How did both long-term and short-term causes contribute to Hitler's rise in power?

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How did both long-term and short-term causes contribute to Hitler’s rise in power?

        Long-term causes take a long period to come about, the effects are felt for a long time and it takes a long time to reach its climax or consequence whereas short-term causes take a short period of time to come about, the effects are felt for a short time and it takes only a short period to reach its climax or consequence.

        The Weimar Government was in power between 1919 and 1923. It was a weak government as the voting system of proportional representation produced weak coalition governments, which were unable to provide Germany with a strong central government. The Weimar government had been born out of defeat and revolution and so never had the support of many Germans including the army, the civil service, the police, the judiciary and the universities and schools. Weimar politicians were also burdened with problems, which hampered their efforts to give the Republic a good name. Many Germans blamed them for ‘stabbing the army in the back’ by signing the Armistice in November 1918, for the Treaty of Versailles (1919), reparations, the terrifying inflation of 1922-1923 and for German’s dependence on loans from the United States through the Dawes Plan (1924) and the Young Plan (1929). The Government was also weak as chancellors were often appointed because of their friendship with the President rather than by the number of seats they had in the Reichstag and as the chancellor needed the backing of the smaller parties who could easily withdraw their support, blackmail was rife within the government. After the 1929 depression when the government couldn’t get the country back to employment, the President governed instead. The weakness of the Weimar government gave Hitler something to feed on for almost a decade and the anger of the people against their government gave him an audience for ten years.

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        Hitler was able to recognise the weaknesses within the Weimar government but without his oratory skills, personality and leadership he would not have been able to use the weaknesses to gain support and popularity. He made great use of his aforesaid skills between 1923 (the Munich Putsch) and 1933 when he became chancellor. He had a clear and simple appeal. He stirred nationalist passions in his audiences and gave them scapegoats to blame for Germany’s problems: the Allies, the Communists, the ‘November Criminals’, the Treaty of Versailles and the Jews. Hitler had great oratory skills, as C. Zuckmayer states, “Hitler ...

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