5. Reading - 1929-35 Depression; Rise of the Nazi Party



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|Title |5. Reading - 1929-35 Depression; Rise of the Nazi Party |

|Description | |

|Keywords | |

|Objectives | |

|Author |M G Callagher |

|Organisation | |

|Version | |

|Date | |

|Copyright | |

Focus Questions

1. What were the flow-on effects of the Wall Street sharemarket crash of 1929?

2. How did the Great Depression contribute to an upsurge in popularity and support for the Nazi Party?

3. How did Hitler and the Nazis convert electoral success into total control of Germany within two years?

The Great Depression

|The Wall Street Crash brought the Roaring Twenties to an end and led to|[pic] |

|a Depression in America |A homeless family walking along a road during the Great Depression |

| | |

|The stock market crash in October 1929 signalled the beginning of the | |

|decade-long economic slump that would become known as the Great | |

|Depression. | |

|It marked the longest period of high unemployment and low production | |

|and trade in the 20th century. | |

|At its height, nearly a quarter of the USA workforce had lost their | |

|livelihood. | |

|The Depression spread to many European and World Economies. | |

Wall Street crash

|Black Thursday or the Wall Street Crash refers |[pic] |

|to October 24, 1929, the day during which the |Crowds on Wall Street, 24th October 1929 |

|stock market crashed, starting the Great | |

|Depression. | |

| | |

| | |

|The crash followed a speculative boom which had| |

|taken hold in the late 1920’s, which had lead | |

|millions of Americans to invest heavily in the | |

|stock market. | |

|This investment drove share prices up to | |

|artificially high levels | |

|The rising share prices encouraged more people | |

|to invest, as they hoped the shares would rise | |

|further, thus fueling further rises, and | |

|creating an economic bubble. | |

|The banks lent heavily to fund this share | |

|buying spree. | |

Panic Selling

|On the 24th October 1929, the bubble finally burst and panic |[pic] |

|selling set in. |Stock Market before and after Black Tuesday (29 October 1929) |

|13 million shares were sold in the space of one day, as people | |

|desperately tried to dispose of their shares before they became | |

|worthless. | |

|Over the following few days another 30 million shares were sold, | |

|and share prices collapsed, ruining millions of investors. | |

Banks Collapse & American Unemployment

|The banks who had lent heavily to fund share buying, found |[pic] |

|themselves saddled with debt. |Unemployed worker in Detroit |

|This caused many banks to go bankrupt | |

|which caused millions of people to lose their savings | |

|and businesses to lose their credit lines, causing mass | |

|business failures | |

|and massive unemployment. | |

|The crash dramatically worsened an already fragile economic | |

|situation, and was a major contributing factor to the Great | |

|Depression. | |

Spreads to Europe

|Foreign Loans Recalled |[pic] |

|European Economies collapsed under the strain of the calling in of short-term war loans by |Unemployed men in a food line in Paris. |

|the USA | |

|Their income, hence their ability to repay, had stopped | |

|German reparations payments had stopped because loans to Germany from the USA had ceased | |

|Income from exports to the USA had reduced dramatically | |

|The German economic recovery ended | |

|The loans from the USA had been an important element in the recovery | |

|A number of large European banks collapsed | |

|The USA recalled loans to foreign banks | |

|Many could not repay them | |

|Customers panicked and found they couldn’t withdraw their money | |

|People had little or no money to spend | |

|Businesses were forced to cut production | |

|Many firms had to close completely and lay off their workers | |

|This leads to massive unemployment | |

Governments struggled to find solutions

Russia (USSR)

• Russia had limited trade and dependence on other nations. The country was largely unaffected.

• The Soviets claimed that a world Socialist revolution was at hand due to the seeming collapse of the Capitalist system.

France & Britain

• Were severely weakened economically.

• Both feared communist revolts.

• They were forced to cut back on government spending, including defence. This meant that they were less prepared for war or to help each other.

USA

• Continued a policy of isolation to cut costs and commitments.

Japan

• Wanted to conscript unemployed into the army.

• They also wanted to conquer other countries to make them captive markets for Japanese goods.

Italy

• Mussolini looked for nationalist distractions and blamed the communists for the mess.

