Was the Great Depression was the catalyst for the growth of Nazi support?
The Great depression of 1030 left Germany’s economy badly damaged. During the early 1930s Germany experienced a time of economic downturn. Unemployment was high and the economy was failing, many Germans could not even afford basic necessities such as food. This essay shall discuss whether the Great Depression was the catalyst for the growth of Nazi support. It is obvious that many Germans suffered because of the depression. I personally feel that the Great Depression was the catalyst for the growth in Nazi support because Germany had been badly damaged and Germans wanted a strong leader, someone such as Hitler. However I feel there were many other reasons why the
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There were many other reasons and policies that gained the Nazis support. One of the most important catalysts for the growth of Nazi support was Hitler himself. Hitler was the Nazi’s greatest campaigning asset. Hitler was a very powerful speaker. He was years ahead of his time as a communicator. Hitler was the type of leader that Germany needed and wanted. Hitler was able to appear to be a man of the people, someone who knew and understood the people and their problems. Hitler was the Nazi’s trump card. The opposition had no one to match him.
Propaganda was another reason why Nazi support grew. Dr Joseph Goebbels was the minister for Enlightenment and propaganda. Goebbels was a very clever man and knew how to gain support; he was also very loyal to Hitler. He used every resource available to him to make people loyal to Hitler and the Nazis. Goebbels organized huge rallies. The rallies brought some colour and excitement to people’s lives. They gave them a sense of belonging to a great movement. The rallies also showed the German people the power of the state and convinced them that “every other German” supported the Nazis. The Nazis used every trick in the book to get their message home. The Nazis knew that their anti-communist stance was very popular and their propaganda further whipped up fear and hatred of the communists. The Nazis were also very well organized; this was due to many Nazis
Undoubtedly, Nazi popularity placed pressure on government and on President Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor. Their astonishing rise in votes since 810 000 in 1928 to 13.75 million in July 1932 was extraordinary.
After Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I, Germans had little faith in their government, and in the early 1930s following the stock market crash in New York, Germany was economically struggling . Millions of people were out of work due to the world wide catastrophe making it an opportune time for Hitler and the Nazis to rise into power. Hitler, who was a powerful and spellbinding speaker, attracted Germans desperate for change. He promised to make Germany a better country and promised the disenchanted, a better life. Nazis appealed especially to the youth, unemployed, and members of the lower to middle class. Hitler’s rise to power seemed instantaneous. Before the economic depression, Nazis were virtually unknown, winning less than 3 percent of the vote to the Reichstag, which was the German Parliament. However, in the 1924 elections, the Nazis won a whopping 33 percent of the votes which was more than any other party. In January of 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the head of German Government . The Germans were convinced that they had found a savior for the Nation. The timing of his rise made it very easy for Hitler to gain power in a democratic government because people were hopeless and wanted a fast solution to the deficit. He promised things like a stronger economy, prosperity, and anything that they desired . He focused on first getting noticed and then grew from there. He didn’t say anything but what the people wanted to hear. Getting the people of Germany to trust him was how he started to gain so much control. Unfortunately, Hitler’s charm and persuasion was not the sole reason why Hitler gained so much power in a democratic
Around the time, he was trying to gain support for the Nazi party the mood of Germany was not too particularly great. The depression's effects had hit Germany and its people hard with millions of people losing their jobs. Still fresh in the German people’s minds was the humiliating loss of WWI. Also, people did not like the Weimar Republic government because it agreed to the terms of The Treaty of Versailles. Due to this, the German people lacked confidence in 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 the Nazi party. Due to Hitler’s extravagant speeches, he was able to attract many followers to the Nazi party. In the article, it states “Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change”, but this quote doesn’t even show how impactful the speeches really were. The article later states that “The party's rise to power was rapid... the Nazis were practically unknown, winning only 3 percent of the vote to the Reichstag (German parliament) in elections in 1924. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis won 33 percent of the votes, more than any other
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
The middle class people hoped that the Nazis would prevent them from more inflation. The unemployed thought that the Nazis would get people to get back to work. Hitler was a good public speaker and whipped up emotions in his rallies. He was dynamic and gave his message to millions with propaganda.
Why did average Germans support the Nazism? To do so, Hitler gave Germans huge tax breaks and introduced social benefits that even today anchor the society. He also ensured that even in the last days of the war not a single German went hungry. Despite near-constant warfare, never once during his 12 years in power did Hitler raise taxes for working class people. He also — in great contrast to World War I — particularly pampered soldiers and their families, offering them more than double the salaries and benefits that American and British families received. As such, most Germans saw Nazism as a "warm-hearted" protector.
One of the main factors in Hitler’s rise to power was the Economic Depression of 1929. After the Wall Street crash, the U.S. called in its loans to Germany thus increasing both poverty and unemployment levels. The Weimar government did not understand how to reverse the situation so the general public became angry and lost confidence in the relatively new democratic system. During a depression, political trends become extremist and so the Nazis flourished; Hitler offered both a scapegoat and himself as a strong leader to look up to. The depression gave Hitler the edge he needed to gain ninety-five[1] seats in the Reichstag and ultimately progress from the leader of a minority party to the Dictator of the Third Reich.
