Emergence of Anti-Semitism in Germany Toward the End of the Weimar Republic

Due to the failure of the Weimar Republic and general public dissatisfaction arising from poor economic conditions exacerbated by the Treaty of Versailles, coupled with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, German citizens were understandably desperate for change. Until this point in time the Nazi party, and Hitler, had been essentially unpopular. However, the economic situation ensured Hitler’s increasing popularity as the people looked toward more extreme but non-communist ideals. The initial consolidation of Nazi power in 1933 arose from key events such as the support of the Nationalist Party with the Nazis to form a coalition government, implementation of the Enabling

At the end of WWI in 1918, Germany’s economy was in ruins. There were very few jobs, and bitterness began to take over the country. According to the text, “Hitler, a rising politician, offered Germany a scapegoat: Jewish people. Hitler said that Jewish people were to blame for Germany’s problems. He believed that Jews did not deserve to live.” (7) This was the birth of Antisemitism--prejudice against Jewish people. Europe’s Jewish people have always been persecuted due to their “different customs and beliefs that many viewed with suspicion.”(7) Hitler simply reignited the flames, and a violent hatred was born.

Before the Great Depression in Germany, the Nazis were not a popular party, nor were they widely known. In the Reichstag (similar to parliament) elections of 1928, the Nazi Party received 2.6% of the vote. In 1930, the worldwide economic depression hit Germany hard. Life in Germany was bleak, many people were jobless, and the overall quality of life was poor. It also didn’t help that many people linked the depression, with Germany’s “embarrassing” defeat during World War I. Germans believed their government to be weak, and unable to help with the depression (“The Nazis Rise To Power”).

In Germany, like most countries of Europe, the Anti-Semitism acquired more followers during the late 1880’s the first anti-Semite was elected for the parliament. The 1890’s was a time of social and economic problems in Germany; the most affected was the lower middle class. Many people used the nationalism and anti-Semitism as the answer to most of the problems in Germany.

German citizens were angry and lost confidence in the Weimar government. During the depression, they turned towards the extremist political parties such as the Communists and Nazis. The Weimar government did not know how to react, and in desperation, Chancellor Brüning cut government expenditure, wages and unemployment pay, to stop money from being spent on less necessary things. Unfortunately, this was a very poor decision and led to several riots in Germany. The Reichstag were completely against his actions, so he used Article 48, which allowed him to change these laws under an emergency. The citizens of German complained that the Weimar government did not have to ability to cope with the Great Depression and the low unemployment. Hitler’s Nazi Party had only won 12 seats at the 1928 Reichstag, but after the Great Depression, Hitler’s Party won 107 seats in the 1930 Reichstag, after a rise of 691% of votes over the two years. This was because many lower-class workers turned to communism. This was such a large majority that several wealthy businessmen also decided to finance Hitler’s campaigns. Many middle-class people, who were alarmed by the obvious failure of the Weimar Republic to bring in democracy, decided that the country needed a newer, stronger government. They decided that the Nazi party was the right choice for them. And so, after the elections of 1932, the Nazis emerged as the largest political party in Germany, obtaining nearly 14

In 1933, Hitler’s Nazi regime took power in Germany at a time where the people lacked patriotism and were upset with their government. After losing World War I, Hitler’s anti-Semitism mindset was based on his ideals

The collapse of the Weimar Republic did not transpire from one sole reason, but from numerous short and long term factors. The immediate impact of the Great Depression definitely catalyzed the demise of the Weimar constitution, however the social, political, and economic instabilities built up the tension that triggered the initial collapse. These underlying issues fuelled governmental weaknesses, encouraging the psychological discontent with the Republic. This atmosphere of disarray enabled the NAZI party to gain power, as they took advantage of the democratic flaws. With each incident that occurred accumulating tension within the republic, the Great Depression was ultimately the final event that the government could not withstand, causing the collapse to occur.

There was no one morning where the people of Germany woke up and decided to hate the Jews. Anti-semitism in Europe dates back to centuries ago, to the time period of Jesus Christ. This was the start of a chain reaction that leads to viewing Jews as the “other,” and the pent up intolerance that would eventually fuse over into mass genocide. This resentment boomed in Germany when Hitler accused the Jews of being backstabbers that caused their defeat in WWI. A powerful combination of the incredibly long lasting anti-semitism, scapegoating of the Jews, and the establishment of the Nazi Party alongside Hitler’s rise to power resulted in a rapid transformation from an emerging democracy into a genocidal, fascist dictatorship.

