In 1922, Weimar Germany simply could not manage to pay another installment. This the Allies did not believe - especially France where anger towards Germany still ran deep - and the German government was accused of trying to get out of her reparations responsibilities. This apparent refusal was only four years after the end of the war, and the attitude of the public towards Germany was still very hostile - and not just in France.
In 1922, French and Belgium troops invaded the Ruhr; Germany’s most valuable industrial area. The French and Belgium troops took over the iron and steel factories, coal mines and railways. Those Germans who lived in the Ruhr and were considered not to be co-operating with the Germans were imprisoned. Food was taken. That this action by the French and Belgium broke the rules of the League of nations - which both belonged to - was ignored by both countries. France was considered one of the League’s most powerful members and here she was violating its own code of conduct.
Weimar’s government responded by ordering the workers in the Ruhr to go on strike and it ordered all people in the Ruhr to passively resist the French and Belgium soldiers. This meant that they were not to openly confront the French and Belgium soldiers, simply that they were not to help them in any way whatsoever. This lead to violence and over the next 8 months of the occupation, 132 people were killed and over 150,000 Ruhr Germans expelled from their homes.
The order for workers to go on a general strike may have been patriotic but it had disastrous consequences for Germany as a whole. The Ruhr was Germany’s richest economic area and produced a great deal of wealth for the country as a whole. The huge Krupps steelworks was there. By not producing any goods whatsoever, Germany’s economy started to suffer. The striking workers had to be paid and the people expelled from their homes had to be looked after. To do this, the government did the worst thing possible - it printed money to cover the cost. This signalled to the outside world that Germany did not have enough money to pay for her day-to-day needs and whatever money may have been invested in Germany was removed by foreign investors.
Such a drop in confidence also caused a crisis in Weimar Germany itself when prices started to rise to match inflation. Very quickly, things got out of control and what is known as hyperinflation set in. Prices went up quicker than people could spend their money.
In 1922, a loaf of bread cost 163 marks.
By September 1923, this figure had reached 1,500,000 marks and at the peak of hyperinflation, November 1923, a loaf of bread cost 200,000,000,000 marks.
The impact of hyperinflation was huge :
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People were paid by the hour and rushed to pass money to loved ones so that it could be spent before its value meant it was worthless.
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People had to shop with wheel barrows full of money
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Bartering became common - exchanging something for something else but not accepting money for it. Bartering had been common in Medieval times !
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Pensioners on fixed incomes suffered as pensions became worthless.
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Restaurants did not print menus as by the time food arrive…the price had gone up !!
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The poor became even poorer and the winter of 1923 meant that many lived in freezing conditions burning furniture to get some heat.
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The very rich suffered least because they had sufficient contacts to get food etc. Most of the very rich were land owners and could produce food on their own estates.
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The group that suffered a great deal - proportional to their income - was the middle class. Their hard earned savings disappeared overnight. They did not have the wealth or land to fall back on as the rich had. Many middle class families had to sell family heirlooms to survive. It is not surprising that many of those middle class who suffered in 1923, were to turn to Hitler and the Nazis party.
Hyperinflation proved to many that the old mark was of no use. Germany needed a new currency. In September 1923, Germany had a new chancellor, the very able Gustav stresemann. He immediately called off passive resistance and ordered the workers in the Ruhr to go back to work. He knew that this was the only common sense approach to a crisis. The mark was replaced with the Rentenmark which was backed with American gold. In 1924, the Dawes Plan was announced. This plan, created by Charles Dawes, an American, set realistic targets for German reparation payments. For example, in 1924, the figure was set at £50 million as opposed to the £2 billion of 1922. The American government also loaned Germany $200 million.
This one action stabilised Weimar Germany and over the next five years, 25 million gold marks was invested in Germany. The economy quickly got back to strength, new factories were built, employment returned and things appeared to be returning to normal. Stresemann gave Germany a sense of purpose and the problems associated with hyperinflation seemed to disappear.
1924 to 1929 is known as the Golden age of the Weimar. Berlin became the city to go to if you had money, the Nazis were a small, noisy but unimportant party. Above all, Stresemann gave Germany strong leadership.
The next financial difficulty was not far along. It was the wall Street Crash. On the 24th October and again on the 29th, share prices on Wall Street (the New York stock exchange) fell dramatically. This fall became known as the Wall Street Crash and it led to the Depression, which hit the USA in October 1929 and then spread to most countries in the world. What had caused this crash to happen?
