Was any one reason more important than the others in Hitler's rise to power?

The USA saw that Germany was in trouble. They decided to help by lending then money to pay reparations. For a while both Germany and the USA were in doing well financially. The unemployment rate dropped and so did the poverty rate. Things were getting back to normal until in 1929 the American stock market crashed and sent the USA into disastrous economic depression. Germany was affected badly by the USA's depression. They USA asked for the money that had been lent to them back. This plummeted Germany into yet another economic disaster, even the rich were affected. Businessmen had to fire staff as they had no money to pay them with.

Unemployment rocketed and people were left with no choice but to sell their homes to afford a loaf of bread. Hitler saw this as a major advantage to him. He used the problems of Germany to put the people on his side. He promised them a strong leader, to replace the indecisive democratic government that were ruling at the time. He promised to ignore the Treaty of Versailles, meaning no reparations and no more economic disaster. He promised work for the unemployed, food for the starving and homes for the homeless. This at the time seemed very attractive to the poverty stricken public, they had lost all hope in the Weimar government and they needed a change. This made the unemployed, elderly and middle class support Hitler strongly.

Hitler had one more hurdle to overcome. To will over the support of an entire country you need to attract support from all the classes. Hitler managed to do so with his outstanding public speaking skills. He knew what the public wanted to hear and the way he delivered it was perfect. He created a sense of excitement in the crowds; they wanted to hear him speak. His ideas were not new and the crowd were not attracted to the ideas on their own but the way Hitler delivered over his ideas was the attraction. He used the volume of his voice, the pace of the words and repetition to get the audiences attention. Soon people were travelling all over the country just to hear him speak; it was a light at the end of the tunnel for most. He bought confidence back into Germany, something the public had not seen in a very long time.

Another quality of Hitler's speaking was that he knew how to adapt the way he spoke depending on who he was speaking to. This was a very useful talent when trying to win over the support of the land owners and industrialists; these were the higher class people at the time. When addressing an audience of such people he would talk about the communists. The communist party was the other big party in Germany at the time (when the Nazi's were the biggest party in government, the communists were third biggest). The rich hated the communists; they knew that if the communists got into power they would have to give up much of their land and all their money. They did not agree with this idea at all. Hitler used this fact to get them on his side. He talked about how much he hated the communists and if he got into power he would get rid of them. This made the upper class confident in Hitler. Hitler used this confidence to get money off the landowners and industrialists, this money helped Hitler to build up his party and make them look more professional. Without the help of the upper class, the Nazis would have gone bankrupt and not have been able to fight for their power.

Hitler's speaking skills and the fact that he had so much support made the Nazis the single biggest party in power in 1930 and when Hitler ran for president he got 13 million votes compared to Hindenburg's 19 million. Now that the Nazis were being taken seriously, Hitler could put to practice some of the actions he had promised. He helped the unemployed by boycotting the Treaty of Versailles. He set up a Nazi army. They were given food and shelter solving the problems of the starving and the homeless. This is what gave Hindenburg and Von Papen the confidence to appoint Hitler as chancellor in 1933. They agreed that he had good ideas although they may be a little extreme and a good way with the people. They did not think that Hitler would get total power as the Nazi party did not hold all the seats in parliament.

They were wrong; Hitler used his power to get the Nazi party into a position of complete power. No one could overrule them, no one could disagree with them and no one could stop them. They were on a mission and they intended to complete it. They started by putting forward the enabling law. This allowed the Nazis to put into prison camps any communists that they wanted. In Hitler's eyes all communists, Jews and anyone that was not completely German did not deserve to live.

In conclusion there was not one single most important reason why Hitler came to power. Each cause leads into another. If the government had not signed the Treaty of Versailles, the public would not have lost faith in the government. The treaty was signed and the government printed money to pay reparations leading to hyperinflation. This lead to an economic depression which created to unemployment and poverty. This gave Hitler an opportunity to speak his mind, but Hitler was only listened to because of his great speaking skills. If it hadn't have been for Hitler's speaking skills he would not have received the support of the rich and would have gone bankrupt. Finally the decision for Hindenburg and Von Papen to appoint him as chancellor in 1933 only can about after he proved himself to be a good leader by setting up shelters and homes for the people in poverty. Without the cause before it, no one cause could have taken place.

Rina Goldwater History CW