The terms of the loans, dictate that the supplier could call in the money whenever they needed it. Unfortunately, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 meant that the Germans fell into depression again, as the US called for all loans to be re-paid. This then led to mass un-employment as companies had to lay off workers, and went bankrupt.
Now why wasn’t Germany able to get back again? The answer is because it didn’t have a strong governmental figure to look up to. This is due to proportional representation. No party won the 51% majority needed to run the country on its own. Instead, they had to form a coalition government. These changed on average twice a year, with the longest government lasting a mere two years. There were 20 different governments between 1919 and 1933. The public didn’t trust the government, and turned to extremist parties for support. The Wall Street Crash had affected many countries around the globe, but those countries managed to survive because they had a strong government to help them through.
Hitler was then able to come to power in 1933 due to many points:
One reason is because of his 25 point programme. The programme appealed to almost everyone, and contradicted itself in countless places.
It appealed to the un-employed/communists because it demanded a share of wealth, it appealed to nationalists by demanding the treaty of Versailles to be abolished, and it also appealed to industrialists/socialists by wiping out trade unions.
So then in 1930, over 6 million people were un-employed, many hundreds of thousands more hoping they will stay employed, the big industrialists who were hoping against a communist revolution and the socialists who were also hoping against a communist revolution, they all turned towards the Nazi party to help them. This led to growing support.
With all this support, the Nazi party gradually gained seats in the Reichstag over the years. Nazi support grew in direct correlation with the un-employment figures in Germany, this shows how much the people turned towards extremist parties in these times of trouble.
Hitler got his word out by a huge use of propaganda. One of his main sources of propaganda was the SA. The SA helped protect Nazi party meetings, disrupted opposing party meetings and went around beating up communists in the streets. The police all turned a blind to these actions. This helped turn votes over, because of the way that the SA showed great discipline in the time of trouble and chaos form 1930-33. The SA also helped Hitler win votes over; as they disrupted opposing parties election campaigns in the winter of 1932. This meant that these parties could not get their policies out to the general public during the campaign. With over 4 hundred thousand men at his command, this was not at all a difficult task to accomplish.
His second use of propaganda were his great mass rallies. People paid to come in to a huge hall and listen to Hitler speak. Hitler was very charismatic, and got his point across well due to his loud voice and his great source of self-confidence. This inspired people to join up to the Nazi Party and vote for them during the presidential and Reichstag elections.
Also, among the great arsenal of Nazi propaganda, were such items as the eight different Nazi newspapers that were published, posters and pamphlets. All these helped towards getting Nazi’s their votes, as they were almost everywhere around Germany.
Of course, for all this propaganda to exist, the money must come from somewhere. The main financers of the Nazi Party were the leaders of large companies who believed that a communist revolution would destroy them and their companies. They backed Hitler and the Nazi Party for the satisfaction that communists would not come into power.
In 1932 Reichstag elections, the Nazi party won 196 seats. This was by far the most seats in the Reichstag. But still, Hitler didn’t have the majority vote needed to rule the country under one party. He was then saved by President Hindenburg. Franz von Papen was Chancellor, but he could not get enough support in the Reichstag for his party to rule over Germany. Hindenburg and von Papen were having to govern by emergency decree which means that every law passed doesn’t have to be put through the Reichstag. They offered Hitler the post of vice-Chancellor if he promised to support them. Hitler refused this offer and demanded to be chancellor. So Hindenburg took a risk. He gave Hitler the position of chancellor in the hope that he could control him and the affairs over Germany. This was on the 30th January 1933, the day Hitler came to power.
The reason I believe to be the most important in Hitler’s rise to power, is that the Weimar constitution wasn’t a strong enough structure to base government around. As a consequence of the constitution, between 1919 and 1933, there were 20 different governments who had power at some stage. Also due to the constitution, inside the Reichstag, there were 28 different parties who had seats.
In turn, this led to political chaos and uncertainty. This political climate, coupled with the German populations disillusionment, led Hitler and the Nazi party to get into power more quickly.
The Nazi’s also had a very powerful propaganda machine, with almost unlimited funding by the major companies around Germany. This was headed by Goerbells.
I also believe that the Wall Street Crash facilitated Hitler’s rise to power, but the real reason behind his “success” can be found by looking back through history, to post WWI Germany. The economic status of the country, the disillusionment of its people in losing the Great War and the weak political constitution following WWI, I believe were the main reasons why a charismatic, determined dictator was able to establish himself as leader.
