1925-28 – The Weimar Republic
- Politics was stable generally
- Tourism was strong
- Gustav Stresemann, as chancellor, convinced moderate parties to work together
- He put together a coalition
- Political stability also wavered
- There were 4 different chancellors in the ‘stable’ years
- Germans thought politicians were selfish
- Germans looked up to anti-democrats such as judges / generals
- Extremist parties were doing better than usual
- The economy was prosperous
- Berlin business was strong
- Stresemann tackled hyper-inflation
- The Dawes Plan was set up
- The money created more jobs and public facilities
- Benefits and wages increased
- Reparations were repaid
- Germany regained its status as the world’s second greatest industrial power
- German pride was being restored and these were Germany’s ‘Golden Years’
- The economy was prosperous yet fragile and only beneficial for some
- The USA could easily recall their loans
- Peasant farmers and the middle class didn’t benefit particularly
- Thriving culture was enjoyed by many people
- Berlin had an attractive cultural life
- Writers and poets flourished, many won awards
- Design and architecture developed; landmarks and monuments were built
- Modernist and abstract art prospered
- Cinema and theatrics thrived and created a strong entertainment industry
- Science progressed; there were great advances in communications technology
- The modern culture was resented by some people
- Villages and country towns felt that the culture of cities represented moral decline
- The Wander Vogel called for a return to simple country values
- Germany was generally a peaceful country
- Stresemann secured the Locarno treaties which established Germany’s borders
- Germany was accepted into the League of Nations
- Stresemann negotiated the Young Plan which lightened Germany’s reparations
- Not everything was at peace in Germany
- Germany had bad international relations
- German people were bitter about Stresemann signing other treaties
1924-29 – The Nazi Party
- Originally, the party was the German Workers’ Party led by Anton Drexler
- Young Adolf Hitler joined straight after the army and seeing his talent, he was quickly put in charge of propaganda
- In 1920, the party changed their name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Part and announced the Twenty-Five Point Programme
- The abolition of the Treaty of Versailles
- Union of Germany and Austria
- Only ‘true’ Germans would be allowed to live in Germany
- Other races, especially Jews, were to be excluded
- Large industries and businesses to be nationalised
- Generous old age pension
- A strong central government
- Hitler was such a successful member of the party that he made speeches which opponents tried to disrupt to the extent that Hitler set up the Sturmabteilung (SA) who protected Hitler’s meetings and disrupted those of other parties
- In 1923, despite Hitler giving them a high profile, they were still a minority party
- On 8 November, he actioned his plan to topple the Weimar Government by sending the SA to take over the official buildings and announced his proposed revolution
- The government forces hit back and broke up the rebellion the following day
- This was known as the Munich Putsch
- Hitler was given five years in prison for treason, a crime which could mean life
- He ended up only serving nine comfortable months in which he wrote his book Mein Kampf which set out his main beliefs
- National Socialism – loyalty to Germany, racial purity, equality and state control of the economy
- Racism – the Aryans were the master race, all other races (especially Jews) were inferior
- Armed force – he believed war and struggle was a healthy development for the Aryan race
- Lebensraum – expansion of German living space, mainly taking land from Russia and Poland
- The Fuhrer – debate and democracy produced weakness, strength lay in loyalty to the leader
1925-27 – Nazi Support
- After leaving prison, Hitler reorganised the party, realising he would have to win by democratic means
- Seeing the communists were doing well, he copied their tactics by setting up local party branches and the Hitler Youth
- He also enlarged the SA, using unemployed ex-servicemen
- He formed the Schutzstaffel (SS) who were like the SA, but they were loyal to Hitler personally
- Their plans did not go so well as their target audience – workers – were happier since industry flourished, and life was good for them
- In the 1928 elections the party only got 12 Reichstag seats and a quarter of the votes that communists received
- However, the Nazis gained support from peasant workers, middle class and other groups who were benefiting less from Germany’s prosperity
- They also gained support from country towns who thought the Weimer was causing the moral decline in the cities
- The Nazis closely collaborated with the right-wing Nationalist Party (DNVP) to make themselves appear more respectable
- With the Nazi’s change of focus membership rose to 100 000 by 1928
- Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels to take charge of Nazi propaganda
- Despite the shift, there was no electoral progress, in 1928 they were the smallest party in the Reichstag the support of less than 3% of the population
- The prosperity of Stresemann meant most of the population weren’t interested in extreme politics
1929 – The Depression
- The Wall Street Crash caused a worldwide economic depression, it particularly affected Germany as the USA loans were all recalled, causing businesses to bankrupt, banks to shut down and mass unemployment
- The Weimer democracy failed the people as they couldn’t come up with a solution for the unemployment and other problems, so the people turned to more extremist parties
- The Nazi’s Twenty-Five Point Plan became very attractive and seemed to solve the people’s problems
- Hitler gave blame to the ‘November Criminals’ – the socialist politicians who signed the Treaty of Versailles, communists and Jews
- In 1930, the Nazis won 107 seats, in 1932, they won nearly 200 seats – they were not yet the majority, but they were the biggest single party
1929-33 – The Nazi’s Electoral Success
- Goebbels created his own version of events over how Hitler came to power, that he was always destined to be Germany’s leader and the people finally came to recognise this
- The campaign methods were extremely effective, full of enthusiasm and very modern
- The Nazis gained votes due to positive and negative cohesion
- Campaign methods were effective
- Propaganda targeted inferior people, the Treaty of Versailles and Weimar politicians, appealing to those affected by the depression
- Slogans were produced which were based on the wants of the people
- Hitler ran for president in 1932, and although he didn’t win, his profile was raised massively, he was constantly campaigning and speaking, and Germans saw him as a man of the people who knew and understood ordinary struggles
