The Effects of the Great Depression on the Rise of Hitler

The Nazi party was not formed quickly, and lacked support in the years following the Second World War.  It began as the German Workers’ Party and was initially shaped by Anton Drexler in 1919.  Hitler was one of the party’s first devoted members and he quickly criticized the state for giving into the Allies.  Hitler rose to head of the party’s propaganda as Drexler recognized his ability as a public speaker.  Following this, Hitler had a clear idea of his next goal, and that was to become leader of the party, doing so in July of 1921.  His idea was to offer a differing ideology from that of the different parties.  In 1925, we re-founded the NSDAP and created a new strategy.  He created the image of a constitutional democracy aimed at electoral support.  But the country was not searching for radical solutions, because in the mid-twenties, Stresemann was in charge, and everything seemed to be going well.  The NSDAP only had 12 seats following the 1928 election, and this limited success was a result of conditions not being right for Hitler to gain the support he needed.  He needed unrest and unhappiness amongst the general population so they would look for radical solutions to their problems.  But this was not to be, and as the twenties rolled on, Hitler searched for a different support base.  He found one in the rural areas.

Hitler found that it was very expensive to try and run campaigns in the cities, and he was not seeing the results he was expecting.  This led him to the rural areas where bad harvests in the late twenties were making life difficult.  He was able to gain the support of the people and this was significant when the depression came around.  When the bottom of the economy fell out, there was no hope in the Weimar republic and Muller’s coalition collapsed on 27 March, 1930.  This allowed him to gain the support of the urban middle class, which soon became the largest of the Nazi supporters.  Historians like Childers argue that this support was there even before the depression.  However, many other historians have suggested that the first signs of true support from the middle class is seen in the 1932 elections when the Nazis went from 12 seats to 107 seats.  Nicholls suggests that “the non-manual employees, civil servants and teachers – who aligned themselves with Nazism as a direct result of the depression.”  It is quite feasible that this shift was already in occurring, but the depression gave these people a definite reason to shift their support to the Nazi party.

The people who supported Hitler were from such differing backgrounds, it demonstrated his ability to persuade the nation that his ideology was the solution to the economic problems.  It was not the depression that made this occur, but it gave Hitler the conditions he needed to seize the attention of the country.  Some of these social groups Hitler tended to focus on were the Businessmen and industrialists.  He was able to persuade them, as well as other upper class citizens that he would save them from communism, which was the other radical option at the time.  The lower class was already supporting Hitler because he offered them simple solutions to basic problems such as the need for food and shelter.  He appealed to everyone he needed to, leaving out the Jews.  Ironically, this anti-Semitic ideology increased his support as many followers believed that the Jews caused Germany’s economic problems.  Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat and was able to get away with it extremely well.  But, the largest, and most enthusiastic group of Nazi supporters were the youth of society.  He offered “oversimplified solutions to the problem of unemployment”, while desperate individuals became engulfed his Hitler’s mass appeal.

The last important factor was the failure of the Weimar republic in conjunction with the success of Hitler’s propaganda.  Democracy worked in 1923 because of the state of the economy.  The economy seemed strong and people were happy.  This is why the Nazis were not receiving nearly as much support as they would a decade later.  But, the government was almost too democratic because each 60,000 votes gave a party one seat in the Reichstag.  This meant that there was a wild array of parties, leading to a web of coalitions.  As a result, the power was slowly spreading out, and as the economy slumped, the cracks in the system grew.  Fraenkel suggests that the government failed to execute “the functions which devolve upon them in a constitutional pluralistic Parliamentary democracy.” And as the coalitions began to separate, leaving Hitler an opportunity to some to power.  He used the radio, the papers, speakers, provocative posters and bands to get his word across to the people.  But, he was successful because he kept his messages simple and easy to remember.  Hitler believed that “the receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous.”  His party was the most organized as this allowed him to seize power when the opportunity arose; and it did so with the coming of the depression.

        Hitler’s rise was a combination of good timing, excellent planning and endless dedication to success.  He tried many different strategies until he found one that worked, and unlike other parties, he adjusted to what the voters wanted.  He expanded his support base by making issues that concerned people, easy to understand and remember.  He earend his way up in the ranks of his party, and became leader of Germany because of the many factors discussed.  He acted when was appropriate, and the poor economic state did nothing but help Hitler quest for leadership.  It allowed him to gain the interest, and eventually the trust of the people.  But the results of such brilliant campaigning resulted in arguably the most gruesome regime in the history of mankind.

Bibliography:

Bullock, A.  Hitler : A Study in Tyranny. New York: HarperCollins, 1962.

Freeman, C. The rise of the Nazis. United States: Steck-Vaughn Company, 1998.

Grunberger, R. The 12-Year Reich.  New-York: Da Capo Press, 1995.

Heiber, H. The Weimar Republic.  Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993.

Kershaw, I. Hitler 1889-1936. Paris: Flammarion, 1995.

Lee, S.  Aspects of European History. London: Routledge, 1982.

Lee, S. European Dictatorships 1918-1945.  London: Routledge, 2000.

Nicholls, A.J. Weimar and the Rise of Hitler.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

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