The Rise to Power of Hitler & National Socialism in Germany cojs.org/.../4/4f/ Adolf_Hitler_Appointed.jpg

Weimar Republic Background
• Name of the government after World War One ; set up in town of Weimar
• 1919-1933 known as
Weimar Germany even though the government soon moved back to Berlin

Background Weimar cont’d
• 9 Nov 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm 11 abdicated
• Civilian government took over,
Scheidemann 1 st Chancellor
• Given powers to rule by decree if Reichstag
(German Parliament) failed to reach agreements
• January 1919 – people elected an assembly & they were to draw up a constitution

• Reichstag was to be elected by proportional representation
• President would be elected who would have the power to appoint/dismiss the Chancellor
(Prime Minister)
• June 1919, Friedrich Ebert becomes the 1 st
President (Socialist but not revolutionary)

Factors that led to the rise of Hitler & the
Nazis
1. Weaknesses of the Weimar Republic
2. Occupation of the Ruhr & hyper-inflation
3. Munich Putsch
4. Optimism of the Stresemann era ended by the Great Depression

1) Weakness of the Weimar Republic
- 1 st five years were chaos as the
Communists & the Right wing tried to topple the government
- Had the difficult tasks of: a) Coming to terms with the Treaty of
Versailles b) Maintaining civil order c) Payment of reparations (dealing with the war guilt clause)

“Stab in the Back!”
A 1924 right-wing German political

Weakness of Weimar, cont’d
- Spartacist (Communists) Putsch,
1919; a short- lived Communist regime rule in Munich until bands of war veterans restored order http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob8B5YNG2
VE

Wolfgang Kapp
-Kapp Putsch, 1920; right-wing challenge, initiated by military

- Weimar government forced to use martial law
(rule by military force) and run by presidential decree (this became the norm)
- 1924 Moderates in dominate and stability returns to the Reichstag

Reparations (equivalent to $838 billion
US today)
• Reparations were the biggest problem for the government; 1st payment (5 billion) came from art treasures, jewelry & the savings of those with property
• This drove public support away from the
Weimar Government
• Subsequent payments were to come from profits made on foreign markets but Germany was not welcome on these markets
• United States loaned money to Germany & charged very high interest rates

• Germany government printed more & more money to pay off its debts
• Loss of industrial output (& coal & iron) had damaged the economy
• 1921 onwards the value of the mark (German currency) fell rapidly

Inflation and food shortages during 1923: German shoppers line up in
front of a Berlin bakery www.missouriwestern.edu/. ../inflation2.html

1922 Germany defaulted on its reparation payments & France occupied the Ruhr in January 1923, determined to take the coal for themselves http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/taylor_map.jpg

A German poster urges passive resistance during the
Ruhr crisis, under the motto "No! You won't subdue me!"

Reaction to Ruhr Occupation
• German workers went on strike in protest and an already-weak economy ground to a halt
• Inflation soared
• Cost of bread in 1918 0.6 of a mark
• Cost of bread in (Jan) 1923 250 marks
• Cost of bread in Sept 1923 1.5 mill marks
• Savings of middle- and working-class people were wiped out overnight
• Most Germans would never trust the Weimar
Republic again

Better Economic Times for Germany
• Americans convinced the French to evacuate the
Ruhr in return for a promise by Germany to resume payments
• 1924 Dawes Plan allocated $30 billion in US aid to Germany to assist in reconstruction, Germany to make payments on an ability-to-pay scale
• 1929 Young Plan – further modifications to reparation-payment arrangements (spread payments out over 59 years)

Munich Putsch (Beer Hall Putsch)
1923

Munich Putsch November 9, 1923
• Occupation of Ruhr & hyper-inflation convinced Adolf Hitler that the time had come for armed seizure of power (a putsch)
• Plan was once the NAZIS (National Socialist
German Workers Party) had taken control they would march on Berlin
• Hitler & Ludendorff + 3,000 armed & brownshirted Nazi storm troopers marched from a beer hall towards Bavarian Parliament

• Bavarian police fired on the marchers; 16 were killed
• Hitler was arrested and given a 5 year sentence; released after 9 months
• In jail he wrote Mein Kampf and set the plans for a legal take over of
Germany

4) End of Stresemann Era-Optimism ended due to
Great Depression
Leadership of Gustav Stresemann
• 1924-1929 “Golden Years of the
Republic”
• Currency was stable, economy began to prosper
• 1925- ordered German workers back to work
& French withdrew from the Ruhr
• Helped by the Dawes Plan & Young Plan

• Germany in the international community
• 1925 Locarno Treaties (with France) –
Germany recognized the border with
France and gave up Alsace-Lorraine
• 1926 Germany joins League of Nations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFB8X
5Jy2ZA

• Fate of Germany was sealed with the economic crash; US called back its loans from Germany
• Government reacted by cutting unemployment & welfare benefits
• Centre Party’s coalition partners, The Socialists, withdrew from government in protest
• This meant the government did not have majority support in the Reichstag, allowing for opposition parties to get more votes