1933 to 1945.

Analysing, you realise that all the causes are linked. The Great Depression is linked with Hitler’s oratory, personality and leadership as well as the Treaty of Versailles because Hitler used both occasions to make promises to the people, for example in The Great Depression, Hitler promised jobs for all the unemployed people and food for all the poor, and for the Treaty of Versailles he promised that he would abolish it and recuperate Germany’s honour by rearming and recuperating all the land that was “stolen” from Germany. Hitler’s oratory, personality and leadership also links with the decision by Papen and Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in 1933 because his oratory, personality and leadership made Hitler very popular so Papen and Hindenburg thought that if they joined Hitler to their government they would become popular themselves but Hitler eliminated the Weimar Government little by little once appointed Chancellor. The Munich Putsch also links to the Enabling Act because while Hitler was inprison he wrote in Mein Kampf what he planned to do with Germany, and the laws that he implemented in the Enabling Act were already planned by him around 10 years before.

In conclusion, I think that neither long-term causes is more important than short-term causes and visa versa, because as I explained in paragraph four they all linked and all added to Hitler’s rise to power. Without any of these reasons Hitler wouldn’t have been able to become Chancellor and then Fuhrer, so all the causes formed a jigsaw puzzle, without any of them the jigsaw puzzle wouldn’t be able to be completed.