Unemployment and Germany

The depression caused unemployment, hunger and unhappiness throughout Europe, particularly in Germany.

[pic]

Diagram of the Wall Street Crash and its impact on German Unemployment

Unemployment Tables

Unemployment in Millions

[pic]

German Unemployment

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Rise of the Nazi Party 1920-1933

Over the 1920’s the Nazi Party remained a minor force in German Politics.

However with the onset of the Great Depression an opportunity arose.

Few would have thought that the Nazi Party, starting as a gang of unemployed soldiers in 1919, would become the legal government of Germany by 1933.

Background

|1919 Hitler joins Munich based German Workers Party |[pic] |

|1920 The name of the party is changed to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, called for short, the|Adolf Hitler |

|Nazi Party (or NSDAP) | |

|1921 Hitler is appointed leader of the Nazi Party | |

|1923 Hitler attempted the unsuccessful Munich putsch (coup or takeover). | |

|1924 Hitler was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. | |

|He served only 9 months. | |

|During this time he wrote “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) | |

What is Nazism?

GPW to NSDAP, 1920

• Socialism and Communism had become very popular in the 1920’s however there was still a lot of suspicion of these ideas.

• Hitler suggested renaming the German Workers Party (GPW) to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) in 1920. This was because German Workers Party on its own sounded too much like a Communist Party.

• By including the word “Socialism” the Party could remain popular with workers and by including the word “Nationalism” there could be an appeal to the broader and more right-wing people of Germany.

• The NSDAP Party was later nicknamed “NAZI” Party.

|So Nazism represented: |[pic] |

|A National form of Socialism |Nazi Symbol |

|Appealing to national unity | |

|A revolutionary dynamism under a charismatic leader | |

|Added to the ideas of: | |

|racial superiority | |

|Territorial expansion | |

|Martial (militant) spirit which appealed to the traditional German | |

|characteristic of discipline | |

1924 to 1929

|Hitler changes tactics |[pic] |

| |In the late 1920s, Adolf Hitler reviews stormtroopers at a Nazi Party rally in|

|Hitler attempted to play down his extremist image, and claimed that he |Nuremberg, Germany. |

|was no longer in favour of revolution but was willing to compete with | |

|other parties in democratic elections. | |

|This policy was unsuccessful and in the elections of December 1924 the | |

|NSDAP could only win 14 seats compared with the 131 obtained by the | |

|Socialists (German Social Democrat Party) and the 45 of the German | |

|Communist Party (KPD). | |

|In the 1928 German elections, less than 3% of the people voted for the | |

|Nazi Party which gave them only twelve seats. However, the party was well| |

|organized and membership had grown from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in | |

|1928. | |

|In 1929 the Nazi Party was almost bankrupt due to its continued spending | |

|on extravagant rallies. A German businessman bailed them out. | |

The Storm-troopers

|The Sturm Abteilung (Stormtroopers) was a paramilitary (non-government military) |[pic] |

|group sometimes referred to as the Brown-shirts because of the colour of their |Hitler and the Brown shirts |

|uniform. | |

|The Storm-troopers used murder and violence to help gain support for the Nazi | |

|Party. | |

|The Brown-shirts numbered close to 400,000 by 1932. | |

Impact of Unemployment

|“Only the Great Depression put the wind into Hitler’s sails” |[pic] |

| |The Nazi vote rose alongside unemployment |

|The failure of several German Governments to cope with the massive and | |

|growing unemployment dramatically increased the popularity of the Nazi | |

|Party. | |

|Hitler also used propaganda to spread the Nazi message very effectively. | |

|The Nazi Party made extravagant promises of jobs and prosperity if they | |

|were in Government. | |

Crisis in the Weimar Republic

|July 1932 Election |[pic] |

| |German elections 31 July 1932 – Proportion of Votes |

|The National Socialists (Nazi Party) were now the largest party in the Reichstag |Gained |

|(Parliament). However no other party wanted to form a government with them. | |

|The other parties tried to form a government but failed. A new election was | |

|called. | |

| | |

|November 1932 Election | |

| | |

|The results for the November elections were similar. | |

|Even though the Nazi support had dropped from 230 to 196 seats, they still | |

|remained the biggest party in parliament. | |

|[pic] | |

|Nazi Party Membership and Seats in the Reichstag | |

Hitler Appointed Chancellor

|The figurehead President of Germany was Hindenburg, a much respected former General. He |[pic] |