In 1930, because of the Nazi Party’s good fortunes and careful planning, their votes increased from 12 seats to 107 seats. One of the factors that helped them captured more votes was because they mainly targeted on people who were affected worst on the Great Depression like the farmers and small businessmen. He promised to cut taxes, protection on food prices for the farmers, and making policy of making trade unions powerless and stopped communisms to the small businessmen. It appealed them. Many male Germans also supported Hitler because of the military appearance. Female German also supported him because he made them feel very important as he wanted them to bear lots of Aryan children to serve the country. Hitler also made a point to declare through his speech that he detests the Jews, and naturally, those Germans who are mostly Protestants, too, blamed the Jews. In brief, Hitler appealed to a wide range of people in voting for him.
In order to grow more popular the National Socialist German Workers Party had to get the support of other groups who were also influential at the time in Germany. In 1930 The Nationalist German Workers Party had gained the support of many wealthy individuals and the entire military order members. By 1933 the Nazis had even gotten closer and had made connections with the President of Germany, who at the time was Paul von Hindenburg. This led to Hitler receiving titles such as the Personal Commander of the Army, Supreme War Lord, and later Chancellor of Germany (“Adolf Hitler”). While Hitler was gaining titles and prestige, he also had to make sure that the party he had worked so hard to build would not fall down, under any circumstances.
In the following investigation, the following question will be addressed: In what ways did economic and political issues in Germany between 1922 and 1932 contribute to Hitler's rise to power? The scope of my research will fall between the years of 1922-1932, the start of Hitler’s attempt to run for office. A variety of primary and secondary sources will be used to answer the question. The bitterness caused upon the change of government systems in Germany will be analyzed, along with his childhood that all primarily drove Hitler to run for power. Then, the harsh effects World War I had on Germany along with the Great Depression that followed as a result will also be looked at. Finally, a conclusion will be reached.
Nazi Germany was between the dates of 1933-1939. Throughout this essay, Conditions in Germany when Hitler came to power including the impact of the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression and the weakness of the Weimar republic, will be discussed. The Concept of a Totalitarian State and how Hitler and the Nazi party developed in Germany through the use of force, controlled education, militarism, propaganda, economic policies, and no political opposition. Some of the Positives that came from Nazi Germany were increased prosperity including full employment and economic growth, regaining lost territories, increased national prestige and pride, and the hosting of 1936 Olympics. Some of the Negatives that came from Nazi Germany were Persecution of minorities, loss of personal freedoms, economic growth focused on the military, and expansionism as a path to war. This essay will re-state weather Nazi Germany was an overall positive or negative experience for people in Germany.
The Nazi party went from being an unpopular political group in 1919 to being the most powerful political party in Germany by 1932. The reason for this are the weaknesses in the Weimar constitution, the 1918 Armistice, the 1923 crisis, the Treaty of Versailles and The Great Depression. Hitler’s personality was also very important to the Nazi’s success. He was very arrogant since his early days and he never took a no for an answer. He also was the type of the person who never gave up even and even if it did not work out he blamed others. All these reasons helped the Nazis rasie to power.
In 1933 Adolf Hitler was chosen as Chancellor of Germany by president Paul von Hindenburg. With this, the Nazi party came to power. Originally called the National Socialist German Workers party (Nazi for short), the Nazi party emphasized how Laissez-faire capitalism, economic liberalism, and democracy failed in government. The National Socialists stressed the importance of the impeccability of the German race. Although they had very determined ideas, The Nazi party began as a relatively small group in 1918. But coming into the 1930’s this was not the case. The widespread use of propaganda and radio broadcasting were instrumental to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party.
This was due not only to Hitler’s strongly persuasive oratory skills, but also due to their strong use of propaganda in which Hitler used the failures and misery caused by the great Depression to his advantage. Hitler appointed Goebbels as head of propaganda in 1930 and then adjusted the Nazi aims to what the public wanted, in order to gain support, for example they increased propaganda blaming Jewish people for Germany’s problems and convinced many Germans that the Jews were to blame for the poor economic state. Hitler already had the support of German industrialists and upper middle class socialites; however in order to have a majority in the Reichstag and thus become chancellor he needed to broaden his appeal. He did this using propaganda aimed at those worst hit by the depression such as the rural and lower middle class, as well as
The Nazis increased their power economically by getting people to finance them. After the depression that happened 1929, the number of unemployed people grew to 6 million in Germany. Since the German economy collapsed, the government did not know what to do, therefore, there were a lot of complaints received during that time. This gave the Nazis a chance to increase their power. Because of the anger the people had on the government, a lot of the people became communists. This made the wealthy businessmen very scared, so therefore they ended up financing with Hitler’s campaign. This did not only help the Nazis to improve their economy, but also, more people supported the Nazis, making them able to increase their power.