Consolidation of Nazi Power 1933-1934 Essay

Undoubtedly, Nazi popularity placed pressure on government and on President Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor. Their astonishing rise in votes since 810 000 in 1928 to 13.75 million in July 1932 was extraordinary.

After Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I, Germans had little faith in their government, and in the early 1930s following the stock market crash in New York, Germany was economically struggling . Millions of people were out of work due to the world wide catastrophe making it an opportune time for Hitler and the Nazis to rise into power. Hitler, who was a powerful and spellbinding speaker, attracted Germans desperate for change. He promised to make Germany a better country and promised the disenchanted, a better life. Nazis appealed especially to the youth, unemployed, and members of the lower to middle class. Hitler’s rise to power seemed instantaneous. Before the economic depression, Nazis were virtually unknown, winning less than 3 percent of the vote to the Reichstag, which was the German Parliament. However, in the 1924 elections, the Nazis won a whopping 33 percent of the votes which was more than any other party. In January of 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the head of German Government . The Germans were convinced that they had found a savior for the Nation. The timing of his rise made it very easy for Hitler to gain power in a democratic government because people were hopeless and wanted a fast solution to the deficit. He promised things like a stronger economy, prosperity, and anything that they desired . He focused on first getting noticed and then grew from there. He didn’t say anything but what the people wanted to hear. Getting the people of Germany to trust him was how he started to gain so much control. Unfortunately, Hitler’s charm and persuasion was not the sole reason why Hitler gained so much power in a democratic

In The Nazi Seizure of Power by William Sheridan Allen, the author is able to show the reader the support building strategy used by the Nazi party in Northeim and surrounding areas. Allen's thesis is that Nazi party was able to succeed the village of Northeim and else where because they were able to reach out the lower and middle class. Since these classes held the majority of the population, the Nazi party discovered what they wanted from government officials and then used that to persuade these classes to vote for them. To give you a background of the village of Northeim is vital to the understanding of how this party could have come in and take over the political scene so quickly.

Thus, a series of parties against the Weimar gained power, although through coalition, reducing the power of the already fragile Republic. Here we can see the system of parliamentary democracy was a factor in the collapse of the Weimar. The series of economic crisis’ which affected post World War One Germany assisted in both the fall of the Weimar and the rise of Hitler. The Treaty of Versailles left the country with extremely large debts and when Germany did not keep up with payments, the French responded by invading the Ruhr, an industrial region in Germany, resulting in a general strike and ruining the middle class who would eventually make up the foundation of Nazi supporters.

During the 1930’s Germany was at an all time low as the worldwide economic depression hit Germany hard. The confidence in Germany from the people was lacking due to the fresh memory of their defeat in World War I. This caused great need of a new leader, someone who could give the people change, and Adolf Hitler knew he could do just that. His rapid rise to power began when he started to promise things that intrigued the German people. He promised the hopeless and needy a better life, and promised opportunities that were exactly what the people needed. This caught the attention of so many young unemployed and middle class people. His party, known as the Nazi Party, won 33 percent of the votes in the 1932 elections. And by January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor, which was the head of the German government. Germany started to feel like they might've found the leader they'd been so desperate for.

With incompetent leadership and an unhappy nation, the German people began to realize that their country was in a vulnerable situation and began to look for stable alternatives to democracy. Hitler’s

In the lead up to the depression the Nazis had 12 seats and just two years later in the peak of the economic crisis the Nazis had 107 seats. This reflects the dissatisfaction that was shown in the present government and the fact that Hitler was the only person who promised the solutions that they people wanted. Many historians have stated that if Stressman had not died in 1929 then Germany may have recovered to its former strength and Hitler may never had the chance at gaining power. From 1930 onwards the country is being ruled by presidential decree through the use of Article 48, so therefore no party could gain a majority for the German economy to get back on its feet. Hitler took advantage of these times of hardship and promised these desperate people what they wanted, employment and a way out of these poverty times. Hitler was the only option left, and is desperate time people look for desperate politics to solve these problems. Weimar

Even though Germany was left in a period of struggle and economic weakness after WW1, Adolf Hitler would take a stand by creating a party that would help refine the structure of the economy. This party, when abbreviated, was called Nazi, would also create harsh laws and unrelentless punishment. Due to the Nazi party’s quick growth, there was an immediate impact on lifestyle and politics for the people of Germany. The long term impact brought forth by the consequences or legacy of the Nazi party included a population decrease and an increase in deaths. To make both of these impacts, Hitler had to overcome many hard challenges.

