The Nazis saw the ever-growing weakness in the Weimar Republic and they used this to their advantage in attacking their policies and ruling. The main things the Nazis attacked in on were their reluctance to do anything about the Treaty of Versailles and The Great Depression and also their unpopular economic tactics. This gave the Nazis ideas to base their propaganda around the Weimar’s weaknesses, which proved to be very popular with the working class and unemployed.
The Nazi tactics was one of their strong points that proved to become very successful, although they had a very radical change after the Munich Putsch. Hitler decided they were going to win fair and square through voting instead of using force. Their main tactic was to end democracy and have one strong dictator, Hitler. They had tried democracy and it had failed. They may have gone from using force to voting into power, but that still used intimidation to put fear into people to scare people into supporting the Nazis, they acted like bullies. They tried to cause as much chaos as possible without making it obvious it was them because chaos caused democracy to fail. The Nazis tactics were to try and make it as obvious as they could they were carrying out their propaganda to try and deceive people they were honest and true, and won more votes through this. Hitler was dedicated to careful planning of his tactics to make sure everything would work, so the more power the Nazis had, the more chance Hitler stood becoming Chancellor and one step closer to ruling Germany.
The Nazi ideas were often fanatical and eccentric, usually affecting a lot of people. The strongest idea was most likely to be the strong hatred they had for the Jews. They were considered to be an annoyance in building the perfect race for the Germans. Along with the Jews, the Nazis also hated communism and communists. Both of these people the Nazis wanted to get rid of, and soon did their supporters. The Nazis also blamed politicians and factory owners for the Great Depression and unemployment and the Nazis wanted to make them pay, this got them a lot of support from the unemployed and working classes. The Nazis main target was to get rid of democracy, which had made them so weak and introduce dictatorship back which had made their country so powerful in the past. This is what the Germans loved to hear, they wanted Germany great again, like it was before the war.
Hitler was probably the most respected person in Germany in 1933, the German people adored him. His speeches were inspirational, that put faith back into the hearts of the German people. He was a very enthusiastic speaker that put a lot of emotion into the speeches he gave which rallied the people and got them to support the Nazis. His uniform proved to the Germans that he was truly serious about ruling the country, and that he was the one that could make Germany great again.
The Nazis worked on two main areas to gain votes, the working class and the unemployed, this where most of their votes came from. This increased their votes from 800,000 to 6,000,000 and 48% of the Reichstag seats. Some Nazis votes also came because the Germans were so scared of the communists, they voted for the Nazis as a way out.
They were all reasons that contributed towards Hitler becoming Chancellor, but it also involved some of Hindenburg’s closest friends Franz Von Papen and General Von Schleicher:
1932 – Hindenburg reluctantly appoints von Schleicher Chancellor
1933 – 4th January – Von Papen can see that von Schleicher is having difficulty keeping a Reichstag majority. He sees his chance to win back power. He secretly agrees to work with Hitler. Hitler will become Chancellor. Von Papen will be in the Cabinet.
22nd January – Von Papen ask Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor. Hindenburg refuses.
28th January – Von Schleicher finally has to admit defeat in raising support in the Reichstag. He has to resign.
30th January – Hindenburg want von Papen back but is advised that reappointing such an unpopular Chancellor might trigger a movement against Hindenburg himself. Von Papen convinces Hindenburg that as long as there were only a limited amount of Nazis in the Cabinet, then even with Hitler as Chancellor the most extreme Nazis policies could be resisted. He also warns that the alternative is a Nazis revolt and a civil war. Hindenburg had no choice but to appoint Hitler as Chancellor and appoints Von Papen as Vice-Chancellor.
It may have taken a long time for Hitler to become Chancellor and a lot of niggling but once he was there he was then in control of German even with the Reichstag and President Hindenburg still around.