The depression throughout the nation and the world was a result of protectionism, the rise of tariffs which had slowed down the world trade market. Reparations, Germany had a terrible economy after WW1 and couldn't make payments to France and Great Britain for their war damages. Wheat and other goods were being over produced and the manufactures had stockpiled the goods thinking that the Depression wouldn't last long. They were wrong and they had to stop production, lower prices on their goods, people had lost their jobs and they eventually went out of

The new information shared about the Great Depression, emphasized facts that supported and helped me to further understand the reasons which lead the Germans to detest the Jews. Following Germany’s World War One defeat for which Jews were blamed, in 1932, Germany was significantly affected by the Great Depression which resulted in the high unemployment rate of 30%. Given the vulnerability of the unemployed, Hitler was looking for a ‘scapegoat’ for the financial crisis they were facing. Jews in Germany were dominating the stock market, press and the banks,

Late 19th Century Germany was a time seemingly stuck between two worlds – the past and the future – and this period’s amount of rapid growth and change ultimately resulted in the decimation of German society as was known. This collapse allowed a river of hatred to flow in its place, known as Anti-Semitism. Based on the primary and secondary sources discussed in and out of class, I believe there are three main reasons why such a horrendous belief system infiltrated 19th Century German society: conflict between urban and rural populations, rapid freedoms granted to the media, and the ignorance of German politicians who unknowingly or not, pushed political extremists’ agendas.

The Great Depression played a big role in helping the Nazi Party capture power. Many nations were suffering from the Great Depression in 1930, including Germany who had to pay for the war reparations. During this period of economic and politic crisis, the country had been easily influenced by the politics parties. They wanted someone who is capable and had what it takes to be their leader to lead them through the huge crisis that they were facing. Most Germans who are in desperate state as they wanted Germany to be like once, able to be proud of and not in such a state where they had to struggle to fulfill the almost impossible terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They considered that period as a disgraceful decade in their history. Due to

Germany was ready to do everything they could in their power to make the Jewish population hated. They filled televised shows with hateful non-humanlike cartoons, put up disgusting paintings all over, and talked bad about the Jew’s on the radio. They also started teaching young children along with teenagers in Germany that Jewish people were not to be trusted stating that they were disgusting people so that the younger German’s would grow up with hatred for the Jew’s. Germany was willing to do everything they possibly could for all Germans to have hate along with despise for the Jew’s. The propaganda campaign was started and became very successful, it encouraged passivity and hate for the Jewish population.

Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano.” But USA withdrawing their loan wasn’t an inevitability. The direness of the impact seemed to be the combination of events as Germany had just managed to recover before Stresemann died just 26 days before the Wall street crash, leaving Germany without an experienced leaders fortitude, meaning a significantly more powerful impact from the Depression for Germany politically as Brunings centre spectrum government couldn’t hold its own in November 1932 before being toppled by its polar opposites of extreme left(100 seats) and right wing Nazis who had 196 with the centre party holding only 90 seats. Economically as the key difference being the Depressions incredibly high unemployment rate, 6 million by 1933, created a ‘before and after’ psychological effect, which holds significance in the solidifying of the publics dismal mind set, therefore significant in altering Germanys ethos. Germany went from innovative and modern to economically crippled and chaotic, for many this repeated the feelings from the Treaty of Versailles which produced a similar ‘before and after’ effect, of which was Weimar's inception therefor its root association, leading the public to believe that there was a clear pattern of flaw in how Germany was run, thus turned to

There were many economic consequences of Hitler to becoming Chancellor of Germany. The primary concern of the Nazis involving the economy was the high percentage of unemployment in Germany. The total of unemployed people was 5.7 million in January 1933, and the Nazis had no plan whatsoever. The Nazis were anti-communist as well as anti-capitalist to attract as much support as possible. This meant the could not use communist or capitalist systems to fix the economy. This left only one option; for the Nazis to control the