The Wall Street crash in 1929 meant that there was economic trouble all over the world let alone in Germany, which had been in economic crisis for years. The depression in Germany in the late 1930s helped the Nazis gain votes, as once again it seemed that they had all the answers. People who had never voted before drew into Nazism because of the answers that Hitler and the Nazis were offering. The Nazi party received more votes than ever in the 1932 elections; they had around 13 million votes. This was due to a lot of campaigning and also due to Hitler allying with the elite and big businesses that provided him with crucial support.
A fear of the Left was rapidly growing especially as there were thoughts of workers riots, also people were anxious to rebuild on the economic disaster of the 1930s. All this meant that the capitalists were starting to support the Nazi party more strongly. The businessmen and elite saw Hitler as a politician who would not hold up business, so the big businesses and the Elite in Germany started to support Hitler financially to ensure his success. This enabled Hitler to campaign more especially using modern technology to help publicise the Nazi party more widely. The elite realised that they no longer needed to support the weak Republic as they saw Hitler as a better alternative and believed that they could get Hitler into power and eventually control the SS and SA through Hitler to benefit them.
Industry was ready to tolerate Hitler especially as it had little tolerance for the Weimar Republic. However heavy industry and the elite only exerted a small influence on Hitler becoming Chancellor. The efforts of both Von Papen and Scleicher were tireless and it seemed they were both unfit for power; Hindenburg had ran out of candidates who could take the Chancellor position. Schleicher did unwillingly become Chancellor after he convinced Hindenburg that Papen’s policies of establishing martial law and amending the constitution would cause a civil war. Schleicher believed that he could gain power by exploiting the Nazis, which he believed were easy to tame and exploit; but this did not go to plan for Schleicher, as he was never able to get rid of the mistrust of the socialists. This meant that Scleicher admitted that he could not obtain the majority in the Reichstag and he resigned as Chancellor.
Papen then persuaded Hindenburg that the Nazis and Nationalists were a viable alternative to Scleicher, as they would have a reasonable chance of maintaining a majority in the Reichstag. At this time the Nazis were running very short on funds and in 1933 the Nazi party was nearing the verge of bankruptcy. Also the Nazis were losing votes; they had lost 2 million in the November elections in 1932, this was partly due to the fact that Hitler and the Nazi party had failed to take power on several occasions. This resulted in restless Nazi supporters drifting to the extreme left instead which explains the slight increase in the communist vote in the November elections. However two days after Schleicher's resignation Hitler was appointed Chancellor.
Hitler’s rise to power was due to the great economic instability, which enabled Hitler to exploit the situation by telling the German people what they wanted to hear. Also the problems with the Weimar constitution such as Article 48 that undermined the German democracy and the Republic, which was widely hated because it was instable and weak, helped Hitler. Also the fear of the left by the elite and the Republic meant that support was given to Hitler instead and the influences of the German culture which gave Hitler ideas and shaped his was of thinking helped him in rising to power in January 1933.
