Industrial Nations in the slump.
Chapter 23 Industrial Nations in the Slump The Great Depressions mist critical effects were on industrialized nations. Before the Depression The people in the primary-producing countries had low standards of living. They wouldn’t feel shattering disappointment when either their incomes fell or they lost their jobs. But the people of the industrialized nations had come to expect relatively high standards of life. The industrialized societies were the richer societies and their people believed they had riches to lose. 5 world’s industrialized countries-germany, Britain, France, the USA, and Japan. Britain France and US emerged with their traditional forms of gov. after Depression. Japan and Germany would have political upheavals. Germany-Down the Road to the Third Reich: After 1923 German economy had recovered in the second half of the twenties and the boom attracted investment from the US in turn stimulating further industrial development. IN October 1929 Depression rocked the economy. As American bankers and investors called for their money back, as world demand for manufactures and foodstuffs declined, as prices slumped, as banks went bust, unemployment in Germany grew to over 5 mil. By Sep. 1932. The Depression took down with it the middle class-bank clerks, civil servants, office personnel-as well as the working class. Hitler joined and became leader of (NSDAP) the National Socialist German Workers’ Party-the Nazis. “National Socialism” itself was against large-scale capitalism but utterly
opposed to international communism; it was aggressively nationalists and violently anti-Semitic(hostile to Jews). IN that post-war period the Nazis formed their own private army-the brownshirted Sturmabteilung(SA)-for the political struggle that was being waged in the streets; they carred their new flag-blood red with a black swasticka(hooked cross)on a white circle. ON 9 Nov. 1923 they entered Munich to begin their revolt against the gov. of the Republic. IN prison Hitler wrote in his book Mein Kampf(my struggle) he was against the new Republic, against democracy, against Marxism, against liberals, and pacifists, against Christian moral values and the rule of law, ...
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opposed to international communism; it was aggressively nationalists and violently anti-Semitic(hostile to Jews). IN that post-war period the Nazis formed their own private army-the brownshirted Sturmabteilung(SA)-for the political struggle that was being waged in the streets; they carred their new flag-blood red with a black swasticka(hooked cross)on a white circle. ON 9 Nov. 1923 they entered Munich to begin their revolt against the gov. of the Republic. IN prison Hitler wrote in his book Mein Kampf(my struggle) he was against the new Republic, against democracy, against Marxism, against liberals, and pacifists, against Christian moral values and the rule of law, and against the Jews. Hitler was released from Landsberg Castle in Dec. 1924. Hitlers aim could no longer be immediate, violent revolution carried out by a few fanatics. Instead he set to work to rebuild his shattered Nazi Party into a tightly knit movement with branches throughout the country. The SA was reorganized and expanded; in 1926 the black-shirted Schutzstaffel(SS) appeared, as did the Hitler Youth, the Nazi German Student League, the Nazi Teachers’ League, the Nazi Women’s League, and the Nazi Physicians’ League. By 1928 Hitler was in control of a party with 100,000 members. It was a political movement. The only challenge to Hitler’s absolute control of the movement had come from the Strasser brothers, Gregor and Otto, who had their own power base in the industrialized regions of northern Germany and who took the term ‘national Socialism’ seriously and favored the public ownership of heavy industry and big estates. Hitler had no interest in such ‘red’ policies; his aims were to seize power and then to destroy. The effects of the Depression on Germany, in March 1930 the “Grand Coalition”split apart uder the mounting strain of rising unemployment: the Social Democrats would not accept the cuts in unemployment benefits. The disagreement brought about the end of an effective coalition gov.: and it brought into the open all the festering dislike which many influential Germans felt for parliamentary democracy. Parliamentary democracy was incapable of dealing with a national emergency. Hinenburg made it clear that if a majority of the Reichstag opposed Bruning’s polices. He would also dissolve the parliament and call new elections. The Social Democrats refused and blocked the new gov. policies in the Reichstag. Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag, and Germany prepared for a general election. The results of the September 1930 election showed how badly the slump had affected people’s morale, how in their anger and frustration many people had come to think that only desperate measures, and men, could pull them out of a desperate situation. Large numbers of working-class men without jobs gave their support to the Communist Party(KPD) The 25 Points of the Nazi Party Programme had first been announced in 1920. Now in 1930 they appeared to offer something for nearly everyone-for the unemployed workers, the worried farmers, the anxious middle classes, the bored and dispirited young. The Nazis scapegoat for Germany’s ills was the Jews. Hitler was the supreme public speaker. The result in Sep. 1930 was over 6 1/3 million votes. Hitler had support form three sources. 1)the panic-stricken middle class-people who not only feared the loss of their business or jobs but also believed that the Communist and Social Democrats intended to ruin them by bringing them down to the level of proletarian masses. 2) small landowners, whose property and way of life were threatened by the sudden fall in prices for agricultural produce and who were attracted by Nazi election promises of higher tariffs on imports of foreign foods and lower interest rates on loans. 3) new young voters who saw no future for themselves in a weak democracy, despised by its army, its businessmen, and by the Presiden. Chancellor Bruning head of a gov. supported in the Reichstag by the Social Democrats put an end to reparations. His policy was one of deflation- of making life in Germany even harsher than before. By ‘emergency decrees’, Bruning reduced wages, cut unemployment benefits and increased taxes. Allies ended reparations in Jul. 1932. by that time many German banks had gone bust in the financial crisis of 1931; industrial production had sunk; 5 mill. Workers had no job and neither did Bruning. IN may 1932 Hindenburg sacked Bruning and appointed Franz von Papen. Papen was interested in doing a deal for the support of the Nazis. The deal was arranged, Hitler would be invited to join gov. Hiler demanded the position of Chancellor. Papen refused. Papen asked Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call general election in Nov. Papen was still faced by 2 large extremist parties, communists and Nazis, who were determined not to let the Reichstag work. At last Indenburg was persuaded that Papen could control the Hitler. ON 30 Jan 1933 he appointed Hitler Chancellor of the German Republic. The German Communists’ first aim was to control the working class and they thought Hitler would help them to achieve it” after a few weeks of Hitler as Chancellor, the workers would flock to communism. Early in Feb. 1933, Hitler called for new Reichstag elections. Hermann Goering, Hitler’s right-hand man was appointed Prussian Minster of the Interior. He controlled almost 2/3 of Germany’s police. He appointed 50,000 auxiliary policemen’ as Nazi gun-slingers in the pay of the gov. ON 27 Feb. the Reichstag building went up in flame. Hitler claimed that a communist revolution was at hand and persuaded Hindenburg to sign an emergency law “for the protection of the people and the State”, which swept away the freedom of speech and freedom of the Press. ON 5 Mar. Hitler’s Nazis won their best electoral victory 288 seats in the Reichstag. On March the new parliament met. Hitler demanded and Enabling Act which would give him the power to make his own laws. The Act was passed and German democracy was killed. Important: 1)the Nazi movement in Germany would become a model for radical groups in other countries gripped by the Depression of the thirties. 2)the German revolution of 1933 let loose a destroyer who wouldl eventually set off another great war. 3) the Nazi seizure of power is even for us today history’s most terrible lesson in the speed and ease with which democracy and the rule of law can be overthrown.
