Hitler used propaganda, elimination of the opposition, and a cult of personality to gain the support and trust of the German people in a time of economic crisis to his benefit and the rest of the world's loss. Single party states arise from a crisis, and Germany was suffering from a very large one at that time. The end of World War I in 1918 had left the economic state in shambles, and the loss struck the German people hard. Furthermore, the Treaty of Versailles the following year resulted in the demilitarisation and many cuts from German land and territory. Hitler criticized the carving up of Europe by the "Big Four" (the US, UK, France and Italy), stating that the Germans were the "master race".
Hitler instead blamed many others, mainly the Wemiar and the Jews, this also gained popularity with the people of Germany. The treaty of Versailles also stipulated that Germany must demiliterize, resulting in alot of soliders without jobs. With large unemployment people are more likely to take more radical views as they get more desperate, Hitler used this to his advantage. The treaty of Versailles was a major cause to Hitlers rise to power. Another major cause that resulted in Hitlers rise to power was the Weimar democracy.
The Depression which began in 1929 was a great mean for Hitler to come to his power. During the Depression (1929-33), the Weimar Republic was seriously undermined by the social and economic conditions, which were also exploited by the Nazi Party. The Nazi ideologies appealed to those people who had seen no hope on the Republic. The Party promised people jobs, money, and homes, plus, they also wanted to abolish the Treaty of Versailles so there wouldn’t be huge reparations. That’s what German people want; they liked to be reminded of the humiliation caused by the War, and they wanted to get it back from the Republic.
The Weimar Republic looked to be collapsing from the beginning. All the events that finally led to the ending of democracy in Germany were seemed to be caused by the Treaty of Versailles. The loss of the war for the Germans was a huge turning point as it was seem that the Allies wanted to crush Germany. They were unable to pay the reparations, as extremists from both the right and left wing found the war guilt clause unacceptable. When the Germans had lost World War I, had a huge impact back in Germany.
During the 20th century, the Germans faced an appalling economic depression and during that time, the people lost trust in their government, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Hitler rose to power. Germany became secluded, and to the German people, Hitler was their ultimate savior. In a matter of years, Hitler rapidly rose to power and boosted the economy. Hitler and his Nazi party rise to power was one of chance and circumstance. His alternative views struck chord with the people; he was able to channel Germany’s disgust for the Weimar Republic, Treaty of Versailles and minority groups into support for his National socialist Party.
Explain why Germany was bankrupt by 1923. At first, Germany’s main problem was that its government was bankrupt. The cost of the war was so great that that all of the German gold reserves had been put towards the cause. After the Weimar Republic had made the decision to surrender, The Treaty of Versailles had made things considerably worse. It deprived Germany of wealth-earning areas, such as the coalfields in Silesia.
He was also under threat from other groups especially the Communist Party. After the Wall Street Crash ( October 1929) many people looked to extremist groups such as the Nazi and Communist Parties. People blamed the Social Democrats who were linked to the Weimar Republic for the economic failure and this is why popularity grew for the Nazi Party. It was essential to gain a two thirds majority in the Reichstag if Hitler hoped to pass any laws of his own. So one of the first things Hitler did after becoming Chancellor was to dissolve the Reichstag and call for a fresh election on the 5th March 1933.
When And Why Did The Second World War Turn Against Hitler And His Allies? In September 1939 the world descended into the most violent conflict in its history. This was as a result of many years of poverty stress and anger at other countries (from Germany). Hitler took this downfall of the country to become the prime minister, as he often said that if he became the leader of Germany he would sort the country of all its problems. Hitler then took away the “Power of the People” by replacing parliament with a self proclaimed dictatorship, which most Germans welcomed.
Germanys list of problems at this time was only growing. Losing WW1 caused many problems in itself as one might expect, never mind the Treaty of Versailles that was to follow. The most prominent socio-economic effects were most naturally the casualties, 2 million Germans were killed and a further 6 million were injured, also the increasing number of civilian deaths due to hypothermia and starvation. The reason these deaths increased, was due to food and fuel shortages caused by the cold winter of 1916-17. In these winter months there were signs of the country’s morale and unity breaking, it was not helped when Germany was hit with an influenza epidemic, wiping out 20-40 million, the resistance to the disease was lowered due to decline in living conditions.
However, while both these reasons were of great importance in the arrival of Hitler as chancellor in 1933, there were also many other events which contributed to this rapid achievement of power. Out of the many conditions which helped in the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, the failure of the Weimar was definitely of massive importance. Germany had emerged from the war a destroyed country with a starving population, the people were angry and the morale of everyone was low, this led to the outbreak of a series of strikes and uprisings; such as the Kapp Putsch and the Spartacist Uprising. Furthermore, the social democrats were forced to accept the other consequences of defeat which were presented to them in the ‘Shameful diktat of Versailles’. Having signed this treaty the Social Democrats gained the immediate dislike of German nationalists who quickly spread the myth of Germany being “stabbed in the back” by social democrats and Jews, hence creating great unpopularity for this new attempt at democracy.