As well as the Depression, the collapse of the Republic can be linked to a large number of factors, including the influence of the army, political instability and constitutional weaknesses. One of the most consequential outcomes of the Depression was the opportunity that it provided Hitler. A majority of the citizens lost faith and belief in the current Social Democratic government, turning instead to the confident and dynamic leader of Hitler. As Evans asserts, ‘citizens began to see in the youthful dynamism of the Nazi Party as a way out of the situation’. What Evans means by this is that the desperation of the people led them to polarising their votes and seeing radical leaders like Hitler as a solution to the mess that Germany had become.
In 1919, Hitler had written that systematic legitimate opposition can only be done through sensible anti Semitism (The Holocaust, n.d). He blamed Jews for the defeat in war and also asserted that Jews stabbed us in the back just to seize power and control German people. Hitler also declared that Jews wanted to undermine the Aryan Race through communism and capitalism. In his book Mein Kampf, (My Struggle) he further extended this hatred for Jews when he said that Jews are an evil race who wants to dominate the world. Nazi policy treated Jews as “parasitic vermin” who are only worthy of eradication.
Therefore the beginnings of democracy in Germany came in times of civil and political unrest following Germany’s defeat in WWI. During the war Germany had essentially been a military dictatorship under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, this style of government being popular among the German people. Therefore when democracy was introduced it was viewed with contempt, primarily among the conservative elites. The defeat in the war also brought about changes in how political maters were handled in Germany. Richard Evans in “the Coming of the Third Reich” argues that WWI had sanctioned the use of violence for political gain, leading to the formation of paramilitary groups that further undermined the effectiveness of the democracy.
This led to demise of the German democracy, and the dictatorship of Hitler, and the total control of the Nazi party. When the Nazi party gained full control the total accost on the Nazi party began with an attack of propaganda focused on slandering the Jewish people. Soon this propaganda furthered itself. The next step the Nazi regime took to push the Jews down was the institution of the Nuremburg laws. These laws were the most infamous of the anti-Jewish legislation, and were
Explain why Hitler tried to introduce the policy of volksgemeinschaft in Germany in the period of 1933-1939 This was Hitler’s and the Nazis idea of a people’s community. This was put into three categories ideological, biological, and social. Hitler and the Nazis what to remove any ideological threats of which they felt were going to threaten them getting into power. The main group of which Hitler was concerned about in this section was the communists. The Nazis felt like this political group was trying to undermine their “people’s community”.
The Holocaust was a time of devastation and corruption; it was a time of cruelty. Adolf Hitler, who started the epidemic against the Jews, tried to make the world “perfect.” Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party. Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for Germany’s economic problems which ultimately led to World War II. Hitler not only became a powerful and influential man, but also a judgmental man. Hitler blinded people with his influence.
Several attempts from both the left and right sides of government tried to imbue the nationalistic beliefs that were embodied in Germany before they were destroyed by their humiliating defeat in WW1. These include the Spartacist uprising, the Kapp Putsch and the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. The disillusionment felt by the people and their need to restore pride in their nation influenced many factors that led to the failure of the democracy, and to the rise of the Nazi political party and its leader Adolf Hitler. In hindsight, a mixture of political, social and economic issues, combined with nationalistic goals give grounds to the reason that nationalism mainly brought about the fall of the democracy of the Weimar Republic in Germany. By the outbreak of WW1 in August 1914, Germany was well established as a major and prominent world power.
Also, the weakness and exploitation of the Weimar Constitution played a similarly important role as proportional representation and article 48 both created a path for the Nazi Party to gain influence in the Reichstag. Overall, however, the rise of the Nazi Party must be considered as the main reason for the failure of the Weimar Republic, as the Nazi’s electoral success eventually led to the political intrigues which oversaw Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in 1933 which ultimately led to their success in the March 1933 election and the passing of the enabling act in 1933, which ultimately confirmed that the Weimar Republic had failed. During the period of 1924 – 27 the Nazi party was banned as result of the Beer Hall Putsch. The dramatic increase in votes from 0.8 million in 1928, to 17.3 million in 1933, highlights just how rapid the rise of the Nazi Party was after their emergence from the ‘quiet years’ in 1927. It can be argued that this was down to the popularity of Adolf Hitler and thus led to the failure of the Weimar Republic, as his popularity paved the way for his invitation into the chancellorship, from which he was able to manipulate his way to the presidency.
“Assess the view that the collapse of the Weimar Republic was primarily due to the appeal of Hitler and his Nazi party” The Weimar Republic government was riddled with weakness and incompetence in a variety of crucial social, economic and political areas. This caused the influence of the Nazi Party, which through its charismatic and nationalistic leader, Adolf Hitler, it gained a large amount of support. However it was due to the Weimar Republic’s own failings that the Nazi Party became appealing and as a result the Weimar Republic was brought to its inevitable demise in 1933 with Hitler ready to take the reigns. When the Treaty of the Versailles was signed in 1919, the government was making a very unpopular decision amongst the citizens, as it a result lead to the downfall of the Weimar Republic. The Treaty caused humiliation and shock amongst the citizens of the country, much of the political backlash was due to the fact that the Allies were dictating to Germany the harsh terms of the war reparations, which was seen as absurd by many citizens as they did not feel as if they were responsible for starting the war nor did they feel as though they had lost.
General von schleicher stopped supporting von papen and decided he himself should become chancellor, this triggered of a power struggle between von schleicher nd von papen, which ended with them handing power to Hitler. Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933 after von Papen persuades Hindenburg. Von Papen thought that as long as there were a limited number of Nazis in the cabinet then Hitler could be controlled. Von Papen was wrong. Another thing was there was the weakness of the Weimar government, which played its part.