Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1933?
The appointment of Hitler as Chancellor is a critical event in the lead
up to WW2. From this position of power Hitler was able to turn
Germany into a single party state. It was by a combination of factors
that Hitler was able to capitalize on the feelings of insecurity and
longing for a strong state and economic prosperity, such as the
exhibition an image of order, stability and strong leadership in
combination with effective demagoguery that went in contrast to
the chaotic developments of Weimar Germany during the
Depression. As people lost faith in democracy, many saw him as the
only answer.
It can be contended that Weimar Germany was a weak ruling body
and this was only emphasized with the Wall Street Crash. Firstly, its
policies never truly appealed to the society as a whole. At best the
Reichshwers toleration of the regime was lukewarm. The appeal to
the education system and civil service was even less: German
geography text books still promoted the idea of Germany having
enemies on all sides and school still texts did not present the truth
behind Germanys defeat in 1918. Conveniently these nationalistic
views were in accordance with those of the Nazis. Furthermore, the
Reichstag was inherently inefficient by nature of its structure.
Proportional representation meant large coalitions had to be formed.
Evidence of the problems caused by those broad and diverse
coalitions is that when centre right parties in the government led by
Muller called for reductions in public spending and unemployment
benefits (essential for balancing the budget), the SPD stood firmly in
opposition. This finally led to the forced resignation of chancellor
Muller. The inefficacy and slow bureaucracy had an impact on the
public and strengthened their longing back to the economic
expansion and stability under Bismarck.
democratic system and it did. This had the implication of making the
Nazi option a legitimate one. Nonetheless, Hitler himself remained
aloof by not entering the Reichstag himself, emphasizing his
disassociation with the ever more unpopular Weimar. Hitler
appealed to what the masses felt and he gained their attention.
Hindenburg for one disliked what Hitler promoted, yet he saw no
other alternative as Chancellor. It can be reasoned that it was
because Hitler was able to convey a sense of order, which most of
the forerunning chancellors failed to do, and nobody else seemed to
exhibit. For example, after Mullers forced resignation, Chancellor
Brunings (center party) economic policies of reducing government
spending and increasing taxes, contributed to the rise in
unemployment. Appropriately he was coined as the Hunger
Chancellor because of the suffering he caused. Papen also
displayed this ineffective rule. The army expressed their
dissatisfaction in Papen through their vote of no confidence. The
subsequent inter-institutional appointment of General Schleicher
whos job it was to gain the support of the Nazis or to break them
apart only achieved Hitlers embitterment. These consecutive
failures possibly led Hindenburg into a situation of desperation, and
ended up in a situation much of the populous had to endure, no
politician seemed to be as convincing as Hitler.