Hitler: Conditions

Seite 1

ECONOMIC Conditions in Weimar Germany

Treaty of Versailles: pay a huge amount of reparations to the allies (as a result of the amount of destruction Germany cause in WW1). They had to pay £6.6 billion. The allies were Britain, France, and America

The collapse of the American economy after the Wall Street Crash during the autumn of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. This affected Germany in great lengths and it was built on foreign capital and relied heavily on American loans. "America sneazed and the whole world got a cold".

When those loans came due the worldwide German trade exports dried up and the well working German industry came to a complete hault. Work production reduced resulting in worker getting laid off.

The Great Depression began and poverty and deep misery happened in Germany, people were looking for a solution. Adolf Hitler knew his opportunity had arrived.

1923, Germany printed a large sum to pay striking workers. This resulted in Hyperinflation.

Between 1929 and 1933, high unemployment and sever poverty.

SOCIAL Conditions in Weimar Germany

Socialism is a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc. in the community as a whole.

Although Hitler now held the most powerful government post, the Nazi party still had difficulty obtaining a majority in the Reichstag In the 1930s, Nazism was not a monolithic movement, but rather a (mainly German) combination of various ideologies and philosophies which centered around nationalism, anti-communism, traditionalism.

In response to the instability created by the Great Depression, the Nazis sought a Third Way managed economy that was neither capitalism nor communism. Nazi rule effectively ended on May 7, 1945, V-E Day, when the Nazis unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Powers, who took over Germany's administration until Germany could form its own democratic government.

POLITICAL Conditions in Weimar Germany

The terms of the treaty lead to widespread political discontent in Germany. Adolf Hitler gains support by promising to overturn them.

The severity of these terms generated intense political debate and division within Germany. While the vast majority of Germans opposed the treaty, they were sharply divided about how to respond to it.

Responses to the TOV: In terms of the reparations, the burden of large reparations obligations hampered Germany’s post-war economic recovery – and thus undermined its political stability. By 1922 Germany was unable to fulfil its quarterly reparations installments, triggering the occupation of the Ruhr region by French and Belgian troops, the hyperinflation crisis of 1923 and the collapse of two Weimar government coalitions. Reparations remained a divisive issue for the duration of the Weimar Republic.

The impact of the Great Depression: six million people were without a job. This resulted in many German voters abandoning their support for mainstream and moderate parties, instead voting for radical groups. This propelled Adolf Hitler into the public eye, first as a presidential nominee and then as a potential chancellor. Without the miserable conditions created by the Great Depression, Hitler and the NSDAP would likely have remained a powerless entity on the margins of Weimar politics.

In 1930 the parliamentary coalition that governed Germany fell apart. New elections were held, and the biggest winner was Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party. From twelve seats in parliament they increased their seats to 107, becoming Germany's second largest political party. The largest party was still the Social Democrats, and this party won 143 seats and 24.5 percent of the vote.