"Economic Factors brought the Nazis to power in Germany" To what extent is this true?

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Michelle Williamson                Extended Essay

"Economic Factors brought the Nazis to power in Germany"

To what extent is this true?

On 30th January 1933, Hindenburg received Hitler in audience and appointed him chancellor.  It came as a shock to some people but many believed that Hitler's rise to power was because of Germany's social and economic status in the 1930's which made the people restless and ready for dictatorship.  There was 6 million unemployed because of the great depression and there was a whole series of unstable coalitons under the Weimar Republic.  This government also lacked support as they were heavily criticised for signing the Treaty of Versailles.  However in order for the Nazis to come to power they had to take advantage of the situation.  They had effective use of propaganda to criticise the Weimar Republc and effective electioneering.  They also had policies that appealed to all groups and had Hitler's own organisation skills including his skills as a speaker.  However by 1932 it was by no means inevitable that the Nazis would come power and was only the backstairs intrigue with the Right-wing that appointed Hitler chancellor.

The political problems of the Weimar Republic were fuelled by mounting economic worries.  Germany was exhausted by four years of fighting in World War One and industry had to re-adjust to peacetime.  The Treaty of Versailles is said to be the root of all of Germany's economic problems because of what Germany had to deal with.  The reparations bill fixed in 1921 at £6600 million proved inpossible for Germany to pay, especially as Versailles had removed valuable coalfields, the colonies and the merchant fleet from Germany.  The massive amount of money became a serious drain on the country's economy.  Germanys inability to pay resulted in France and Belgium invading the Ruhr in 1923. Unable to take military action against France, the head of the current government Wilhelm Cuno resorted to passive resistance.  This involved a massive increase in the government spending at a time when its income from taxation was reduced because the Ruhr was parlysed.  Cuno's government covered this yawning gap between income and expenditure simply by printing money.  As a result this led to hyperinflation.  In January 1923 one US dollar bought 10,000 marks; by September it bought 98 million marks.  The mark declined significantly on a daily, even hourly basis.  The policy of passive resistance was unsustainable.  Thousands of middle-class people lost their life savings, who should have naturally been supporters of the Weimar Republic.  They therefore turned their back on the unstable government and started supporting alternative extremist parties.  This is shown by the election of 1924, where the Nazis gained 32 seats.

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        Between 1924-28 Germany gained some stability and these were called the Weimar Republic's "Golden Years".  Chancellor Gustav Stresemann called off passisve resistance to the French, and agreed to re-start reparations.  The French therefore left the Ruhr.   He was able to do this due to the Dewes plan which provided Germany with loans from America.  Since things were getting better for the German people support for extremist parties fell away.  This was only the case until October 1929 when the Wall Street Crash led to a World Depression which had a big impact on Germany.  This begun in the ...

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