The number of people unemployed rose by five million from the start of the great depression1929 to when Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Some people were still in works but they were paid low wages and worked short time works. The number of unemployment left many people hungry as they had no work so they couldn’t get the money to buy food. Also many people became homeless. The great depression gave huge boost to the extremist parties as the German people started to blame the government to the depression and therefore lost confidence in them.
The event that started the Great Depression was “Black Tuesday.” On this day, the stock market crashed. The so called “bubble” had burst. The roaring twenties were over. Banks were forced to close, as they had no more money for the massive amount of people that were making withdrawals. Many lost their jobs, and were forced to look for work elsewhere.
The failure of the Weimar Republic to fix the increasingly pressing problems of Germany consequently contributed massively to their downfall, as it demonstrated their weakness. By the early 1930s the German people were resentful of their government because of the economic issues caused by the Great Depression and Wall Street Crash. For example industrial production in 1930 had dropped by 13% of what it was in 1928, and by 1932 it had dropped by 42%. This combined with the fact many Germans still had the effects of the economic problems of the early 1920s fresh in their minds caused declining support for moderate parties and therefore the Republic. This can evidently be seen from the election results as in 1928 the SPD had 29.8% of the vote and by 1932 this had dropped to 20.4%.
The housing market also plummeted leading to negative equity, which the majority of the working class could not afford resulting in the repossession of their houses combined with the drastic increase in unemployment Britain was in a mess. However Major did have some success, he abolished poll tax, which was very popular among the public, he increased spending on the NHS and introduced transport subsides to keep travel fares low.
FOLLOW THE LEADER ADOLF HITLER Germany in 1930 In 1930 the Germanic social and economic situation was heading towards chaos. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the United States were forced to call back the money they had loaned Germany in 1924 and 1929, leaving the Weimar Republic with no resources to invest in the economy. The Germanic growth over the last years had been an illusion, as a great deal of the capital invested had been coming from overseas loans. As the money borrowed was paid back, Germany was once again facing bankruptcy. Unemployment, which was not a major issue in 1929, dramatically soared by September 1930 1.
Describe the effects of hyperinflation on Germany in 1923. (9) The Weimar government was short of money after the First World War and so began to print more and more banknotes. The sudden flood of paper money into the economy, on top of the general strike - which meant that no goods were manufactured, so there was more money, chasing fewer goods - combined with a weak economy ruined by the war, all resulted in hyperinflation. Prices ran out of control, for example, a loaf of bread, which cost 250 marks in January 1923 had risen to 200,000 million marks in November 1923. German's currency became worthless.
Another thing was there was the weakness of the Weimar government, which played its part. The Weimar government was failing miserably, what with a failed economy, no power, a great depression, unemployment, a weak president, and the rise of terrorism and extremism. The Social Democrats were losing their touch. During the Stresemann years of the 1920s the Nazis couldn’t even get into double figures when it came to seats in the Reichstag. Germany, it looked, was on the rise while Stresemann was Chancellor but the Nazis and their appealing polices were al too good for the people of Germany to refuse and so while the votes for the Social Democrats only increased ever so slightly the Nazi votes were plumiting and with every election they grew and grew.
During autumn of 1929 the stock market began behaving highly volatile. Stock market prices were expanded to just about breaking point, and then suddenly it crashed. Because of the Stock Market Crash the gross national product dropped 40 %, $6.1 billion in 1929 to $3.5 billion in 1933 (The Canadian History Page). The Bank had no money left because of the effect of the stock market crash. Wages in the industrial sector were not keeping up with huge increase in manufacture and profits.
Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and American truly entered what is called the Great Depression. Before Black Tuesday, the economy had been stagnant for months prior, and the effects of the market crash were compounded due to the use of margin, and the general lack of market regulations at that time. The use of margin means people had borrowed funds (Doc K). This led to a spiral of falling prices. With significantly reduced wealth, spending decline, banks failed and on top of this drought conditions contributed to a lack of good crops.
American hardship during the Great Depression was extremely enormous. There were many problems, but the main one was the economy. The economy wasn’t doing well at all. Unemployment was on a rise, businesses were failing. The reason of that is because the stock market was doing badly, there were overproduction and a crash which is stock prices go down.