- In the 1920s share prices in the USA rose year after year. Many Americans believed that they could make money easily by investing in shares. the selling and buying of shares was almost uncontrolled in the USA. Many people bought shares without realising that they could lose all of their money.
- Share prices went up because companies encouraged people to go on buying on credit. Hire purchase was easily available, but few people realised that it was very dangerous to go on selling on credit. Eventually people would not be able to make the repayments.
- Some companies that people invested their money in were bogus; they simply did not exist. Other companies did not tell the truth. It was difficult for investors to know what they were buying.
- The US government did not believe that it had any responsibility for what was happening. The presidents in the 1920s, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, believed that it was not their job to interfere.
- Some Americans predicted that a crash was coming, but very few people took them seriously. Most people believed that the USA was so wealthy and so powerful that it could not happen. They were wrong.
The German economy was especially vulnerable since it was built out of foreign capital, mostly loans from America and was very dependent on foreign trade. When those loans suddenly came due and when the world market for German exports dried up, the well-oiled German industrial machine quickly ground to a halt.
As production levels fell, German workers were laid off. Along with this, banks failed throughout Germany. Savings accounts, the result of years of hard work, were instantly wiped out. Inflation soon followed making it hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with devalued money.
Overnight, the middle class standard of living so many German families enjoyed was ruined by events outside of Germany, beyond their control. The Great Depression began and they were cast into poverty and deep misery and began looking for a solution, any solution.
This was the chance for the Nazi party to show the strengths. The first main strength they had was Hitler and his speaking skills. Hitler was a short man but at his conferences he made an effect on everyone he done this by moving his hands and body vigour sly and to get hyped up about his speech. This really stuck in the minds of the people watching him. Hitler also had a big input from his colleague Goebbels.
Propaganda is the art of persuasion - persuading others that your 'side of the story' is correct. Propaganda might take the form of persuading others that your military might is too great to be challenged; that your political might within a nation is too great or popular to challenge etc. In Nazi Germany, Dr Joseph was in charge of propaganda. official title was Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment.
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As Minister of Enlightenment, had two main tasks :
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to ensure nobody in Germany could read or see anything that was hostile or damaging to the Nazi Party.
- to ensure that the views of the Nazis were put across in the most persuasive manner possible.
To ensure success, Goebbels had to work with the SS and Gestapo and Albert Speer. The former hunted out those who might produce articles defamatory to the Nazis and Hitler while Speer helped Goebbels with public displays of propaganda. To ensure that everybody thought in the correct manner, Goebbels set up the Reich Chamber of Commerce in 1933. This organisation dealt with literature, art, music, radio, film, newspapers etc. To produce anything that was in these groups, you had to be a member of the Reich Chamber. The Nazi Party decided if you had the right credentials to be a member. Any person who was not admitted was not allowed to have any work published or performed. Disobedience brought with it severe punishments. As a result of this policy, Nazi Germany introduced a system of censorship. You could only read, see and hear what the Nazis wanted you to read, see and hear. In this way, if you believed what you were told, the Nazi leaders logically assumed that opposition to their rule would be very small and practiced only by those on the very extreme who would be easy to catch.
Hitler had many policies one of them being that only true Germans to be allowed to live in Germany. Jews in particular were to be excluded. Holocaust Hitler and the Nazis were racist. They believed the German people were a 'master race', who were superior to others. They even created a league table of 'races' with the Aryans at the top and with Jews, Gypsies and black people at the bottom. These 'inferior' people were seen as a threat to the purity and strength of the German nation. When the Nazis came to power they persecuted these people, took away their human rights and eventually decided that they should be exterminated. The Nazis where taking to the people of Germany and they in turn also started to turn against the Jews. They weren’t racist but were brain washed by the Nazi propaganda and the overall influence of Hitler.
Hitler was also anti-Communist, this was mainly because he wanted support from the big business and he also wanted the German industry to be big and strong. The big businesses owners and the middle class where very anti-communist and so where the small landowners, these people were scared that their land might get taken away if the communist party did get in. The Nazis also had support from the farmers as they were scared that their farms might turn like the farms in Russia, i.e. Collectivisation.
