Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How Significant was Hyperinflation of 1923 for Germany Essay
Hitler's rise and fall
Hitler's rule in Germany
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Weimar Republic was formed on unstable ground, born out of Germany’s defeat in the First World War. The Republic suffered its first major blow when Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which caused major economic problems for the relatively young country. From 1924 to 28, the Nazi party had little support from the German public. This lack of support was due to the success of Stresemann’s policies and the country was now stable and flourishing, after the events in the Ruhr and hyperinflation. Germany now had a low unemployment rate and had an improved international status. These conditions meant that the Nazi extremist ideologies had little appeal to Germany’s population. However this period of stability has short lived. On 24th October 1929, Black Thursday struck. The American Stock Exchanged crashed and the world rapidly plummeted into the Great Depression, with Germany experiencing the worst effects. In a bid to bring Germany out of the Depression, Bruning was appointed chancellor and introduced drastic policies in an effort to save the German economy. Despite the promise the policies potentially had they failed. Early in 1933, the Weimar Republic was preparing for what would be its last pre-war Reichstag election. When the Reichstag building was razed to the ground by a fire allegedly started by communists, the seeds were sown for Hitler to rise to power and the Weimar Republic had lived its last day.
The Weimar Republic was a direct result of Germany’s defeat in World War I. The German population had endured hardship and starvation as a result of a blockade of their ports, by the British navy. The situation had escalated and conditions became so bad that in October 1918, sailors mutinied in Kiel and Hambu...
... middle of paper ...
...y Press.
History: Hitler's Rise to Power. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2012, from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/germany/hitlerpowerrev1.shtml
Hyperinflation. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2012, from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hyperinflation.asp#axzz1qOCEr6dd
McCallum, A. (1992). Germany 1918-1945 Democracy to Dictatorship. Port Melbourne: Heinemann Education.
The Seeds of Evil: The Rise of Hitler. (2004, June 4). Retrieved March 29, 2012, from Schools History: http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/ASLevel_History/week2_theweimarconsitution.htm
Tonge, S. (2011, January 5). Weimar Germany 1919-1933 . Retrieved March 29, 2012, from European History: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/weimar.htm#collapse
White, A., & Hadley, E. (1990). Germany 1918 - 1949. London: Collins Educational.
Class Worksheets and Notes
"Account for the changing political fortunes of the Nazi Party from November, 1923 until January, 1933."
The German Weimar Republic was an attempt to make Germany a more democratic state. While this was a very good idea in theory, the Weimar Republic was ineffective due to the instability that came with it. Several factors contributed to the instability of Germany’s Weimar Republic, such as the new political ideals brought forward and the government’s hunger for war. To begin, one of the factors that contributed to the instability of the Weimar republic was the presence of new political ideals. Marie Juchacz unintentionally highlighted that reason in her speech to the National Assembly.
YEAR 10 HISTORY ESSAY: GERMANY’S FATAL ATTRACTION TO HITLER Adolf Hitler, easily one of the most influential people to have ever walked on the Earth. His rise to power also one of the most oppurtunistic seized to date. How did he achieve such a powerful control over Germany and its people? Through what you could call a series of unfortunate events.
This investigation will address the research question, to what extent was Germany’s post-World War I economic depression a causal factor in Hitler’s rise to power from 1919 to 1934? With the Treaty of Versailles, the German government was required to pay 132 billion gold marks of war reparations, drastically worsened with the US Wall Street crash. This effectively crippled the German economy and created a desperate people. For this investigation, Hitler’s private life history and pre-military career will not be analyzed. His political rise will be examined from the perspective of economic and social factors. Several primary sources will be explored, including the Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Hitler’s 25-Point Program. In addition, tertiary sources covering Hitler’s non-personal life and rise to power will be studied.
In conclusion, the Weimar Republic of Germany ended up collapsing and giving way to Nazi rule because of the lack of popular support, the lack of organization within the party, and the fact that it had to compete with other, stronger forms of government.