This also led to people being discontent, people were beginning to lose faith in the Weimar government, as they had now proven, on two occasions which were the occupation of the Ruhr and now the Wall Street crash that they were unable to keep control on the situations and they were showing signs of instability. Germany was struck with poverty, even those in the middle classes suffered. Due to the masses in unemployment and the poverty which was arising, people were becoming desperate and they began to find the extreme ideology of the Nazi party more appealing. People started to turn their attention to the views of the Nazis, the Nazis seemed to have all the answers, they promised to solve all of Germany's problems so therefore people were starting to support the Nazis. Before all the chaos the Nazi party had been a very minority party, who people had ignored, but the depression showed a turning point and many people believed that they had no choice but to join the Nazi party.

In 1930, because of the Nazi Party’s good fortunes and careful planning, their votes increased from 12 seats to 107 seats. One of the factors that helped them captured more votes was because they mainly targeted on people who were affected worst on the Great Depression like the farmers and small businessmen. He promised to cut taxes, protection on food prices for the farmers, and making policy of making trade unions powerless and stopped communisms to the small businessmen. It appealed them. Many male Germans also supported Hitler because of the military appearance. Female German also supported him because he made them feel very important as he wanted them to bear lots of Aryan children to serve the country. Hitler also made a point to declare through his speech that he detests the Jews, and naturally, those Germans who are mostly Protestants, too, blamed the Jews. In brief, Hitler appealed to a wide range of people in voting for him.

This removal of the ability to criticize and question the Nazi regime led to one of the first acts when the Hitler was given power by Hindenburg in 1933, and that was to begin a campaign of terror against all opponents from the extreme left, namely the communist party. Which was the only party in Germany after the 1930 elections that really held any sort of power as the centre left had collapsed[10] what this lead to was the quick consolidation of power as Hitler and the Nazi party controlled the apparatuses of government that allowed them to unleash a reign of terror against their opponents, chief among them the communists. What this culminated in was the attempted burning down of the Reichstag by a communist sympathiser and the subsequent arrest of 4,000 Communists as Hitler declared to Goebbels, Goring and Rudolf Diels that: ‘There will be no more mercy now; anyone who stands in our way will be butchered’ not only that but that

It is to an certain extent that Nazi consolidation of power in 1933 was due to the use of terror and violence. However the terror and violence was very limited because the Nazi's weren’t in a strong enough position to exert terror and violence alone. Nazi propaganda against the communists made most Germans fearful of Communism therefore allowing Nazis to consolidate a bit more power through means of terror. On the other hand the Nazi party’s policy of legality and the threat of communism are to a large extent the underlining most important factor in explaining how the Nazis were able to destroy political opposition and become dominant and consolidate power in 1933. Legality was a policy where Hitler’s objective was to legally consolidate

The Failure of Democracy in Germany in the Period 1928 to 1934 Those in power in Weimar Germany so consistently mishandled the political and economic situation leading up to the period 1928-1934, that a well-structured challenge from the Nazi Party brought about the fall of democracy. This Nazi Party was stronger ideologically, structurally within the party and politically, with Hitler as Fuhrer a major factor himself. In addition, factions within Germany for whom a right-wing political system was more beneficial, such as the army and big business, aided the eventual change in governance. Thus a series of events occurred which can be summarised by these three main factors: failure of the Weimar

The Nazis hope for the next Reichstag general election, 5 March 1933, was to gain a majority in the Reichstag. This did not come to be, the Nazis would only win 43 percent of the vote. Their goal to push aside their coalition partners, the German National People’s Party, did not happen. With their coalition with the DNVP, the Nazi’s did enjoy a slim majority. In Prussia, there was a state election that resulted in the same as the Reichstag general

One could argue that the Reichstag Fire was vital as a mean for Hitler to strengthen his control of Germany since it increased anti-communism and decreased the Communist vote.Hitler used the Reichstag fire as evidence that the Communists were plotting against his government (as found in Lacey and Shepard,63),this increased fear of Communists and therefore increased support of the Nazi party.In March elections 1933 the Nazis gained 288 seats and became the largest party in the Reichstag, this is the result of anti-communism since the Catholic Center party only collaborated with the Nazis since in a Communist country, religion is banned (as found in Walsh,159).The Reichstag fire did not only mean increasing anti-communism and more support for Hitler, but also meant less support for the Communists. In March election 1933 Communists had only