Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Why The Nazi's
Achieved Power in
1933
- The Impact of the Treaty of Versailles
- Resentment towards Gov for
signing into such a humiliating
contract
- Germans forced to live with and follow the terms of
the Treaty following their defeat in ww1 - if they
resisted, they ran the risk of another war erupting
- Germans believed they had
been 'stabbed in the back' by the
'November criminals'
- Government had no other
option but to sign into TOV
and were given only a month
to do so
- June 28th, 1919
- German army faced collapse
- Loss of Territory
- The Saar Coalfields were given
to France for 15 years due to the
German destruction of the
French coalfields during their
1918 retreat.
- Serious blow to
German economy
and loss of natural
resources
- Loss of land to Belgium, Denmarck and Poland -
all of Germany's colonies were taken away from
her control and given to her former enemies.
- The Appeal of The Nazi
Party and Hitler's
Leadership
- By 1930 the Nazis had 108 seats in the
Reichstag
- The Economic Crash was the catalyst that
transformed the apeal of the Nazis.
- "it was the Great Depression that
put the wind in Hitler's sails." - AJP
Taylor
- American Banks demanded
the return of Loans they had
made to Germany following
the Wall Street Crash
- Unemployment in Germany rocketed
after the returns and economic crash
and German citizens were desperate
for a saviour to help them out in their
economic chaos.
- Although Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch at Munich
failed, his actions gained a great deal of support
and publicity for the Nazi Party
- While in prison, Hitler decided that
in order to gain power, he would
campaign for power legally and
destroy the system he desipsed so
much.
- Flaws in the Constitution
- The Spartacists (or KPD) tried
to start a revolution to create
a new communist Germany in
1919
- Spartacist ring was defeated with
great brutality by an aliiance between
the new socialist Gov and gangs of
ex-soldiers called Freikorps.
- 10 years later the hatred felt by the
communists towards the SPD for
destroying the ring prevented the left
wing from uniting against Hitler in
Elections
- Equally
hated by
Right-wing
- Kapp Putsch supported by German
Officers and Right also included many
professionals whose early careers
had been spent within the imperial
Germant of the Kaiser
- They were very unlikely to support the new
democracy when a crisis arose in the early
1930s
- Blamed for Weakening
German Politics
- Weimar meant to be fair to all -
but new voting system produced a
series of short-lived, indecisive
Governments
- Gave Representation in the
Reichstag to minority parties such
as the Nazi's whose main aim was
to destroy the new Republic
- Blamed for
Confusion within the
new democratic
system
- Confusion about the
voting system and power
of the President
increased discontent
- The System allowed small, extremist parties
to gain some representation in the
Reichstag. Article 48 gave the President the
power to rule in an emergency without
needing approval.
- The Use of Propoganda and the SA
- By 1930, Nationalist Groups led by
Alfred Hugenberg saw the Nazis
as a possible rute to power
- Hitler was happy to use Hugenberg - owner
of most of Germany's new Cinema industry
and hundreds of local Newspapers - to gain
more support for the Nazis
- Hitler saw his friendship with
Hugenberg as a way of becoming a
'nationally-known figure very quickly in
a pre-television age'
- As unemployment rose towards
6Million, Nazi posters claimed 'Hitler -
Our Last Hope'.
- Rallies began to
spread throughout
Germany which were
in support of the Nazi
Party
- Many Germans approved of the SA (a
Nazi parliamentary group) attacking
communists.
- it appeared to many that the Nazis were a strong,
positive force, especially when compared to the weak
and divided political parties of the Weimer Republic
- Economic Crisis
- Germany were to pay
£100million per year for
66years as part of the
TOV terms
- This was virtually
impossible for Germany
to afford as they now
lacked resources and
land
- Severely weakened
the German
Economy
- The 1923 Hyperinflation resulted in
the economy's dramatic collapse and
the German Marck became worthless
- In Nov 1923, $1 = 4,420
MILLION marcks
- M/C families lost everything they had gained
over the years and those on fixed incomes (e.g.
pensions) were unable to survive financially.
- It appeared that the Government were
doing little to ease the 1923 crisis and many
german citizens would never forgive the
Weimer Republic for this.
- Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch brought a great deal
of publicity to the Nazi Party and support for
them grew largely