RECENT SCHOLARSHIP TO EXPLAIN
THE NAZI SEIZURE OF POWER
ECONOMIC HISTORY (neo-liberal): Knut Borchardt and
Harold James criticize the Weimar Republic’s effort to
guarantee a high standard of living, not only through
social insurance but also through compulsory state labor
arbitration and rent controls.
ECONOMIC HISTORY (Social Democratic): Carl-Ludwig
Holtfrerich argues that cartels, trusts, and syndicates
weakened the German economy, and that Heinrich
Brüning failed disastrously to combat unemployment
through “Keynesian” measures.
CONSERVATIVE ELITES ARE TO BLAME (e.g., Hans
Mommsen, The Rise & Fall of Weimar Democracy, 1996).
GERMAN VOTERS ARE TO BLAME: Authoritarianism and/or
anti-Semitism permeated the electorate.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATES, 1928-1933
(The French figures are doubtless understated.)
Chancellor
Heinrich Brüning
(1885-1970)
• Born to a middle-class
Catholic family in Münster
• Economics Ph.D.
• Decorated combat veteran
(rose to captain).
• Hired in 1920 as advisor to
the Christian trade unions.
• Elected to Reichstag in
1924; Center Party’s expert
on fiscal policy.
• A lifelong bachelor, he lived
an austere life and
preached austerity.
BRÜNING’S INITIAL ASSUMPTIONS
Germany must balance its budget AT ONCE, because
government credit was so weak that a budget deficit
would soon result in default on obligations and fighting in
the streets (most probably TRUE).
A policy of deflation would benefit export industries,
promote a trade surplus, and strengthen Germany’s case
that reparations harmed the world economy (but deflation
also slows the velocity of the circulation of money!).
If unemployment rose, he could always sell bonds to
finance public works (FALSE; all credit sources dried up!).
The government could retain popular support as long as it
distributed necessary sacrifices fairly among all social
classes (but Hindenburg insisted that landowners and
the military be spared any sacrifices!).
Brüning’s first pivotal decision was to impose a
balanced budget by Article 48 decree in July 1930
Two cabinet ministers advised that agreement could be
reached with the SPD on a balanced budget.
Brüning judged that the SPD was bound to insist on at
least one concession that would drive the DVP into
opposition.
When the SPD voted against the budget, Brüning
imposed it by Article 48 decree; the SPD then joined
with the KPD, NSDAP, and DNVP to overturn that
decree.
Brüning then called for new elections, and imposed his
budget by decree during the election campaign.
The SPD co-chair Rudolf
Breitscheid addresses the
Reichstag, Sep. 1930
Brüning and the SPD were both
shocked when the Nazis won 18%
of the vote, so the SPD resolved to
tolerate Brüning’s emergency
decrees as the “lesser evil”
compared with a fascist takeover.
In 1931 Brüning hurled
himself into diplomatic talks
over the abolition of
reparations
He achieved a diplomatic breakthrough with the Hoover
Moratorium of July 1931, but two major German banks
failed at the same time, causing widespread panic
TRENDS IN INTEREST RATES
(the discount rate charged by central banks to other banks)
BRÜNING RESOLVED TO PERSEVERE WITH DEFLATION
IN HIS 4TH COMPREHENSIVE EMERGENCY DECREE OF
DECEMBER 1931
All wages bound by collective labor contract returned to
the level of January 10, 1927.
All cartel prices were reduced by 10%.
All long-term interest rates on bonds and mortgages of
8% and higher were reduced by 25%.
All government salaries were cut by 9%.
The national sales tax was raised by 2%.
The cabinet demanded that the Discount Rate be
lowered from 8% to 6%, but the autonomous
Reichsbank would only accept 7%.
Despite some “Keynesian” proposals, the cabinet
decideded that it could not launch a public works
program until reparations were abolished….
GERMANY’S BALANCE OF TRADE
(in billions of marks)
Year
With Great Britain
Import Export
Bal.
With France
Import Export
Bal.
All foreign trade
Import Export
Bal.
1928
0.96
1.18 +0.22
0.74
0.69
-0.05
14.00
12.28
-1.72
1929
0.87
1.31 +0.44
0.64
0.93 +0.29
13.45
13.48 +0.03
1930
0.64
1.22 +0.58
0.52
1.15 +0.63
10.39
12.04 +1.65
1931
0.45
1.13 +0.68
0.34
0.83 +0.49
6.73
9.60 +2.87
1932
0.26
0.45 +0.19
0.19
0.48 +0.29
4.67
5.74 +1.07
1933
0.24
0.41 +0.17
0.18
0.40 +0.22
4.20
4.87 +0.67
“Resignation &
Discussion,”
photo by Walter
Ballhause from the
series
“Unemployment”
(1930)
Alfred Hugenberg APPEARED to forge a united front of the
“National Opposition” at Bad Harzburg in October 1931
But Hitler refused to appear on the grandstand with them
Brüning united a broad
front from the SPD to
moderate conservatives
to secure Hindenburg’s
reelection against Hitler
in March-April 1932
THE FALL OF BRÜNING, MAY 1932
Hindenburg had long desired a rightist parliamentary
majority stretching from the Center to the NSDAP.