Hitler now found a way through theses people he then went on to the unemployed and offered them jobs. This was great news for them so they were very happy to vote for the Nazis. The Nazis also offered the old people a good pension, this was something that none of the other parties were offering so they had the upper hand over the old people. At the time there weren’t many jobs for students who left university, but Hitler offered them jobs as there were going to be many professional job vacancies due to Jews being kicked out.
Next had to come the elections to get the Nazis into power.
Hitler and the Nazi party offered what seemed to be an attractive alternative just when the republic was at its most incapable. The fortunes of the Nazi party were closely linked to the economic situation; the more unstable the economy, the more seats the Nazis won in the Reichstag (German Parliament).
March 1924 - 32 seats (economy still unstable after 1923 inflation)
December 1924 - 14 seats (economy recovering under Dawes Plan)
1928 - 12 seats (comparatively prosperity)
1930 - 107 seats (unemployment mounting)
Nazis second largest party
July 1932 - 230 seats (massive unemployment)
Nazis single largest party
In May 1932 Franz Von Papen took over as Chancellor. Papen and Schleicher asked Hitler to join with them in a coalition. In January 1933 they convinced the then senile Hindenburg to become Chancellor and Papen to be Vice Chancellor. Hitler came to power legally. He was then able to pass the enabling laws through the Reichstag. The Enabling Laws gave Hitler the right to make laws and not have them approved by the Reichstag. They effectively set him up as a dictator.
These were some of the aims and objectives that Hitler had for Germany.
- We demand the union of all Germans to form a great Germany.
- We demand the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles.
- We demand land for settling our surplus population.
- None but those of German blood may be a member of Germany; no Jew, therefore, may be a German.
- We demand that all non-German immigration be stopped.
- We demand the abolition of incomes unless earned by work.
- We demand profit sharing in great industries.
- We demand generous provisions for old age.
9. We demand that all newspaper owners, editors and journalists should be members of the German nation
Hitler managed to achieve complete control by 1934 by establishing a one-party state where he would have full control. He did this in several ways. The Reichstag building was burned down on 27 February 1933. This helped Hitler to gain a majority in the upcoming March election. The Nazis blamed the fire on the communists, specifically Van der Lubbe – and they claimed that he intended to spark a communist uprising in Germany. It is debatable as to who really caused the fire. Although Van der Lubbe confessed to it, some historians claim that the Nazis started the fire themselves deliberately to increase their chances of success. It is undeniable that Hitler did use the fire to help win the election. He launched a propaganda campaign to whip up fears of a communist uprising. This was hoped to frighten the middle-classed landowners into voting for them. The day following the fire, the “Reichstag fire decree” was introduced. This gave the nazis the power to arrest a number of communists and socialists and hold them for unlimited periods of time without having to appear in court.
The Nazis still failed to gain a majority in the Reichstag, receiving only 44% of the vote (although this was their best election performance). With the support of the Nationalist Party they had a slight majority of seats. Their good performance was undeniably helped by the fact that 81 communist leaders were being held under the “Reichstag Fire Decree”.
Hitler used his new power to pass the “Enabling act” on the 23rd March 1933. This gave Hitler dictatorial powers by enabling him to make decisions that had the same authority and power as those made through Reichstag. Under these powers Hitler was able to destroy the trade union movement of Germany. On 2nd may SA men raided trade union offices and officials were arrested. The Nazis replaced this with the “German Labour Front” which was compulsory for all workers.
Similarly, Hitler used these powers to destroy all opposing political parties, creating a one party state. The Final stage of Hitler´s Consolidation was with the destruction of the Parties internal opposition. The Night of the Long Knives was the name given to the purge of the SA, led by Ernst Rohm. Hitler believed that Rohm was conspiring to take over leadership. Rohm also wanted to create a new army, the “peoples army” out of the SA. This threatened the Wehrmacht, and so by the Sa´s destruction Hitler gained the oath of loyalty from the army.
In all Hitler came to power in a Legal way but some of his methods he used were very cruel. His intentions from the start were to become the dictator of Germany and to rule the German people. I think even if the Nazi didn’t gain power legally they still would have gained it in another way. Maybe we can say this was the best way as there was few dead and this brought the German people together. I would say from the failure in the Munich Putsch Hitler arose from this and came out on top. He did however have a lot of luck, firstly the hyperinflation and the Weimar enable to deal with in and then to the depression.
At this time I can see how people could have voted for a ruthless leader and I myself might have voted for him. In turn, the Nazis really started the conquest after 1933, where their new quest was to rule Europe.