After the First World War Germany recognised her first ever democratic government, the Weimar republic lasted from 1918 – 1933 an astonishingly long time given its turbulent start. The November revolution saw the election of soldier and worker councils similar to that of the Russian revolution in 1917, it spread across Germany like wildfire and in turn split the country before a democracy could even be instated nevertheless on November 9th 1918 the German republic was established. From then on The Weimar Republic was set on unstable and insecure path and this is why it is one of Germanys most important historical periods; it was Germanys earliest form of non-imperial government and rule and its collapse in 1933 paved the way for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. For these reasons there have been endless works published on the Weimar republic and the outpouring of literature post world war two focuses on the collapse of the Weimar republic and how the Nazi party came to power. However, to understand why the debate surrounding the Golden Era in the Weimar Republic is an interesting one and lacking in historical works, it is key to examine the historiography of the Weimar republic as a whole. Furthermore, to understand why historians focus on other periods in the Weimar’s history in particular the consequences of the treaty of Versailles and the consequences of the Wall Street crash in 1928 which led to its collapse.
Hitler’s rise to power can be attributed to a series of events occurring both in Germany and the rest of the world in the mid 20th century. In the year 1929, due to the collapse of the American Stock Exchange the economic situation in Germany terribly worsened. “’I see myself as Chancellor and I will be Chancellor,’ Hitler told Hans Frank, who by then had become his lawyer.” (P.64) Hitler believed in himself and eventually received the power he aimed for. Unemployment was at around 6 million and people were desperate for a quick ...
Richard Bessel’s article stresses the political structure of Weimar Germany as the cause of its failure. Its structure was flawed in numerous ways, all of which contributed to its inevitable failure. First of all, the problems within Germany due to the First World War were massive. This caused economic, political and social problems which first had to be dealt with by the new Weimar government. The loss of the war had left Germany with huge reparations to pay, and massive destruction to repair. In order to gain the capital needed to finance efforts to rebuild, and repay the Allies, the economy had to be brought back to its prewar levels. This was not an easy task.
...ce of many Germans to the Weimar Republic – perhaps even paving the way for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party’s rise to power in the 1930s.
After World War I, the social climate in Germany was depressing. The German people were humiliated by their country's defeat and by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The financial depression that resulted left millions of individuals out of work. The German government was weak, and the people sought new leadership. These conditions provided an opportune setting for a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler, reckless and powerful, was able to fan the flames of an ancient hatred into a wild and out of control holocaust (Altman 12).
...Republic was marked by failure. The inflation in 1923, caused in part by the Versailles settlement, drove people away from democracy and towards Nazism. Socially, the Nazi movement had taken root with many conservatives as a way to unify and oppose the treaty. Books and literature written by Nazi leaders such as Hitler himself were propaganda to the movement and allowed for the party to solidify its goals. Politically, the republic was fractured and messy allowing for many parties to rise and fall out of favor. The early Nazi movement was based off the popular notion of oppression created by the Treaty of Versailles. Thus, the Treaty of Versailles fostered a political and social environment for the Nazi Party to grow and eventually seize power. It is ironic that this treaty ended the “war to end all wars,” while also inadvertently started yet another world conflict.
...After we consider all these points mentioned we begin to see how everything worked and connected to form one huge disaster for Germany. We start to see how all these things played a part, the reparations led to unemployment that led to no money that led to overprinting of money. How the huge consequence of the reparations led to the unsuccessful paying of it leading to the French invasion of the Ruhr which led to strikes and therefore no products to trade with. How the unstable Weimar government led to extremist parties that damaged the economy further and brought inflation to its highest. The effects were probably the worst, the starvation coupled with the disease epidemic that killed people off and the worthless tonnes of paper notes roaming around the nation. It all in all was a very bad time in Germany one that they always found it hard to recover from.
The Treaty of Versailles, which put an end to World War I, caused a number of positive and negative outcomes in Germany. Germany was in need of a democratic government in order to meet the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Established by members from the Social Democrat Party in 1919, the Weimar Republic became the central power in Germany for the following years. The republic was found in the city of Weimar and was a replacement, so to say, for the imperial government that had previously stood as the central authority. Even though the Weimar Republic managed to lead Germany for 15 years, it experienced devastating drawbacks such as hyperinflation, lack of support from the public, and the constant efforts from different groups to overthrow the government; because of these factors, different political groups sought a resolution, such as overthrowing the government and pushing for a strong leader.
After World War One ended in 1918, many of Germany’s unemployed soldiers and citizens felt defeated and their pride injured. Wilhelmine’s leaders of military and political parties blamed Germany’s failure on being “stabbed in the back” by Jews, Communists, and leftwing politicians. After losing the war many Germans banded together to create a new government, the Weimer Republic. They suffered from an unstable economy which became worse when the New York stock market crashed
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969. Kitchen, Martin. A History of Modern Germany: 1800-2000. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Sprout, Otto.