The Weimar Empire had fallen and if there was any chance for the Nazis to succeed, the time take the opportunity was now. As it was a major turning point for the Nazis “Wilderness Years”. The 1930 elections saw them win 107 seats, a massive change from their 12 seats they had won in the 1928 elections. This proves that the “Shift of Power” had come towards the Nazis. It was the time for the Nazis Golden Years.
Unemployment rose rapidly after the Wall Street crash. Rising from 1.5 million to 5.5 million in just under four years.
Business men were not hit as badly as workers or farmers. Many saw their business’s close or profit fall dramatically, as there was no money to be spent even on food. Young People aged 16-30 had an unemployment rate of over 50% and sixty percent of the graduates could not get jobs.
Farmers had been doing increasingly bad through the 1920s to the 1930s so the crash didn’t help, slipping them further into debt. Factory workers were unemployed at 40% by 1932. Government cut unemployment benefits to save money.
Unemployment support in 1932 was horrendously poor. 15% received nothing, 25% were on emergency relief from the government. 30% were supported by local councils, 30% received normal state unemployment benefit.
Those on emergency relief from the government received a payment fewer than normal unemployment benefit. For the unemployed, this was a time of extreme poverty. Most of them lived on the streets in shanty towns. They ate in soup kitchens and live in terrible conditions.
The collapse of the American stock exchange exposed the Weimar republic to move criticisms, but unlike they had done in previous years the Weimar politicians appeared to have no solutions for the crisis. There were numerous attempts of escaping depression, but little success was made. To make things worse the Weimar were forced to raise taxes, cut wages, and reducing unemployment benefits. This gained them little support from the German people which caused them to be unpopular. They had to do this for long-term reasons to keep Germany alive, unfortunately though they did not consider any short term solution. This caused them to be very unpopular. These unpopular policies caused the collapse of the government. For the government to survive the chancellor turn onto article 48 of the Weimar constitution. This gave the president special powers in an emergency.
The rise of extremism in Germany was growing madly due to political violence, Nazis and communists supporters fought in regular battles. 500 hundred people were killed or seriously wounded in a 7-week frenzy of fighting. Things got so hasty due to all the disastrous policies made by the Weimar that the build up of the 1932 elections were going to extreme measures.
In the July 1932 elections the Nazis won 37.3 per cent of the vote (230 seats) in the Recihstag. This was their best result ever. They were now by far the largest party. As Hitler saw the Nazis dominance he demanded to be appointed Chancellor. However Hidenburg despised Hitler, but could see the value of trying to use the Nazis for his own needs. Hidenburg appointed Von Papen as chancellor on 4th December 1932. Von Papen had no support in the Reichstag but he hoped that he could create a right-wing coalition government, with the support of the Nazis and other right-wing parties. Hitler refused to co-operate, so Hidenburg called for another election.
The November 1932 elections were extremely bad for the Nazis. Apathy was settling in as they were going through financial trouble. So they had to make a public appeal. In an attempt to regain support, the SA and leading Nazis went to church en masse and got a protestant minister to vote and speak for them. In Germany as a whole, the thuggery and intimidation by the SA had begun to lose the Nazis support. They lost 34 seats. They were still the largest party but there was a real sense of gloom along the Nazis. After years of continuous campaigning they were running short of money. Goebbels felt that they had missed their chance stating “The future looks dark and gloomy; all chances and hopes have quite disappeared.”
Unlike The Weimar, Hitler had plenty solutions for the economic depression. The Nazi’s promised to protect farmers against foreign competition and to reduce taxes. They promised to create work for the unemployed, protect big business from Communism and to restore the middle class to their former status as the “backbone of the nation”. In fact he wrote personally to the farmers which gave him a broad appeal to everyone. This was also showed by posters as Hitler was Germany’s “last hope”. Much pressure was put on Hitler to perform brilliantly and he done that superbly. The timing for the Nazis to come in was perfect as everyone was going through poverty. The Nazis had many sensible “get out” plans which attracted them to attention.
Hitler’s tactics was very clever as he was a brilliant speaker, making inspiring speeches and promises to the Germany people that they would have better leadership. He delivered this strongly as Hitler was a good manipulator towards the crowd.
Hitler used a lot of technology during his campaign. Things such as the radio which was new at the time. While Hidenburg gave a speech a day, Hitler did five times better than that giving five massive rallies a day. He had a lot of propaganda which he had trapped onto people as he was a very good manipulator. Hitler also had his henchmen to persuade opposition supporters to change their votes to Hitler.
The Nazis best skill was flexibility and if one thing was not right, they would change their views as and when it was necessary to suit the People. Hitler was dubbed as “Hitler the Superman” as he went around the whole of Germany speaking personally to the people. Unlike opposition parties he had a very good understanding of the public, so he knew what changes they wanted. Hitler used every kind of technology that he could, he was the only one who put a lot of effort into his campaigning.
Eventually on January 30th 1933, Von Papen masterminded in persuading Hidenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Although Hidenburg despised of Hitler, he was forced into doing this to avoid civil war. So Hidenburg and Von Papen had decided to keep Hitler as a “PUPPET” Chancellor, with Von Papen being the Vice Chancellor. This was so that Hidenburg could control the Nazis and keep the public happy.
The evidence which I have shown above show why Hitler became Chancellor and I think the pinnacle which gave Hitler’s success was the Wall Street Crash. But before that I think the Munich Putsch played a big part as it made Hitler realise that he was only to get into power by legal means. And because he had time to think on how to get to power he could show his strongest attributes on the road to becoming chancellor. But to the point being that the Wall Street Crash was the pin-pointing moment for the Nazis to capture the “Shift of Power” from the Weimar. Hitler went from being called a joke by opposition parties in 1923 to an established figure by 1933. It took him ten years to come from the wilderness, that is pretty remarkable that in such a short time he could turn around and fight back for power from being weakened after the Putsch. When people are unemployed they tend to want radical change and move towards the extreme sides. This worked in Hitler’s favour as his hard-work listening to the people had paid off. Hitler’s promises were aimed at giving a wide appeal to the public and this was successful for Hitler.
One of the major weakness’ of the Weimar was not to find any short term solutions for the economic depression, they could not find a clever decision as they did do previously so there reign of power collapsed dramatically. Hitler’s clever political manoeuvring and skills of his Leadership were too irresistible for the Weimar to fight against; this gave him his throne of the Chancellorship. Although one has to wonder what would have been of The Nazis if The Wall Street Crash had never happened. Maybe they would have still got into power with Hitler’s supreme tactics, or maybe the Nazis and Hitler would still be a Joke.
