Why did Hitler become chancellor in January 1933?
This is a very complex question. To answer it I will need to look at both the internal and external factors that contributed to Hitler becoming Chancellor.
Hitler was first sent to the German Workers party as a spy for the German army, at which time there were only 6 members. But Hitler agreed with their views and desires for Germany, especially that of a strong central dictatorship. He was made president of the party. By 1920, its full name was the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” which was abbreviated to the “Nazis”.
Contrary to the extreme Democratic government of the Weimar Republic, the Nazis wished for a dictatorship. However the Weimar republic was already showing weaknesses. At the time the Weimar Republic (WR) was the most democratic government in Europe. It was the first to introduce a secret ballot, proportional representation, everyone over 20 (including women) could vote and there were elections held every 4 years. This was a remarkable change from the previous dictatorships in Germany and the German public was arguably not ready for such a substantial amount of freedom. Even though the WR gave the people such freedom it was still widely unpopular for many reasons. One of which was the “stab in the back” myth. The leaders of the WR had signed the treaty of Versailles in 1919 which damaged Germany’s pride badly, and forever linked the WR with the crippling conditions of the treaty, especially the reparations bill. Germany’s economy was still in tatters after the war and they were in no condition to pay a £60 billion bill. These reparations also led to later problems such as causing Gustav Stresemann to become very unpopular when, in 1923, he ended passive resistance in the Ruhr, making the German workers co-operate with the French and he restarted the payment of the reparations. This, in turn led to the depression, 1923 was a crisis year for the WR. So, the Nazi’s policy to cancel the treaty was very popular.
