Due to the lack of morale, war weariness and economic crisis the unrest was beginning to form a dangerous revolution. (J Hite & C Hinton. 2000) Fearing for his life and under the advice of his Supreme Commander General Ludendorff William II the Kaiser of Germany handed over his power to a civilian government thereby abdicating his throne. He then left Germany and went into exile in Holland, where he lived until 1941. The new regime headed by Prince Max, attempted some reforms but ultimately this was ineffective due to the discontent and anger within the population of the failed war.
The reality is there was no one individual cause for Hitler’s rise to power; it was combination of all of these situations which fit together like pieces in a puzzle to create a unique situation for Hitler’s emergence to dictatorship. While Hitler’s chance to take power in Germany did not occur until the 1930’s, factors that made this possible were already occurring in the early 1920’s when Adolf was still a mere street painted in Vienna. When the Germans heard about the Treaty of Versailles which ended War War One, they felt ‘pain and anger,’ and felt it was too harsh and unfair. The Weimar government it brought about was despised by many Germans, as it caused large government coalitions where decisions could not be made. Hitler’s While there was a brief “Golden Age” of economic upturn, the death of Gustav Stresemann and especially the Wall Street Crash put a quick end of this.
This highlights that the population was not terrorised into supporting the regime, but persuaded through manipulation by the Nazi government. Therefore, the Nazi state cannot be classified as a totalitarian state. The Nazi party’s removal of all other political parties during 1933 reflects aspects of a totalitarian regime; however, the Nazi state did not have complete political control in Germany. Theoretically, the Führerprinzip outlined a leadership hierarchy which culminated with Hitler as the dominant leader of the State and required supreme obedience to the Führer. However, this was not manifested in reality, in which Hitler maintained power through his Kommandogewalt and appeal to the German public.
This clearly presents pre 1929 the Nazi party was not sufficient enough, as a foundation for the party was non-existent. Compared to other groups in Germany at the time, the SPD gained 26% in the December 1924 election, compared to, the Nazi which gained just 3%. This was mainly due to the lack of organisational structure, where the SPD geographical distribution and social structure was organised the Nazis were complete differing, this was shown in the 1924 electoral. Due to lack of organisation it could be argued to say the Nazis were weak before 1929. Historian use the failure of the putsch to prove Nazi party as weak before 1929.
Why was the Munich Putsch a failure? When Hitler came back to the beer hall, he found that all three of the triumvirate had left. Each one was quickly denouncing the affiliation that they made at gun-point and was working to put down the putsch. Without the support of the triumvirate, Hitler's plan had failed. He knew he did not have enough armed men to compete against an entire army.
Von Papen had no support in the Reichstag but he hoped that he could ‘get in’ with the Nazis and other right-wing parties. Hitler said no, and so Hindenburg called another election. But then General von Schleicher turned against von Papen and stopped supporting him. Schleicher decided that he should be Chancellor. This triggered of a huge power struggle between von Papen and von Schleicher.
After the unsuccessful attempt at a revolution, which was easily repressed, the Left never fully recovered its momentum and did not have enough support to overthrow the government whereas although the Right attempts quickly fell short, the threat from the Right wing continued to grow. The declaration on the 7th November 1918 that Bavaria was a Socialist Republic and the success of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution encouraged the growth of socialist ideology in Germany which culminated in the Spartacist Uprising in January 1919. The uprising, lead by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg began in Berlin and forced the government to withdraw to Weimar. However inadequate leadership, poor organisation, internal divisions and lack of support meant that the government could easily repress the uprisings using the Freikorps who ended the rebellion and the lives of Liebknecht and Luxemburg. Similarly, 30,000 Freikorps were used by the government on 3rd May 1919 to attack the Bavarian Soviet Republic, which was formed after the assassination of Eisner and led by Eugen Levine.
Von Papen had no support in the Reichstag but he hoped that he could form a right-wing coalition with the Nazis and other right-wing parties. Hitler said no, and so Hindenburg called another election in which the Nazis lost 34 seats and all was looking dark and gloomy for the Nazis. But then luck came around as General von Schleicher turned against von Papen and stopped supporting him. Schleicher decided that he should be Chancellor. This triggered of a huge power struggle between von Papen and von Schleicher.
Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to call a fresh general election for 5 March 1933, arguing that the NSDAP had been unable to form a coalition with the Centre Party. At the end of February the Reichstag burned down. Hitler immediately blamed the Communists, whipped up anti-Communist hysteria and banned them from taking part in the forthcoming elections. (It was widely believed that the Nazis were responsible for the fire). On 23 March 1933 the Reichstag passed the Enabling Law by a two-thirds majority (444 out of 647 - only the SPD voted against (94)) and enabled the Chancellor to rule by decree without even the need for approval by the President.
After the failure of the Knapp Putsch the Freikorps were disbanded and Hitler got a few key members to act as an army for the party, giving them the name of the S.A, and instructing them to disrupt the meetings of political opponents and protect Hitler from revenge attacks. He realised that the growth in the party was mainly due