Hindenburg was deeply wounded when most of his
monarchist friends endorsed Hitler for President.
In April 1932 Brüning banned the SA and sought to
partition bankrupt agricultural estates for homesteaders.
Hindenburg appointed the right-wing Catholic
monarchist Franz von Papen to replace Brüning at the
end of May, hoping that his government would be
tolerated by the Center Party and NSDAP.
Papen foolishly lifted the SA ban and held new Reichstag
elections without securing any guarantee of Nazi
support.
Franz von Papen’s “Cabinet
of Barons” was supported by
only one party, the DNVP.
Many regarded the new
chancellor as the puppet of
the Defense Minister, General
Kurt von Schleicher
Papen & Schleicher at the
racetrack, September 1932
Papen made huge concessions to the Nazis when he
lifted the SA ban and dissolved the Reichstag, and he
then removed the Prussian state government led by Otto
Braun in July 1932, blaming it for the upsurge in street
violence caused by the SA.
A symbolic
show of
force at the
Prussian
state
capitol, July
20, 1932
But the Nazis soon
turned against Papen:
“Bravo Herr von
Papen! Just continue
with your emergency
decrees: You are
giving us Communists
our best chance!”
(November 1932)
Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher addresses a rally in
Berlin on January 15, 1933
The “Cabinet of National Renewal,” appointed on
January 30, 1933: Only 3 of 11 ministers are Nazis, but Papen
allowed Hitler to control the Prussian police & hold elections
“In our deepest need,
Hindenburg chose Adolf Hitler
as Reich Chancellor. You too
should vote for List #1”
“The Reich will
never be destroyed
– if you remain
united and faithful”
The Reichstag burns, 27 February 1933: The Nazis falsely
depicted Marinus van der Lubbe as a KPD agent
SA round-up of Communists after the Reichstag Fire
STORMTROOPERS BRUTALIZED MANY THOUSANDS
OF “ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE”
“I am the biggest pig in
town, because I only go
out with Jews.”
SPD politicians, forced to
remove anti-Hitler graffitti
A newly
deputized SS
trooper patrols
the streets with a
Prussian
policeman on
election day,
March 5, 1933,
when the Nazis
won 44% of the
vote
Stormtroopers guard the new “concentration camp”
at Oranienburg, 1933
“Der Tag von
Potsdam,”
March 21, 1933:
The Corporal greets
the Field Marshall
as the newly
elected Reichstag
delegates gather
Hindenburg’s speech to
the new Reichstag:
“The place where we are
assembled today summons us to
look back on old Prussia, which
became great through fear of
God, dutiful work, never failing
courage, and devoted love of the
fatherland, and which united the
German tribes on this basis. May
the old spirit of this place inspire
today’s generation, may it free us
from selfishness and partisan
quarrels, may it bring us together
in a national revival and spiritual
renewal for the sake of a united,
free, proud Germany!”
Hitler and Crown Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern
Hindenburg reviews the Stormtroopers
A DNVP youth group marches through Potsdam
Torchlight
procession by the
SA and Stahlhelm,
March 21, 1933
Marching on
Jerusalem Street,
toward Unter den
Linden
Hitler and his
cabinet attend
Die Meistersinger
von Nuernberg
at the Berlin State
Opera
Hitler demands an Enabling Act, March 23, 1933,
approved by all parties but the SPD
The occupation of the Berlin headquarters
of the Free Trade Unions, May 2, 1933:
By June all parties but the NSDAP had dissolved
“German Students March Against the Ungerman Spirit:”
A book burning on 10 May 1933
Ernst Röhm sought to
place the SA in charge of
rearmament and called
for a “Second Revolution”
Hitler gained credibility among nonNazis after Göring and Goebbels
persuaded him to order the killing of
SA leaders in the “Knight of the Long
Knives,” June 30-July 1, 1934
Heinrich Himmler and the SS carried out the murders and
took over the concentration camps from the SA
The Army’s new loyalty oath to Hitler, August 2, 1934
German judges hail Hitler
THE NEW INSTITUTIONS OF
GOVERNMENT
 To replace the trade unions, all workers were required
to join the German Labor Front; strikes were banned.
 The Nazi SS (=Schutzstaffel) merged with Prussia’s
Gestapo to form a new secret police.
 Elected state governments were replaced by Reich
Commissars, and the 40 Gauleiter of the NSDAP jostled to
fill 20 posts of Reich provincial commissar.
 In a process of Gleichschaltung, every club and interest
group had to affiliate with the NSDAP or dissolve.
 20% of civil servants & 30% of schoolteachers joined
the NSDAP; party membership was frozen at 2.5 million in
December 1933.
The Children’s Friend (ca. 1934)
“THE NSDAP
PROTECTS THE
NATIONAL
COMMUNITY:
Racial Comrades, if
you need advice or
help, contact your
local Pary office
THE NAZI LEADERSHIP IN THE HOUR OF VICTORY
Ernst Röhm, Otto Wagener, and
Rudolf Hess featured prominently in
the original….
…but the photo had to be retouched
in June 1934 and November 1940