In 1932, Hitler was refused power by Von Hindenburg and was instead given to Franz Von Pappen. This new political leader did face a large problem though, he did not have support of the Reichstag. As well as this He was classed as:
“A second rate politician” by his colleagues and eventually was replaced by an Ex-army general by the name of General Kurt Von Schleicher. Again he also did not manage to gain support from the Reichstag. Because of this replacement, Von Pappen now had a grudge against the president and would try to get in to power once again. Von Pappen then asked Hitler to become chancellor despite not having the majority and having to form a coalition between the Nationalists and the NSDAP. with Hitler as chancellor and Von Pappen as Vice-chancellor, Wealthy businessmen and the president went along with this because of the fact that they thought Pappen, not Hitler would be controlling the new government. This grudge was the main reason that Hitler managed to gain power. If Von Pappen had no desire to be in power, and this grudge never existed then it would be most likely that Hitler would have never become chancellor and so German History may have looked very different.
Another reason why Hitler was made Chancellor was a piece of legislature known as 'Article 48.' This was part of the Weimar constitution that allowed the president to take emergency power in conjunction with the Chancellor and was allowed to make decisions and pass laws without the support of the Reichstag. After the wall street crash in 1929 The president, Paul Von Hindenburg decided that the economic decline was classed as an emergency. This allowed the president to choose the president he wanted to appoint. As a result of this, politicians were able to get in to government without a majority support from the Reichstag. This allowed Von Pappen to convince the president that Hitler was the best man for the job despite the fact that Hitler did not have support from the Reichstag. As well as this, due to the fact the president had been using the rights of Article 48 for so long, it made a mockery of democracy, showing people and the Reichstag that perhaps this dictatorship was the best idea. All of this was incredibly important for the Nazi party due to the fact Hitler could not rise to power without it. He had already been refused directly from the president but the Politicians grudge is still more prominent due to the fact it needed a certain type of person to change Hindenburg mind about Hitler and if it had been someone else, they may not have been so successful.
One more reason that allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to ascend to power was the lack of effective opposition against extremist parties. For example, before Hitler was appointed, Heinrich Bruning was the chancellor as well as a conservative politician. As his predecessors had experienced, he also did not have support from the Reichstag. Despite this the main reason he lost office was down to the fact that he did not implement any policies that would change the current economic climate. Hitler had presented ideas of changing this through stopping reparations and other ideals. This meant that big industrialists saw him as a leader who would sort the country out and so wrote to Hindenburg to appoint him. Despite this, Von Pappen's grudge did have a larger overall impact on the outcome. This was due to the fact even if there was strong opposition to the extremists. It would be most likely that Hitler would have got in to power anyway due to the fact he presented the most confident and effective leadership that agreed with public opinion
The Final reason for the Nazi's rising to power was the ever growing threat of a communist revolution in Germany. This was due to the fact that the most influential people in Germany (The economic elite and high ranking politicians) risked losing all of their money and power and possibly be executed if the communists did take over. This meant that they would do everything they could to stop this. This point is backed up by the fact that Von Hindenburg was more willing to sign “The ruthless confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany" after the Reichstag fire.
Even though the communists were seen as a major threat to the rich in germany. Hitler became Chancellor independant to these circumstances and was only until later in his term that this fear would be vital.
Overall I Agree to a point that electoral suceess of the Nazi party was the primary reason of why they got in to power. It was an important component as without it then they would not even have been considered for any position of power, but if we look at the situatuation as a whole then we can clearly see that it was Von Pappen that drew together all of these factors in his plan against Hindenburg. Without von pappen then The Nazis would have been kept away from office by Von Hindenburg and the Germany would carry on without them.
by
britton_bros (student)
