A.) Plan of the Investigation
This investigation evaluates to what extent did the German Depression help the National Socialists rise to power. To assess the extent to which the German depression led to the Nazi party gaining control of Germany, the investigation focuses on the effects the depression had on Germany and the events leading to the Nationalist Socialist party gaining control. The details regarding the origins of the National Socialist party are not addressed in this investigation.
The two sources selected for research, The Great Depression in Europe by Patricia Clavin and A Concise History of the Third Reich by Benz Wolfgang are used for their origins, purposes, limitations and values.
B.) Summary of Evidence
The destruction of labor, land and capital during the war caused European products to be less competitive in world markets and made Europe dependent on capital flows from the United States. (Clavin 19) The unproductive deployment of these inflows, most notably in Germany, resulted in the debt crisis that began to boil already in 1927. (Clavin 20) Both the political and social changes were equally important. First of all it must be noted that the peace treaties failed to put forth any international economic cooperation among nations. Germany was forced into accepting all of the blame for starting the war. What made matters worse, however, was that because Germany was forced to accept all of the blame for the war, it was also made to pay for all the damage caused by it. The German economy was already in ruin. Many of its people already had very limited food. The reparations payments would cripple them. (Benz 17)
In order to solve the money problem the government started printing more banknotes. Due ...
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...Versailles which lowered the rights of Germany were to blame as well. However it is undeniable that the Depression had contributed to the rising of the Nazi party. If it wasn’t for the terrible situation that Germany was facing both economically and politically since 1929, the Nationalist Socialists wouldn’t have had such a high chance of gaining power.
Works Cited
Benz, Wolfgang. Concise history of the Third Reich. Berkeley, University of California. 2006.
Clavin, Patricia. The Great Depression in Europe. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. 2000.
Henig, Ruth.B. Weimar Republic, 1919-1933. London, Routledge. 1998.
Noakes, Jeremy. Nazism 1919-1945 Volume 1: The Rise to Power 1919-1934. U.K, Exeter. 1998.
Shirer, William. The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich. London, Simon & Schuster. 1990.
Williamson, D.G. Third Reich. London, Longman. 2002.
"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.
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Nazi Germany: The Face of Tyranny. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2000. Print.
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.
During the1930’s the Western economy was still in terrible shape from the Great Depression and the Stock Market Crash of 1929. “Evident instability – with cycles of boom and bust, expansion and recession - generated profound anxiety and threatened the livelihood of both industrial workers and those who gained a modest toehold in the middle class. Unemployment soared everywhere, and in both Germany and the United States it reached 30 percent or more by 1932. Vacant factories, soup kitchens, bread lines, shantytowns and beggars came to symbolize the human reality of this economic disaster.” (Strayer, 990) Like Germany, the Western democracies were economically in trouble and looking for stability and recovery. The United States’ response to the Great Depression, under Roosevelt, came in the form of the New Deal “which was an experimental combination of reforms seeking to restart economic growth. In Britain, France and Scandinavia, the Depression energized a democratic socialism that sought greater regulation of the economy and a more equal distribution of wealth, through peaceful means and electoral policies.” (Strayer, 993) The lack and need for restoration was clearly global. Hitler’s promise of civil peace, unity and the restoration of national pride would seem very appealing and very similar to the wants and needs of the Western democracies; but through peaceful means. No one was interested in or could afford setting off a heavily funded war by taking a stand against Hitler. Through a policy of appeasement allowing Hitler to take back land that was ordered dematerialized by the Treaty of Versailles, the British and the French tried to avoid all-out war but to no avail. Hitler continued his conquests eventually having most of Europe under Nazi control. A second war in Europe had
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; a History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960.
The Treaty of Versailles is a cause of World War II because of the restrictions it placed on Germany as the alleged sole aggressor of the war. The war reparation totaled $98 billion, and under Clause 231 Germany was forced to take the entire load onto her ruined economy and attempt to repay the debt starting with an initial $5 billion payment. In terms of military, Germany was limited to a 100,000 man army, with her navy stripped to the level of a coast guard, she was allowed no heavy artillery, no weapons of mass destruction and the border with France became a demilitarized zone for 15 years following the signing of the treaty on June 28 1919. Germany also lost all her territories in Africa and became a mandate of the Allied Forces, those living in mandated zones could participate in “self-determination” after the Allies taught them how to be a democracy (...
At the end of World War One, Germany was required to pay a large sum of money to the Allies consequently resulting in the German Depression. The sum Germany had to pay was set after the Treaty of Versailles was enacted at approximately six billion, six hundred million – twenty-two billion pounds, (World War Two – Causes, Alan Hall, 2010). The large amount of reparations that Germany had to pay resulted in a depression and angered the Germans because they thought it was an excessive amount of money to pay, (World War Two – Causes) The Germans hatred of the Treaty of Versailles was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power. Germany could not pay their reparations and was forced into a depression, (World War II – Causes). The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of its economic production and its available employments, (World War II – Causes). The German Depr...
“On 2 August 1934, President Hindenburg died. Within an hour of his death Hitler announced that the offices of chancellor and president were to be combined and that he was the new head of state. Hitler’s adolescent dream of becoming Fuhrer of the German people had been realized” President Hindenburg’s death marked the official end of the Weimar Republic, a democratic ‘experiment’ that had lasted since 1918. The causes of the dissolution of the Republic are wide ranging and numerous, as was explained in the articles of both Richard Bessel, and John McKenzie. The two author’s agree on the sequence of events which led to the dissolution of the Republic, however, they disagree on what exactly caused the transition from Weimar to the Third Reich. The author’s disagreement stem from a differing view of the fundamental cause, political structure versus political leadership.
Fergusson, Adam. When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse. London: William Kimber, 1975. Print.
'Nazi Germany ' represented the period from 1933s to 1945s, which played an important role in prosperous German history and the modern European history. After Germany participated in First World War in the first half of the 20th century, the whole society was glutted with unemployment, poverty, hunger, inflation and moral corruption. The public couldn’t feel the republican democracy benefits.
The rise of National Socialism in post-WWI Germany is an understandable reaction to the problems of the Versailles Peace Treaty, considering the German attitudes and beliefs at the time. These attitudes and beliefs were the result of generations of Prussian militarism, extreme racist nationalism, and, most importantly, the failure of the Treaty of Versailles signed in June of 1919. The rise of the Nazi party, and their extremist National Socialist doctrine appealed directly to these attitudes and beliefs that permeated Germany society after the first World War.
The Great Depression was caused by the collapse of the European economies, unable to withstand the pressure the of the First World War. As a result, living standards fell, businesses closed and unemployment rates went through the roof. In October, 1929 the American stock market collapsed in what was later name ‘the Wall Street crash’. Consequently, America was forced to withdraw her loans to other countries and many banks all around Europe collapsed. Customers tried to retrieve their savings, but they were too late. Countries all around the world took a hit, but Germany was the most affected of them all. The reparations in the Treaty of Versailles drove Germany to poverty, causing her to be the worst affected by the Depression. The German public was ready to listen to anything, and many chose to listen to Hitler. Hitler called France and England the ‘November criminals’ and vowed revenge upon them for the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles. Many Germans agreed with his views and this built up the Nazi party and Hitler's power and eventually led to Hitler becoming Chancellor of
Fulbrook, Mary. A Concise History of Germany. 2nd ed. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.
Fritzsche, Peter. Life and Death in the Third Reich. 1st Ed. ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP,