Weimar Republic, 1928-33

Info- Treaty of Versailles = 1919, Hyperinflation= 1923, Dawes= Aug. 1924, Young = Jan. 1929, Wall Street Crash = 1929 

Evidence- Winners of HI = debters and loans, entrepreneurs, long-term renters, owners of foreign exchange and exporters.      Losers of HI = M/C with savings, fixed-incomes, investers, welfare benefits.     ToV = 132bn marks and 15% arable land, 75% iron ore and 25% coal production, Dawes = slowly increased payments as economy imporved, Young = $713 million over 59 years = 90% reduction 

Debates/significance - those from the same class could be affected very differently ; crumbling democratic support was developed over time (not out of nowhere); the 1928 crisis was gradual not sudden. 

Evidence - industrial production fell by 40%

50,000 businesses bankrupt 

Feb 1932 = 6mn unemployed (prob. nearly 8mn) 

Real wages fell by 1/3 in 1932

1929 - 1932 = export trade dropped 61%

Info - long-term interests of right wing rich industrialists and officer corps (visionary leader), democratic government under attack for a long time, welfare state and foreign policy. 

Evidence - welfare stae = unemployment insurance 1927 = couldn't cover the increase in unemployemt in 1928/9 - still didn't raise taxes or decrease benefits.    Foreign policy = 'fulfilment' needed time to economically reorganise beofre paying reparations.    Political violence = LEFT = Jan 1919 = Berlin SPartacist uprising, March 1920 = Ruhr uprising with 50,000 armed workers. RIGHT = Kapp Putsch March 1920 and White Terror 1921-23

Info- political support declined as Germans lost trust as economic crisis heavily deepened. 

Evidence- votes for anti-WR parties = Jan 1919 = 17.9%, Jun 1920 = 25.1%, May 1924 = 39.4%, Dec 1924 = 32.8%, May 1928 = 27.5%, Sep 1930 = 38.4%, July 1932 = 58.1%, Nov 1932 = 58.9% and March 1933 = 64.2% --> 43.9% Nazi   

Liberal decline =  Jan 1919 = 23%, Jun 1920 = 22.2%, May 1924 = 14.9%, Dec 1924 = 16.4%, May 1928 = 13.6%, Sep 1930 = 8.5%, July 1932 = 2.2%, Nov 1932 = 2.9% and March 1933 = 2%

Debates/significance - anti-republican support was longstanding and wasn't a direct consequence of the Depression, decline of Liberals took hold after GD

Info - SPD Chancellor Muller refused to cut unemployment benefit that Z and DVP wanted. Bruning ( Z leader) replaces him. Muller = June 1928- March 1930, Bruning = Mar 1930 - June 1932 (ended due to deepening depression), Papen (on advice of Schliecher)= June 1932- Dec, Schleicher = Dec 1932-Jan 1933 = Hitler. NO SPD 1924-28 = lots of minority gov                                            Evidence - % deputies in supporting gov. = Jan 1919 = 78%, May 1928 = 61%, Sep 1930 = 35-28%, July and Nov 1932 = 6-10% and Dec 1932 = 9%. 14 different governments Jan 1919 to May 1928 with an average time of around 7 months (proportional representation); 13 governments not a result of an election Jan 1919 to Jan 1933.           Use of Article 48 = Ebert + Stresemann = 63 times 1923-24 to break Comm-SPD gov of Saxony and Thuringia , Bruning = several times and issued a finance bill under Art 48 and then persuaded Hind to dissolve the RT - rule by decree - 1930 election = disasterous. 1932 = 60 times. Significance/debates- Governments relied much more on presidential support, many minorities, large influence of military (Schleicher). 

Info - Muller= Young Plan, very divided on economic measures, Bruning = END REPARATIONS at any cost, economy = Laissez Faire. Papen = lifted ban on SA and Preussenschlag. 

Evidence - Art. 164 = middle class protection. Muller = Young Plan 1929 = 90% reduction over 59 years. Fell apart over econ. Bruning = banned SA (ineffective), cut war pensions by 1/3 (and other workers' benefits) and raised taxes. Ruled by decree= under A 48 - 1930 = 5 laws by President, 98 by RT; 1932 = 66 by Presdident and 5 by RT. Papen = June 1932 lifted SA ban, led to violence allowing him to dismiss SPD-led Prussian gov and installing Commissioners of Prussia = Papen dicatorship.  

