Essay Plan

HITLER’S RISE TO POWER PLAN

“‘The critical factor of Hitler and the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany by 1933 was the turbulent and anarchical nature of German politics at the time’ To what extent is this accurate?”

Introduction

Ø  Germany after WW1

Ø  Hitler’s coming to power in 1933

Ø  Hitler was “widely regarded as the savior who promised to give a new and happy turn to German history” (P.3)

Ø  Hitler had an astounding following of people who trusted and believed in him, as well as making Germany the “most powerful and feared country” by 1938

Ø  1920 conditions were ripe for the development of the Nazi party

Ø  agreeing with statement, yet there were many other significant contributing factors economic, social, military…

Political

Ø  1925- Hindenburg elected president

Ø  Accepted Treaty of Versailles

Ø  Change of monarchy to democracy

Ø  Hitler refused to accept the title of vice chancellor, requesting to only be titled “Führer” (leader)

Ø  Hatred of the November criminals (including Ebert, Social Democrat) who had “robbed the nation”

Ø  18 coalition governments came to power in the Weimar republic in the 1920s

Ø  Nazi manifesto?

Ø  Kampfbund

Ø  Chancellor Stressman

Ø  1931- Hindenburg and Bruning took down the Reichstag

Ø  fair representation resulted in chaos, never had a majority vote

Ø  threat of a civil war

Ø  power vacuum (socialism, fascism)

Ø  1930- fall of democracy

Ø  Weimar constitution promised social reforms and freedom

Ø  Economic hardship resulted in political upheaval as governments ruled for minimal time, not long enough to make crucial decisions that could have been the turning point for Germany

Ø  Nazi party “ideally placed to take advantage of the increased dissatisfaction”

Ø  Hitler was imprisoned after the Munich putsch, but was sympathized for and treated well

Ø  Right wing groups continued after ww1, into the 1920s despite frikorps disbanding, acts of political violence and terrorism after the assassination of walther ratheneu

Ø  Political violence continued

Ø  Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) and relevance of this

Ø  Woodrow Wilson’s desire to give the Reichstag more power

Ø  Various instances of groups trying to overthrow the government (Spartacist revolt 1919, Kapp Putsch 1920, Munich Putsch 1923)

Ø  Major fault in the Weimar constitution was Article 48, outlining that Hindenburg had the control to destroy democracy

Ø  Hindenburg was under pressure to appoint Hitler (He and Papen believed they could control him and his power)

Ø  Stresemann greatly helped Germany rebuild, decreasing the attractiveness of the Nazi’s

Ø  Polarization in the Reich

Ø  Social democrats were most popular for a large portion of the 1920s

Ø  which gained nazi support

Ø  Nazi party went from having 12 seats in 1928 to 230 in 1932

Ø  People lost confidence in the democratic system after the great depression

Ø  Industrialists were paying Hitler, enabling him to gain ground with the lower middle class/unemployed

Economic

Ø  Germans in the Ruhr went on strike, sabotaging factories which eventually shut down, impacting the economy

Ø  Ruhr crisis 1923- Germany wanted to rebuild their economy but missed a payment so France and Belgium invaded Ruhr

Ø  Decline in resources and land/labour after ww1, as a result women began to enter the workforce

Ø  Hyperinflation

Ø  Decrease in the value of the mark (1923), printed out more bank notes than they had, causing the price to rise and value of money to drop, to the point that money almost lost all value

Ø  1931- German banking system collapse

Ø  Young plan 1929- loans from American banks were increased, reparations were made easier (failed- Hitler also campaigned against this)

Ø  1929- Great depression/Wall street crash- international relations were in ruins, popularity of the nazi’s increased germans “had to turn to political extremes”

Ø  unemployment reached 30% by 1932

Ø  Germany was in huge debt (6.6 billion pounds)

Ø  Reparations set in 1921

Ø  Industries closed after WW1, production was only at 11.6% compared to 14.3% pre WW1

Ø  Delay of reparation payments

Ø  Employers “resisted union demands for higher wages”(P.38)

Ø  70% of war costs were met by loans

Ø  Rentenmark introduced in 1923

Ø  Dawes plan (1924)- 40 million pound loan from the US

Ø  “Germany relied heavily on the United States” thus, when the stock market crashed in 1929 unemployment rose and Germany was in a state of economic depression

Ø  1927 – Agricultural depression

Ø  More efficient machinery eradicated need for labour

Ø  1930- Brüning cut government expenditure, wages and unemployment pay,

Military

Ø  SA- ex-militants, group had military rankings

Ø  1929- foreign troops were withdrawn from the Rhineland

Ø  military did not want to support hitler but felt they had

Ø  The SS

Ø  Army limited to 100,000 men

Ø  The sa, lead by Walther Stennes, rebelled against hitler in 1931, “highlighted tension within the nazi party”

Ø  Hitler youth was established in 1926

Ø  SA employed to protect party meetings and eradicate socialists and communists

Ø  Locarno treaty

Ø  Sa and ss banned in 1932

                                

Social/Cultural

Ø  Treaty of Versailles accepted but unpopular

Ø  Hitler bringing out a sense of nationalism (briefly expand on why hitler came to power)

Ø  Signed an agreement with the pope to have the ability to influence religion/control the media

Ø  Propaganda

Ø  Gestapo created in 1930

Ø  Lost generation

Ø  Victims of hyper-inflation were intrigued by the promises of the Nazi party, offered full employment

Ø  Hitler tried for treason after the Munich Putsch

Ø  Newspapers allowed hitler to reach a nationwide audience

Ø  The German government “did nothing in the early months of 1919 to prepare the German people for the shock of the Versailles Treaty” (P.9)

Ø  3.7 million people listened to the radio by 1931

Ø  23 million affected by the depression

Ø  where Germany was at after WW1 (societal demise/turmoil) Hitler comes in and offers stability, employment ect

Ø  Dada

Conclusion