|mistrusted Hitler and thought that he was a dangerous and annoying presence. |President Hindenburg |

|In January 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor even though Nazi | |

|Party support was actually in decline & unemployment was falling. | |

| | |

|Other party leaders thought they could control Hitler | |

|They wanted to form a government | |

|Two elections in 1932 was enough for everybody | |

|They convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor | |

| | |

|"I will employ my strength for the welfare of the German people, protect the Constitution and | |

|laws of the German people, conscientiously discharge the duties imposed on me, and conduct my | |

|affairs of office impartially and with justice to everyone." - the oath taken by Adolf Hitler. | |

| | |

|So what Hitler had attempted to do by revolution he had now achieved by democracy. Hitler had | |

|never intended to gain power this way. | |

Hitler consolidates Political Power 1933-35

|Hitler, once appointed Chancellor, had no intention of ever losing |[pic]Paul Von Hindenburg calls Hitler to the chancellorship of Germany on |

|power or being constrained by other Parties in the Reichstag. |January 30, 1933 |

|He immediately set out to consolidate and strengthen his position. | |

|Within the space of two years, Adolf Hitler would go from Chancellor | |

|and Leader of a minority party in the Reichstag to the Supreme Leader | |

|and Dictator of an undemocratic Germany. | |

| | |

Hitler calls election, March 1933

|Hitler wanted a majority for the Nazi’s in the Reichstag. He immediately |[pic] |

|called new elections and used heavy propaganda. |The Reichstag on Fire |

| | |

|Reichstag Burns Down | |

| | |

|One week before the election was due to take place, the Reichstag building | |

|burned down. Hitler immediately declared that it was the signal for a | |

|communist takeover of the nation. | |

|Hitler knew that if he was to convince President Hindenburg to give him | |

|emergency powers - as stated in the Weimar Constitution - he had to play on | |

|the old president's fear of communism. What better than to convince him that| |

|the communists were about to take over the nation by force? | |

| | |

|Emergency Powers | |

|Hitler asked Hindenburg to grant him emergency powers in view of the | |

|'communist takeover'. Using the constitution, Hindenburg agreed to pass the | |

|Law for the Protection of the People and the State. | |

March Election Results

|Ban on Communists and Socialists |[pic] |

|This law gave Hitler what he wanted - a ban on the| |

|Communists and Socialists taking part in an | |

|election campaign. The leaders from both parties | |

|were arrested and their newspapers were shut down.| |

|To 'keep the peace' and maintain law and order, | |

|the SA (the Brown Shirts) roamed the streets | |

|beating up those who openly opposed Hitler. | |

|Election Results | |

|The election took place in March - though Hitler | |

|was convinced it would be the last. Hitler did not| |

|get the number of votes he wanted but he did get | |

|enough to get over a 50% majority in the Reichstag| |

|with the support of the Nationalists. | |

|That 12 million people voted for what were | |

|effectively two outlawed parties is remarkable | |

|when the intimidation of voters is taken into | |

|account. | |

One Party State

Enabling Act Passed

On March 23rd, elected officials were due to meet to discuss and vote on Hitler's Enabling Law. The vote for this law was crucial as it gave Hitler a vast amount of power. The law basically stated that any bill only needed Hitler's signature and within 24 hours that bill would become law in Germany. Hitler needed a two-thirds majority to pass the Enabling Act which he gained by persuading the Centre Party to vote with him. Nazi Storm-troopers had also blocked non-supportive Members of Parliament from entering the voting hall. The act gave Hitler what he wanted - dictatorial power.

Opposition Outlawed

On 7th April 1933, Nazi officials were put in charge of all local government in the provinces.

On May 2nd 1933, trades unions were abolished, their funds taken and their leaders put in prison. The workers were given a May Day holiday in return.

On July 14th 1933, a law was passed making it illegal to form a new political party. It also made the Nazi Party the only legal political party in Germany.

