Hitler's Appointment as Chancellor

Hitler's Appointment as Chancellor

There were a number of factors which contributed to Hitler's rise to

power in 1933. Some of the main ones were: Weaknesses in the Weimar

government, political conspiracies, Nazi tactics and the depression.

There were of course many others, and it was in 1933 that they all

happened to come together and give Hitler access to power and control

over Germany.

The Weimar government had been extremely unpopular from the day it was

officially formed. It had not been able to solve any of Germany's

problems after the war and to make matters worse, had sign the hated

Treaty of Versailles. It failed to put down a number of political

revolts because they lacked support and therefore political extremists

like the Nazis were able to bide their time and wait for the right

moment to strike again. By 1923 it had got Germany into a downward

spiral of hyper inflation and by ending the passive resistance policy

in the Ruhr, which although may have been the right thing to do for

Germany, they became even more unpopular. After disturbances died down

for a while the government thought it was safe, but then, in 1929,

Germany was severely hit by the infamous Great Depression. The

government feared that if they did not act soon they would see a

repeat of the hyperinflation in 1923, and therefore the chancellor

raised taxes, cut wages and reduced unemployment benefit. In doing

this they had yet again managed to make themselves less popular and to

top it all off, at the head of the government was an 84 year old war

hero who was able to run the country as he wished using Article 48 of

the Weimar constitution, incidentally this constitution was another of

the governments failed attempt at improving things in Germany. Among

other things, it forced the government to be formed by a coalition of

small parties because a single party could never get enough votes;

this created a very weak government. Overall, the country was in chaos

and the situation in Germany simply continued to worsen under the