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Hitler’s Rise to Power
In the early 1930s, the mood in Germany
was grim. The worldwide economic
depression had hit the country especially
hard, and millions of people were out of
work. Still fresh in the minds of many was
Germany's humiliating defeat fifteen years
earlier during World War I, and Germans
lacked confidence in their weak government,
known as the Weimar Republic.
These conditions provided the chance for the
rise of a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party,
the National Socialist German Workers' Party,
or Nazi party for short
Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding
speaker who attracted a wide following of
Germans desperate for change. He
promised the disenchanted a better life and
a new and glorious Germany.
The Nazis appealed especially to the
unemployed, young people, and members of
the lower middle class (small store owners,
office employees, craftsmen, and farmers).
NSDAP PROMISES
Farmers - Higher prices for their produce - making
up for all their losses during the Depression.
Unemployed workers - Jobs building public works such as
roads and stadiums.
Middle Class - To restore the profits of small business
and the value of savings. To end the Communist threat.
The party's rise to power was rapid. Before
the economic depression struck, the Nazis
were practically unknown, winning only 3%
of the vote to the Reichstag (German
parliament) in elections in 1924. In the 1932
elections, the Nazis won 33% of the votes,
more than any other party.
In January 1933 Hitler was appointed
chancellor, the head of the German
government, and many Germans believed
that they had found a saviour for their
nation.
[Hitler's policies] were half-baked, racist claptrap... but among the jumble of hysterical ideas
Hitler showed a sure sense of how to appeal to
the lowest instincts of frightened masses.
Tony Howarth, a modern historian.
• He was holding the masses, and me with them,
under an hypnotic spell by the sheer force of
his beliefs. His words were like a whip.
When he spoke of the disgrace of Germany, I
felt ready to attack any enemy.
Karl Ludecke, an early follower of Hitler (1924).
• There were simply not enough Germans who
believed in democracy and individual freedom
to save the Weimar republic.
Written by the modern historian S Williams
In November 1932 elections the Nazis again
failed to get a majority of seats in the
Reichstag. Their share of the vote fell –
from 230 seats to only 196. Hitler
contemplated suicide. But then he was
rescued by Hindenburg
Franz von Papen (a friend of Hindenburg)
was Chancellor, but he could not get enough
support in the Reichstag. Hindenburg and
von Papen were having to govern by
emergency decree under Article 48 of the
Constitution. They offered Hitler the post of
vice-Chancellor if he promised to support
them
Hitler refused – he demanded to be made
Chancellor. So Von Papen and Hindenburg
took a risk. On 30 January 1933
Hindenburg made Hitler Chancellor. He
thought he could control Hitler – how wrong
he was.
In the end, Hitler did not TAKE power at all –
he was given it.