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The Rise to Power of Hitler & National Socialism in Germany
cojs.org/.../4/4f/ Adolf_Hitler_Appointed.jpg
Weimar Republic Background
• Name of the government
after World War One ; set
up in town of Weimar
•1919-1933 known as
Weimar Germany even
though the government
soon moved back to Berlin
Background Weimar cont’d
• 9 Nov 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm 11
abdicated
• Civilian government took over,
Scheidemann 1st Chancellor
• Given powers to rule by decree if Reichstag
(German Parliament) failed to reach
agreements
• January 1919 – people elected an assembly &
they were to draw up a constitution
• Reichstag was to be elected by proportional
representation
• President would be elected who would have
the power to appoint/dismiss the Chancellor
(Prime Minister)
• June 1919, Friedrich Ebert becomes the 1st
President (Socialist but not revolutionary)
Factors that led to the rise of Hitler & the
Nazis
1.
2.
3.
4.
Weaknesses of the Weimar Republic
Occupation of the Ruhr & hyper-inflation
Munich Putsch
Optimism of the Stresemann era ended by
the Great Depression
1) Weakness of the Weimar Republic
- 1st five years were chaos as the
Communists & the Right wing tried to
topple the government
- Had the difficult tasks of:
a) Coming to terms with the Treaty of
Versailles
b) Maintaining civil order
c) Payment of reparations (dealing with
the war guilt clause)
“Stab in the Back!”
A 1924 right-wing German political cartoon
Weakness of Weimar, cont’d
- Spartacist (Communists) Putsch,
1919; a short- lived Communist
regime rule in Munich until bands of
war veterans restored order
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob8B5YNG2
VE
Wolfgang Kapp
-Kapp Putsch, 1920;
right-wing challenge,
initiated by military
Result of two attempted putsches
- Weimar government forced to use martial law
(rule by military force) and run by presidential
decree (this became the norm)
- 1924 Moderates in dominate and stability
returns to the Reichstag
2) Reparations and
Hyperinflation –
economic woes in
Germany
Reparations (equivalent to $838 billion
US today)
• Reparations were the biggest problem for the
government; 1st payment (5 billion) came
from art treasures, jewelry & the savings of
those with property
• This drove public support away from the
Weimar Government
• Subsequent payments were to come from
profits made on foreign markets but Germany
was not welcome on these markets
• United States loaned money to Germany &
charged very high interest rates
Hyper-inflation
• Germany government printed more & more
money to pay off its debts
• Loss of industrial output (& coal & iron) had
damaged the economy
• 1921 onwards the value of the mark (German
currency) fell rapidly
Hyper-Inflation
Inflation and food shortages during 1923: German shoppers line up in
front of a Berlin bakery www.missouriwestern.edu/. ../inflation2.html
1922 Germany defaulted on its reparation
payments & France occupied the Ruhr in January 1923,
determined to take the coal for themselves
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/taylor_map.jpg
Occupation of the Ruhr (industrial
heartland)
A German poster urges passive resistance during the
Ruhr crisis, under the motto "No! You won't subdue
me!"
Reaction to Ruhr Occupation
• German workers went on strike in protest and an
already-weak economy ground to a halt
• Inflation soared
• Cost of bread in 1918 0.6 of a mark
• Cost of bread in (Jan) 1923 250 marks
• Cost of bread in Sept 1923 1.5 mill marks
• Savings of middle- and working-class people were
wiped out overnight
• Most Germans would never trust the Weimar
Republic again
Better Economic Times for Germany
• Americans convinced the French to evacuate the
Ruhr in return for a promise by Germany to
resume payments
• 1924 Dawes Plan allocated $30 billion in US aid
to Germany to assist in reconstruction, Germany
to make payments on an ability-to-pay scale
• 1929 Young Plan – further modifications to
reparation-payment arrangements (spread
payments out over 59 years)
Munich Putsch (Beer Hall Putsch)
1923
Munich Putsch November 9, 1923
• Occupation of Ruhr & hyper-inflation
convinced Adolf Hitler that the time had come
for armed seizure of power (a putsch)
• Plan was once the NAZIS (National Socialist
German Workers Party) had taken control they
would march on Berlin
• Hitler & Ludendorff + 3,000 armed & brownshirted Nazi storm troopers marched from a
beer hall towards Bavarian Parliament
• Bavarian police fired on the
marchers; 16 were killed
• Hitler was arrested and given a 5
year sentence; released after 9
months
• In jail he wrote Mein Kampf and set
the plans for a legal take over of
Germany
4) End of Stresemann Era-Optimism ended due to
Great Depression
Leadership of Gustav Stresemann
• 1924-1929 “Golden Years of the
Republic”
• Currency was stable, economy
began to prosper
• 1925- ordered German workers back to work
& French withdrew from the Ruhr
• Helped by the Dawes Plan & Young Plan
• Germany in the international community
• 1925 Locarno Treaties (with France) –
Germany recognized the border with
France and gave up Alsace-Lorraine
• 1926 Germany joins League of Nations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFB8X
5Jy2ZA
Crash of ’29
• Fate of Germany was sealed with the economic
crash; US called back its loans from Germany
• Government reacted by cutting unemployment &
welfare benefits
• Centre Party’s coalition partners, The Socialists,
withdrew from government in protest
• This meant the government did not have
majority support in the Reichstag, allowing for
opposition parties to get more votes