The Depression also discredited the leaders of the Weimar Republic. The Chancellor at the time, Heinrich Bruening, followed a deflationary policy of balancing the budget, controlling expenditures, and stabilising the currency- policies that actually made the depression worse. Once again the republic had failed its citizens and the vast reservoir of unemployed, politically volatile, panicked, resentful people now listened to ever more radical voices of the Right Wing Germans that promised radical action.
The Nazis had core support from the lower middle classes. These supporters were male, young, non-proletarian, and mostly Protestant. The party also made use of farmers, ex-Free corps members, civil servants, upper middle-class university students, middle-class interest groups, and the growing number of unemployed in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Farmers faced increasingly hard times because of low commodity prices and large indebtedness. With no significant relief coming from the government or parties on the right, many in northern Germany began turning to the Nazis for support. Mounting unemployment among industrial workers and lower middle-class clerks after 1928 brought new members to the Nazi ranks. Disaffected university students, fearful that they would not find jobs upon graduation or would be replaced by Jewish professional’s generated support for the NSDAP in the universities.
Many unemployed people began to listen to the ideas and policies of the Nazis in the late 1920s because Hitler's speeches were inspiring, he was a great public speaker who could excite the masses and ignite a sense of belief. His policies made sense and were aimed at the areas of politics that the German masses were resentful of like the treaty of Versailles and reparations. His party were highly organised and made promises that would benefit all sectors of the population, not just the unemployed. Further to this was the Nazis open and forceful opposition to communism and the impressive use of force and discipline to engineer success for them. These characteristics were highly valued in a Germany where law and order were being constantly threatened and the promise of jobs and also threats being eradicated appealed to many unemployed people.
The Weimar republic was collapsing and Chancellor Bruening's policies, enacted under emergency power, did little to slow the tide of the Depression or stop the rise of the radical right. They worsened the economic crisis by introducing deflationary measures such as balancing the budget, controlling expenditures, and stabilising the currency.
President Hindenburg was also ill-equipped to handle this crisis. He was old, senile, and did not understand or much sympathise with the republic. He didn't like Hitler or the Nazis, but had no real idea of what to do in this crisis. The President generally listened to those around him and followed their recommendations. So politics was reduced increasingly to attempts to influence those close to Hindenburg, leading to failure of the republic as there was no law and order and politics was narrowed down to bribery.
In a time of an economic crisis and a poor government the views of the Nazis were taking seriously, especially by the unemployed who were attracted in many different ways, as they were promised work on things such as roads and public facilities, and also as there rivals and threats would be dealt with by Hitler and his Gestapo- namely Jews and homosexuals.
Many people would think the reaction of the Jews to the Nazis would be harsh, considering the Nazis used them as scapegoats and hated them enough to outlaw and kill them whenever necessary, as many Jews didn’t vote for the Nazis, but many Jews did vote! This was mainly because of the strategies used by Hitler and how he introduced his ideas of racism little-by-little, leaving it too late for some Jews to back out and realise what was going on, this is why he was so effective- he seemed to appeal to everyone, until he was in power and Chancellor for the Reich.
In Conclusion the unemployed and Jews reacted differently to the ideas and promises of the Nazis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Many unemployed voted for the Nazis because they wanted to get rid of their rivals (including “job stealing” Jews) and they wanted to be employed again, although some unemployed were intelligent enough to realise Hitler was psychotic in his hatred for anyone Jewish. Most Jews didn’t vote for Hitler as they saw his discrimination and didn’t want to live in a country that hated Jews, but a few Jews did vote for the Nazis as they believed it was just discrimination that had been used throughout history and Hitler wouldn’t take it as far as he said he would, they were wrong! In effect this also leads to the collapse of the Weimar Republic as they couldn’t cope with this extreme right wing party and the amount of votes it was receiving.
