THE AGE OF ANXIETY REVIEW:
How the Nazi Party Came to Power

On 11th November 1918 the Armistice was signed which brought an end to the Great War and Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. the following year the leaders of the Allies met at Versailles to decide how Germany was to be treated. When the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were published in June most Germans were very angry.

1.  Why were there so much unrest in Germany from 1919 to 1923?

There was opposition to the terms of the treaty almost immediately. The Weimar Republic, as the government of Germany became known, were very unpopular.
From 1919 to 1923, there was a series of attempted revolutions in Germany, some by Communists - who hoped to take advantage of the situation and follow the example of Russia - others by right wing nationalists who blamed the government for accepting the treaty and tried to overthrow it.
Adolf Hitler left the German army in January 1919. He had spent the last weeks of the war in hospital recovering from gas-blindness. He believed that the army had not been defeated, but had been "stabbed in the back" by the politicians who had signed the Armistice (the November Criminals). When the war ended Hitler got a job working as a spy for the German army. He was sent to a meeting of the German Workers Party in September 1919,which was led by Anton Drexler, who was very anti-Semitic. Hitler joined the party and became its leader in 1921.
Hitler wanted to attract as many people as possible to the party, so he changed the name to the National Socialist German Workers Party. He hoped that the word "National" would attract nationalists who wanted to rebuild Germany after the First World War and the word "Socialist" would attract socialists who wanted to improve the lives of working people in Germany.
The National Socialists, or Nazis, as they began to be called, were often violent; they would attack their opponents at meetings and this put many people off. Hitler's private army, the Sturm Abteilung (Storm Troopers) or S.A., were led by a particularly unpleasant and violent ex-soldier called Ernst Roehm.
In 1922 the Government stopped paying Reparations and the French and Belgian Armies invaded the Ruhr, the main industrial area of Germany. When the German workers went on strike they brought in their own workers and cut the area off from the rest of Germany.
In 1922 and 1923 Germany was hit by Hyperinflation. This is the name given to the massive rise in prices that took place and affected everyone in Germany.
Many Germans found that their life-savings were lost. People who lived on pensions were ruined.
Prices rose every day and every hour and people rushed to buy goods as soon as they were paid. they bought anything, because otherwise their money would lose value immediately. People began to exchange goods (barter) rather than use money and shopkeepers tried to keep their shops closed and avoid selling anything.

The confusion caused by hyperinflation led Adolf Hitler to believe that he could take power in Munich in November 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch. the attempt failed. Hitler believed that the government of Germany was so unpopular that many Germans would support him. He was even planning a "March on Berlin" after his success in Munich. Hitler was arrested and tried for high treason. He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. While Hitler was in prison after the Beer Hall Putsch, he wrote "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), which was a cross between his autobiography and a list of his political ideas.

2.  How did Germany recover from 1923 onwards?

A new chancellor, Gustav Stresemann, brought hyperinflation under control and most Germans saw him as a much better leader than Hitler. Stresemann ordered all the old banknotes to be collected in and to be burnt. He issued new notes, called Rentenmarks, which were backed by the land of Germany and not by gold.

Stresemann was also able to deal with most of the other problems facing Germany in the 1920s and the country seemed to be recovering from the effects of the First World War. He got German industry going again. He persuaded the French and Belgians to leave the Ruhr.
In 1924 he borrowed money from the USA to help Germany pay Reparations, the Dawes Plan.
In 1925 he persuaded the French and Belgians to sign the Locarno Pacts and promise to respect Germany's borders.
He got Germany admitted to the League of Nations in 1926 and Germany became a permanent Member of the Council.

It seemed that Germany had recovered from the humiliation of Versailles and had been accepted by the other countries of Europe once again. In the meantime Hitler had realized that he would have to change his tactics if he were to have any chance of gaining power in Germany. He decided that he must try to gain power by legal means.
When Hitler was released from prison, he set up a proper political party with a national organization. Before, the Nazis had only been well known in Bavaria. Hitler knew that he needed to win as many votes as possible if he was to gain a majority in the Reichstag.
He set up sections within the party for teachers, women and children.
He appointed Josef Goebbels as head of propaganda. His job was to put the Nazi message across as clearly as possible.

On 3rd October Gustav Stresemann died.

On 24th October Wall Street, the American Stock Exchange crashed. This led to the Depression of the 1930s, which affected Germany more than any other country. By 1932 6,000,000 Germans were out of work. This was much more than in any other country.

From 1929 support for the Nazis rose steadily:

1928 - 12 members of the Reichstag

1930 - 107 members

1932 July - 230 members

The Nazi Party was well organized and had the support of Alfred Hugenberg. He, a millionaire who owned 53 newspapers, had begun to support Hitler in the 1920s. All of his newspapers backed Hitler.
Hitler hired a private plane to fly around Germany. He was the first politician to do this. When he landed he had two Mercedes cars to carry him from place to place. This meant that he could speak in many towns on the same day.
Hitler told the German people that the problems of the Depression were not their fault. He blamed the Jews for Germany's problems. He used them as a scapegoat. Hitler said that he would be able to solve the problems and promised different things to different groups of people. To businessmen he promised that he would control the Trade Unions and deal with the Communists. To workers he promised that he would provide jobs.
Hitler said that he would do away with the Treaty of Versailles, which had treated Germany so badly. Hitler was always backed up by large numbers of disciplined and uniformed followers - this made it appear that he was a man who could take decisions and sort out Germany's problems.

As the situation in Germany became more and more desperate, people were more and more ready to listen to the ideas of Hitler. On 30th January Hitler was appointed German Chancellor by President Hindenburg. In January 1933 Hindenburg was persuaded by Franz von Papen to appoint Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

Von Papen believed that he would be able to control Hitler and use the 196 Nazi MPs to create a majority in the Reichstag. He was wrong:

When he took office, Hitler was leading a coalition government with only three Nazis apart from himself. He immediately called a general election to try to win a majority.
On 27th February, just a week before the election, the Reichstag caught fire and burnt down. A communist, Franz van der Lubbe was arrested inside. Hitler used this as an excuse to arrest many members of the Communist Party, his main opponents.
the general election took place on 5th March 1933. the Nazis won 288 seats. This was not a majority, but 52 Nationalists supported them. At the first meeting of the Reichstag on 23rd March, the 81 Communists stayed away. Hitler could now do as he liked.

The Reichstag immediately passed the Enabling Act - this made Hitler dictator of Germany for four years. He immediately began to use this power to crush all opposition to him in Germany. All trade unions were abolished and all political parties banned, except for the Nazis. In November 1933 in another general election, in which only Nazi candidates were allowed, 92% of the people supported the Nazis.

Finally on 30th June 1934 Hitler eliminated his opponents within the Nazi Party in the "Night of the Long Knives" when 400 members of the Sturm Abteilung, the Brown Shirts, and other people.

The main aim of this was to get rid of Ernst Roehm, the leader of the S.A. Roehm had been demanding that he should be made the commander in chief of the German army. Hitler did not want to do this as he knew that it would be very unpopular with the generals.

Roehm was also one of the leaders of the Socialist wing of the Nazi Party. He wanted a social revolution to give working people more influence in Germany. Hitler wanted to set up a right wing dictatorship. Hitler was frightened that Roehm would use the S.A. to get rid.

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