Hitler had created a one party state within months of being appointed chancellor.

Hitler Eliminates Threats

|For all the power the Enabling Act gave Hitler, he still felt threatened by some in |[pic] |

|the Nazi Party. |Corporal Adolf Hitler – World War One|

|He was also worried that the regular army had not given an oath of allegiance. Hitler | |

|knew that the army hierarchy held him in disdain as he was 'only ' a corporal in their| |

|eyes. | |

|The Night of the Long Knives not only removed the SA leaders but also got Hitler the | |

|army's oath that he so needed. | |

Removing The SA as a threat

|Two Million Storm-Troopers |[pic] |

|By the summer of 1934, the SA's numbers had swollen to 2 million men. They were under the control |Ernst Röhm, leader of the |

|of Ernst Röhm, a loyal follower of Hitler since the early days of the Nazi Party. |SA |

|The SA is past its usefulness | |

|The SA had given the Nazi's an iron fist with which to disrupt other political parties meetings | |

|before January 1933. The SA was also used to enforce law after Hitler became Chancellor in January | |

|1933. To all intents, they were the enforcers of the Nazi Party and there is no evidence that Röhm | |

|was ever planning anything against Hitler. | |

|Plot against Röhm | |

|However, Röhm had made enemies within the Nazi Party - Himmler, Goering and Goebbels were angered | |

|by the power he had gained and convinced Hitler that this was a threat to his position. | |

Hitler Makes a Deal

By June 1934, the regular army hierarchy also saw the SA as a threat to their authority. The SA outnumbered the army by 1934 and Röhm had openly spoken about taking over the regular army by absorbing it into the SA. Such talk alarmed the army's leaders. 

By the summer of 1934, Hitler had decided that Röhm was a 'threat' and he made a pact with the army. If Röhm and the other SA leaders were removed, the rank and file SA men would come under the control of the army but the army would have to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler. The army agreed and Röhm's fate was sealed.

Night of the Long Knives

|Arrests & Executions |[pic] |

|On the night of June 29th - June 30th 1934, units of the SS |Hitler explains the Night of the Long Knives to the Reichstag |

|(Hitler’s Special Police) arrested the leaders of the SA and| |

|other political opponents. The arrests carried on for 2 more| |

|nights. | |

|Seventy seven men were executed on charges of treason though| |

|historians tend to think the figure is higher. The SA was | |

|brought to heel and placed under the command of the army. | |

|Hitler received an oath of allegiance from all those who | |

|served in the army. Röhm was shot. Others were bludgeoned to| |

|death. | |

|Hitler before the Reichstag | |

|Hitler told the Reichstag that for the duration of the | |

|arrests that he and he alone was the judge in Germany and | |

|that the SS carried out his orders. From that time on the SS| |

|became a feared force in Nazi Germany lead by Heinrich | |

|Himmler. The efficiency with which the SS had carried out | |

|its orders greatly impressed Hitler and Himmler was to | |

|acquire huge power within Nazi Germany. | |

The Army Oath of Allegiance

Every member of the Army and SA were forced to take an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. An oath of allegiance is a significant step for any German soldier and one which they would be loath to break.

|[pic] |[pic] |

|Soldiers take the oath of allegiance to Hitler – Note the names were recorded |The SA salute with both hands |

|on the photo of those that refused to take the oath | |

Der Fuhrer

President Hindenburg dies, 1935

President Hindenburg died in 1935. He was a hero of the people who Hitler dared not challenge.

Hitler becomes Der Fuhrer

Hitler removed the office of President and combined it with that of Chancellor. Thus he became Der Fuhrer (The Leader)

Summary

• The economic hope and prosperity of the late 1920’s was interrupted by the Wall Street Crash which led to a decade long depression, particularly in the USA.

• The effect of the Great Depression was felt in Europe, particularly in countries that relied on the USA for loans and trade.

• German unemployment surged which led directly to support for the National Socialists (Nazis).

• Hitler was able to manipulate Hindenburg and the Reichstag once he was made Chancellor of Germany.

• Hitler and his Nazis had eliminated democracy and replaced it with a one party state ruled by a dictator. They had complete control of all the mechanisms of Germany by 1935.

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