Significance/debates - much more harsh compared to Stresemann, more focused on reducing reparations and controlling Nazis. 

Info - NSDAP = middle class over-represented, Protestants aged 18-30. SA = working class mostly, some middle class and ver very few upper middle class. 

Evidence-

NSDAP membership = 66% overwhelmingly Prot. areas, 15% largely Prot and 15% overwhelmingly Catholic. 61% = 18-30, 22% 31-40 and 8% 41-50 and 51+. 31% = W/C, 21% = white collar, 18% = self-employed (only 10% of Germans were SE), 12% peasants, 7% civil service and 11% others.                         SA membership = 57% W/C (only 46% Ger were W/C) with 35% skilled and 15.4% unskilled, 33% lower M/C with 10% salesmen and 5.8% upper M/C with 4.1% uni students. 

Info - slightly more female by 1932 but not much difference, overwhelmingly Protestant areas, mainly in the North and countryside, mainly M/C and peasants. Opposed by workers, cities, Catholics.

Evidence - 51% vote July 1932 in Protestant, rural, northern Schleswig Holstein went to NSDAP. In Catholic, urban Cologne, only 20% of votes went to NSDAP July 1932. Average discrepancy between men and women in 1930 election = 2.68, July 1932 = 0.175 and Nov 1932 = 0.68. Bavaria consistently more male. 

Info - major winners after WSC 1929 (failure of capitalsim), strong support in W/C districts of large cities, high turnover of members, lack of widespread support due to events of USSR, army and M/C strongly opposed. LOOKED LIKE A THREAT. Only ever aimed for W/C support, only functional in cities (1/3 Ger = agricultural), fiercly opposed to religion, drove people to NSDAP. 

Evidence - Membership = 1923 = 250,000 joined, 1929 = 50,000 joined, 29,000 left, total = 130,000, 1930 = 145,000 joined, 95,000 left, total = 180,000 and 1931 = 210,000 joined, 130,000 left, total = 260,000. Elections = 1930 = 13%, July 1932 = 15% and Nov 1932 = 17%. 

Violence = Red Fron Fighters banned by SPD in 1929. Blutmai = 1st - 3rd May 1929 = rioting after Berlin police stopped a KPD demonstrtio. 33 dead, 200 injured and over 1000 in custody. 

Info - only party to organise ruraly (except Zentrum who only appealed to Catholics), appealed to legacy of long LT RW culture of a visionary leader to stand above poltitics, very traditional values, anti-semtic, alternative to Communism, farmers.                                                                  Evidence - Goebbels '(it) was our sharpest weapon in conquering the state, and maintains our sharpest weapon in maintaining and building it up" - was covering his back. 1924 Nazi poster - 'First bread! Then reparations', Nazi election poster 1932 - 'We want work, then bread!', anti-Jewish poster depicts a large Jewish man above all the worker with the caption 'The puppet master. All workers vote Nazi', 1929 leaflet to farmers 'it is a matter of house and home, life and death'. Aug 1932 German M/C woman - 'we know this lanaguge all too well from Socialist and Communist appers- we don't want it from Goebbels'                                         Significance/debates - not all extremists parties ahs this propaganda yet also gained support, NSDAP never won an election (role of Schleicher, Papen + Hind.), role of violence, problems with the propaganda. 

Info - KPD and NSDAP = deliberate (Schumann). NSDAP sometimes apprecoated by M/C for tackling KPD. Hitler deliberately used SA violence to make it appear as though revolution was possible. 1932 = Bruning banned SA, Papen lifted it. 

Evidence - Hessian authorities "if a sufficient police presence is not maintained, the NSDAP do not balk at acts of terrorism", Hilter "we must struggle with ideas, but if necessary also with fists". SA = 500,000 strong by 1933. 100 members killed in street violence July 1932 alone. KPD demonstrations drew hundreds  (sometimes 1,000+) people - "we put force against force".     SEPTEMBER 1930 HITLER = 'the National Socialist Movement will try to achieve its aims with constitutional means of the state'.           

Significance/debates - was the Nazi takeover legal or illegal?

