Social Welfare
Social welfare was also going well. Unemployment insurance was made in 1927 - This was even the lagers of its kind in the world. Furthermore, parks schools, sport facitlies, council housing and the sinema industry improvement which were all indications of good social welfare.
Weaknesses in the economy
So was there a boom in the ecooomy? A lot o factors point that the encomy was, more importantly, in-stable rather than growing. Factors indicating this were:
- In 1926 production levels feel, perhaps because the value of imports exceeded exports.
- Unemployment did not fall below 1.3 mio.
- The farmers, who made up one-third of the total population especially suffrede: Many were in debt and by the late 1920s income in the agriculture was 44 percent below the national average income
- World trade did not return to its pre-war conditions, which Germany had counted, and which was the reason for the increase of exports.
- Germany had lost the important industrial areas, Alsacse-Lorraine and Silesia, due to the Treaty of Versailles
- Unemployment would increase even more, as the working force also increased. Mainly because of the hight pre-war birth rate.
- Lack of investment within the German population
- Savings were lost during the great inflation, which meant that the population relied on foreing investment.
- Public expenditures raised (due to the inducement of social welfare)
- Germany still had to pay the reparation debts
To meet the difficulties, Stresseman signed the Young Plan, which insured Germany to take loans from U.S. banks.
All in all, Germany came to rely more on international loans and foreign investment, which was not a reliably source for the economy to be based on. This completely challenged the positive aspects of the German economy.
Could these difficulties have been tackled better? Instead of making Germany more vulnerable by making her rely on foreign affairs, the government could have made more jobs available, and encourage investment. Even the farmers were in debt which furthermore made the agriculture a troubled area for the German economy. Adding all these economic aspects, Germany, a year - The world economic depression probably came on the worst time possible for Germany.
The emergence of the Nazi Party
In this period, the Nazi parties also began to recruit more people. In 1921 it became clear that Hitlers' vision was to gatter all the right-wing parties under the NSDAP, (National Socialist German Workers' Party), as mentioend earlier in the essay. Hitler was released from prison in December 1924 after the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. Hereafter, Hitler dealt with inside disagreements, formed Nazi organizations (such as the Hitler Youth), which made the Nazis' party structure very broad and appealing. Through the Reichstat elections of May 1928 it was clear that the party had made a lot of progress, and it is clear that the Nazis enjoyed a major boom in membership, especially in the Protestant and North part of Germany. This was a proof that Hitler could appeal to a very broad national appeal - and not just geographically, but also age-wise, which can be seen from the champaign posters they used. By now, the Nazis had gained solid support, but they had no real political success.
