The Effects Of The Great Depression On The German Economy

The Treaty of Versailles aided in the outbreak of This was the longest and most severe slump ever to hit the industrialized world, which lasted through most of the 1930s. The Great Depression caused mass unemployment, wide spread poverty and despair. The German economy was especially vulnerable since it was built out of foreign capital, owing mostly to debts to the United States and was very dependent on foreign trade. Adolf Hitler knew his opportunity had arrived to strengthen extreme political movements that promised to end the economic problems.

Prior to the Great Depression, Germany was already in a poor economic and political state. More than 6 million Germans were out of work. Germany also had to pay massive reparations for supposedly being solely responsible for all the destruction that WWI caused, and the government was unstable, with several parties vying for power. The current government, the Weimar Republic, was losing support and there was no clear successor to be the new government of Germany. How did the Great Depression affect an already gloomy Germany? How did Hitler and the Nazis take advantage of the economic crisis?

"The unutterable violence of the Holocaust shook our confidence in possibility of telling any story of faith at all" - Timothy Radcliffe states this to show that the world lives in denial of the Holocaust and how much it truly affected the nation and the ability to express belief and

According to Abc.News, Germany had signed the debts to pay 269 million gold marks and around 96,000 tons of gold in Treaty of Versailles during 1919. The debts were unaffordable for Germans since they had also lost a lot of properties during the Great War. Followed along the debts that they had to pay to the Allies, there were the Great Depression. During 1930, the Great Depression occurs. “The total number of German workers involved in the unemployment easily reaches four million”(20,000,000 Unemployed in World," Revolutionary Age). Germans were frustrated with the government. Germans were ravenous and overwhelmed. Under this circumstances, the hopeless Germans started to believe that Hitler was the man who could bring the glory of Germany back. The propaganda poster below has shown that people were tiresome of trusting the government. The German words translated into English was “Our Last Hope— Hitler”. It indicated that Hitler was the last person as a leader they were going to believe. The poster enlarged the name “Hitler” to emphasize his importance, to attract attention, and to encourage people to join the Nazi Party.

In Germany the economy was especially vulnerable since it was built out of foreign capital, mostly loans from America and was very dependent on foreign trade. When those loans suddenly came due and when the world market for German exports dried up, the well-oiled German industrial machine quickly ground to a halt. As production levels fell, German workers were laid off. Along with this, banks failed throughout Germany. Savings accounts, the result of years of hard work, were instantly wiped out. Inflation soon followed making it hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with devalued money. Overnight, the middle class standard of living so many German families enjoyed was ruined by events outside of Germany, beyond their control. The Great Depression began and they were cast into poverty and deep misery and began looking for a solution, any solution. By mid-1930, amid the economic pressures of the Great Depression, the German democratic government was beginning to unravel. The crisis of the Great Depression

The Great Depression 1929-1942 was the economic downturn. On October 29, 1929 the stock market crashed wiping out millions out of work. The economic slowed down and then it shrinked in size. It then progressed to a recession and then to a panic. This progressed over the years and a series of bad decisions to slow down the economy into depression. Which then led to WWII.

Adolf Hitler was seen by most to be a forceful European leader, this being one reason, that by 1935, Nazi policy fundamentally ended the depression. Hitler had been deliberate from the beginning in implementing a considerable rearmament program that would put Germany back to work. The increased spending for rearmament initially

Economic Fallout On October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, the United States of America’s stock market crashed causing the Great Depression. The Great Depression of the 1930’s greatly impacted millions of people’s lives around the world. The Depression caused millions of people to lose their homes, jobs and food for their families. The events causing, during, and after the Great Depression will forever be an important part of American History that will never be forgotten.

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

Tom Godlewski ECO 220 Dr. Maskay November 25, 2014 The Economic Downturn of the Weimar Republic After WWI War over the past two centuries has evolved faster and more dynamically than any other period in human history. The advent of air forces, automatic weapons, chemical warfare and a slew of other malevolently created weapons define

The Great Depression was a period of low economic activity and rising unemployment. It was a brief period of prosperity that began in Europe in 1924 and ended in an economic collapse. Two factors played a major role in the start of the Great Depression. The first one was a series of downturns in the economies of individual nations in the second half of the 1920’s. The second role that was played was an international financial crisis involving the U.S. stock market. Much of the European prosperity between 1924 and 1929 was built on U.S. bank loans to Germany. During the 1920’s, the U.S. stock market boomed. In 1928, American investors pulled money out of Germany to invest it in stocks. On October 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed. Economic Depression was not new to Europe, however the downturn in 1929 made the “Great Depression.” This was the worst it has ever been and it made a big panic throughout Europe. Governments and people of Europe were unsure of how to respond to the crisis. It had serious political effects, one of the effects was increased Government activity in the economy. In 1924 to 1929 Germany was struck with The Great Depression. In 1930, unemployment had grown to 3 million people by March, The depression paved the way for fear and the rise of extremist parties. France also struggled with financial problems after the war. France had a more balanced economy so they didn’t feel the effects of The Great Depression until 1932. In 1932 and 1933, six cabinets were formed as France faced

The most devastated facet of the German economy was its infrastructure. With Hitler’s previously mentioned scorched earth policy destroying a large percentage of it. Likewise, the war itself had a major impact “Much of [Germany’s] infrastructure, including major ports and railroad hubs, had been heavily bombed… Dresden had been [completely] destroyed [and seven million Germans lost their lives]” (Rienzi). Even if Germany had a sizeable workforce, they would have been unable to develop due to the utter destruction that morphed the region into a wasteland. In addition, factories were destroyed in order to dismantle the war making ability of the German state (Taylor). The removal of factories and other industries obviously hampered the economy,

<br> <br>The stock market crash of 1929 effected practically every nation in the world. Germany was already suffering a post-war depression and was greatly effected. Hitler used the suffering of the masses to gain political support. He gained a strong following from the

The Great Depression was a horrible time for the U.S,especially Texas. The Great depression was a time where the U.S became bankrupt and its states. The Great Depression started during the 1929s-42. In the Great Depression, banks were forced to closed all over the country. By 1933, 11,000 of the 25,000 total banks had closed. With all the banks failing combined with the confidence loss of the economy, the spending reduced with production which caused the downward spiral of the economy. The Great Depression did not only affect the U.S it affected Germany and Great Britain. The Great Depression involved of the Collapse of the World Trade.The US couldn't get its supplies from over countries because of the the collapse of world trade. Because

The main reason the crash had such an immense effect on Germany’s economy was because germans were mainly reliant on american loans which had previously given the Republic and economic boost. In 1929 all the loans by the americans were ceased and any given loans were recalled within 90 days. This excessive pressure from the U.S government and investors was too much to handle for the reliant German economy and this lead to extreme unemployment staggering approximately 6 millions or 26% of the total population. In addition to that, germany’s total industrial production dropped to around 58% leading to even more unemployment by early 1930’s. Due to all these chain reaction of events the German society was in a very hard time period, there was food shortage for many and children suffered with malnutrition and hunger diseases. British writer describes this horrifying situation best with his beautiful words: “Morning after morning, all over the immense, damp,