Info - geuine fear of civil war and Communism, Dec. 1932 gen. Schelicher withdrew army's confidence in Papen so Hind. reluctantly dismissed Papen and Schelicher became Chancellor and tries to make deal with Nazis; failed. Jan 1933 = angry Papen secretly negotiates with Hitler and Hugenberg (Nationalist leader). Nazi success at Lippe elections; Schelicher resigns with lack of support. Hindenburg pressure into appointing Hitler as chancellor 30th Jan 1933, with papen as vice. 

Evidence- Papen's speech to Bavarian Industrialists Oct 1932 "we want to create a powerful and nonpartisan state ... powerful and authoritarian gov". Harzburg Front Manifesto (alliance of Nationalists) "we will not turn away honest collaboration. but we will refuse the preservation of a false system at present".

Significance/debates- were conservative arisocratic, business and military elites idiots or criminals?

Info - dismissed Papen as a result of Scheicher and the army. Pressure from von papen, his son Oscar and his state secretary Otto Meissner to appoint Hitler. Personal motive - his esate. Pressure form landed interest (fear of Communism)

Evidence- hoped to end the investigation into his misuse of Mosthlife funds tied to the Neudeck estate of his.      Account by Meissner to Nuremburg Tribunal after WWII ' Hind. was extremely hesitant...Papen won him over'.      Industrialists' letter to Hindenburg Nov 1932 'necessary to create a gov independent of parl. parties...when a greater part of this Nationalist movement plays a leading role in gov.''    Hitler had won 37% of vote, led leading party in RT and 'won' both RT elections in 1932; BUT role of violence. 

Info - 27th Feb 1933 = young Dutch Communist, Marinus van der Lubber, charged for burning down the RT. Looked like a plot as it coincided with the propaganda that Ger. was on the brink of a Bolshevick revolution. Led to 'Decree for the Protection of the people and the State', 28 Feb 1933 (RT Fire Decree)

Evidence - Article 1 = suspend civil liberites = habeas curpus, freedom of speech and assembly, secrecy of post and telepohones. Search warrants no longer needed.     Articles 2 and 3 = allowed the gov. to take over powers of the Lander; especially policing and security. Used to arrest Communists and Socilaists and raid their newspapers. 

Significance/debates - 1st draft of the decree actually drafted by a DNVP member showing the NSDAP's effectiveness in promoting ideas shared across the far right. 

Info - 1st Feb 1933 Hitler dissolves RT and calls new elections, same March 1933. DVP and DDP almost gone, SPD and KPD support decreased. The nazi vote increases but not as much as expected after imprisoning KPD, disrupting SPD and establishment of Min PE

Evidence - March 1933 = NSDAP = 288 seats + 43.9%,  KPD = 81 and 13.3%,    SPD = 120 and 18.25%,    Centre = 92 and 14%,   DVP and DDP = 7 and 2%,      DNVP = 52 and 8%.     Late June 1933 = m,nay major parties agreed to dissolve themselves (even previous coalition partners DNVP), Centre party too on 5th July 1933. 14th July 1933 = Law against the Establishment of Parties 

Significance/debates- actually limited support for the Nazis, should have been far greater

Info - didn't have 2/3 majority in the RT, even a majority. The EA allowed the cabinet to pass legislation without RT. The meeeting to pass it took place in the Kroll Opera House surrouned by SA and ** who illegally prevented many SPD from entering. Kaas, Z leader, agreed to support it if the rights of the Catholic Church were preserved, 22nd March 1933; Bruning opposed. Z deputies supported a day later.  SA intimidated members as they voted; SPD members who made it in could vote against. 

Evidence - Hermann Goring made president of the RT and changes the the number of members required for a decision to be valid. Late June 1933 = many major parties agreed to dissolve themselves (even previous coalition partners DNVP), Centre party too on 5th July 1933. 14th July 1933 = Law against the Establishment of Parties                                                                Significance/debates - was the EA a turning point, producing a new dictatorship or an important step in a longer process of dismantling the WR?

Info - Hitler is Chancellor but has no 2/3 majority or majority in the RT.

Liberal parties pretty much gone.

28th Feb 1933 = RT Fire Decree  = suspension of all civil liberties.

6th-7th March = Nazis begin to take over state governemnts.

8th March = first permananet concentration camp.

13th March = Ministry for Public Englightenment and Propaganda.

24th March = Enabling Act passed.       

Prussian police authorised to shoot Communists and under Nazi control.