- They showed they could get things done by organising soup kitchens and housing for the unemployed
- The SS and SA were disciplined on the streets and people thought Germany needed some order
- When policies were unpopular, the Nazis dropped them
- The people had lost faith in the democracy
- Businessmen were afraid of communists taking over their businesses, and farmers were afraid of communists taking over their land, the Nazis promised to combat the communist threat
- The Weimar was ineffectual and even made life more difficult by slashing benefits
- People saw liberal Weimar as the cause of immoral culture and the Nazis promised to restore values
- Workers started to support communists who fought in the street and terrorised people, they were afraid there would be a revolution like in Russia
1932-33 – Hitler became Chancellor
- In July 1932, after the Reichstag elections, the Nazis had 230 seats and were the largest single party but not a majority
- Hitler demanded to be Chancellor, but Hindenburg refused, keeping the current Chancellor – Franz von Papen
- This was a failure as von Papen had virtually no support in the Reichstag and so called yet another election
- In November 1932, the Nazis came out with the most votes, but less than before
- Hitler regarded this as a disaster
- The Nazis lost over 2 million votes and 38 seats, they ran out of money and Hitler threatened suicide
- In December 1932, Hindenburg again refused to make Hitler chancellor, he appointed Kurt von Schleicher (one of his own advisors) but he was forced to resign within a month
- No single political group had the power to legislate due to the proportional representation enforced by the Weimar
- Hindenburg had the power due to the emergency; he had the support of the military and the rich industrialists
- In January 1933, the powers secretly met and appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor, they were confident that they could control him
- They thought that with vice-chancellor von Papen and the Cabinet that conservatives would make all the decisions
- Behind the scenes they thought they could have power over him, but they were wrong
1933-34 – Hitler’s Consolidation of Power
- When Hitler became Chancellor, people didn’t think he would hold power for very long and he was in a precarious position
- However, by the summer of 1934, he was the supreme dictator of Germany through various means including the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act, the Night of the Long Knives and the Army Oath
- Hitler called for another election for March 1933 to obtain and overall Nazi majority in the Reichstag
- Speeches, rallies, processions and street fights all took place and Hitler was in control of the media and the streets
- Still, success was not assured
- Then, on 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire
- Hitler blamed the fire on the communists and declared that it was the beginning of a communist uprising
- He demanded emergency powers to deal with the situation and Hindenburg granted them
- With the powers, the Nazis arrested communists, broke up meetings and frightened voters
- In the elections, the Nazi Party won their largest ever share of the votes and with the support of the smaller Nationalist Party, they had an overall majority with 52% of the vote
- Hitler immediately banned the communist party and used the SA and SS to intimidate the Reichstag into signing the Enabling Act, allowing him to legislate without consultation
- Only the SPD voted against him and the Catholic Centre Party co-operated out of fear to be treated like the Communist Party
- Hitler was now a virtual dictator who could pass new laws, and no one could do anything about it
- Even then, he was not secure, he had seen the civil service, the judiciary and the military undermine the Weimar Republic
- Within a year, present and potential opponents had left Germany or been taken to concentration camps and other political parties are banned
- The military were suspicious of the SA’s leader Ernst Rohm, they thought it was a disreputable force and were unsettled by Rohm’s talk of making the SA into a second German army
- He had control of over 4 million SA men, making him a potentially dangerous rival
- Hitler acted ruthlessly to eliminate his threat – on the weekend of the 29-30 June, squads of the SS broke into Rohm’s home and that of other leading SA members
- Hitler accused Rohm of plotting to overthrow and murder him
- Rohm and over 400 others were executed that weekend
- This included von Schleicher, who had fiercely criticised Hitler and others who had no connection with Rohm
- This purge became known as the Night of the Long Knives and showed that Hitler had no loyalties to anyone and was determined to be the supreme leader
- The military were suspicious of the SA’s leader Ernst Rohm, they thought it was a disreputable force and were unsettled by Rohm’s talk of making the SA into a second German army
- Soon after the Night of the Long Knives, Hindenburg died, and Hitler took over as supreme leader of Germany
- On 2 August 1934, the entire army swore an oath of personal loyalty to him, they agreed to stay out of politics and to serve Hitler
- Hitler spent a lot of money on rearmament, brought back conscription and made plans to restore Germany as a great military power
Describe one example of the main achievements of Weimar Germany in the period 1925-29. [2]
Describe one example of Weimar instability in the period 1925-29. [2]
Describe one example of the effects of the Depression on Germany 1929-33. [2]
Describe one example of the campaign methods used by the Nazis in elections 1929-33. [2]
Describe one example of Hitler’s actions in 1933-34. [2]
Describe one example of the Nazi consolidation of power. [2]
How stable was the Weimar Republic in the period 1925-29? Explain your answer. [10]
Explain why the Nazis were able to gain so much support in the period 1929-33. [10]
Explain how Hitler became chancellor in 1933. [10]
Explain how the Nazis consolidated their hold on power in the period 1933-34. [10]
Study sources 8 and 9 on page 138. Why are these sources so different? [5]
Study Source 13 on page 140. How is this source useful for a historian studying Nazi election campaigning? [5]
Compare Source 16 with Source 13 on page 142. Is one source more useful to historians than the other? Explain your answer. [10]
Read Source 19 on page 144. Why did Klemperer write this diary entry in March 1933? [5]
‘The Weimar Republic fell because Germans never really supported it’. How far do you agree with this view? [18]
‘The Nazis were only able to take power because they were led by Hitler’. How far do you agree with this view? [18]
‘The Night of the Long Knives was the most important step in Hitler’s consolidation of power.’ How far do you agree with this view? [18]