Ch2: How and why did the Nazi Party come to power in 1933?

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  • Created by: nataliak
  • Created on: 21-03-17 12:22

How did Hitler rebuild the Nazi Party, 1925-1929?

Hitler came out of prison in December 1924, and was faced with the taks of rebuilding his party. Weimar Republic appeared to be recovering, which didn't work in his advantage.

He started to rebuild the Party when the ban was lifted from it in 1925. As the Fuhrer he made sure he had absolute power and that his charismatic leadership wouldbe above all disagreements within the Party.

Hitler never revised the Party's 1920 programme, but he modified its socialistic economic ideas in order to attract more supporters. It is of key importance for the future that he identified Jews with Russian Bolshevism, which to quote Notle had an 'explosive political effect'. This encouraged middle classes to support the Nazis as they would be the ones to protect them from Communists. He also made it clear in Mein Kampf that he desired a racially pure state, which would be strengthened by lebensraum. This would allow for the expulsion of Jews and other non-Germans as well as having an increase in the birth rate.

What was the legacy of the Weimar Republic and the Treaty of Versailes?

The Weimar Republic itself had many weaknesses. It was very vulnerable in times of political and economic crisis:

  • The constitution was democratic but the coalition meant that there was a lot of disagreements between the parties. It was hard to create a strong government that could make difficult decisions. The president had considerable powers, and once Hindenburg was elected, power was in the hands of a man who disliked democracy in general.
  • The German economy was unable to prosper. Welfare state couldn't be established, and people couldn't have been compensated for what they had lost in the war.
  • Most of the population hated the republic. The industrialists believed it spent too much on welfare, whereas the workers couldn't forget the way they have been crushed in 1920 by Freikorps.
  • Many were disturbed by the amount of freedom women were gaining, as well as the increase in modern art and literature, thus blaming the permissive attitude of the Republic for those changes.

What was the impact of the Great Depression?

Historian Robert Boyce described the Great Depression as 'the third global catastrophe of the century'. Unemployment rose to 6 million in Germany between 1929 and 1932.

By 1932, one worker in three was registered as unemployed. Many people were forced to accept wage cuts or part-time work, just to survive. Many became homeless. By January 1933 it was calculated that the unemployed and the people that depended on them made up 1/5 of the entire German population.The unemployed were entitled to some kind of benefits, but the longer the Depression lasted, the less money they got through benefits.

The government suffered too, by cutting workers and cutting salaries of those who stayed.

As the Depression progressed, many of the younger unemployed joined either the SA or the Rotfront, to seek improvement.

The Depression resulted in such a

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