Monday, 28 September 2015

Why was there increased support for the Nazi Party in the years 1929-32?

The main cause
for increased support for the Nazi Party in the years 1929-1932 was economic. After World War I,
the defeated Germany emerged as a republic subsequent to the revolution in November 1918. A
national assembly was, thereafter convened in Weimar, where the German Reich was formed with a
new constitution. However, this Weimar Republic was besought with problems which included
hyperinflation, political extremists, and very contentious relationships with the victors of
World War I, who subjected Germany to humiliation and unreasonable demands in the conditions of
the Versailles Treaty. These conditions forced Germany to make large territorial concessions and
to pay reparations to the Entente powers. Financial reparations were 132 billion Marks (then
$31.4 billion), an outrageous amount. Because Germany felt the amount unjustifiable and
impossible, renegotiations were made and the debt reduced. The renegotiation of the financial
reparations resulted in the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan. Because the Dawes Plan was
unworkable, as Germany could not meet the payments, a committee headed by American industrialist
Owen Young reduced payments by designing

...one
unconditional part, equal to one third of the sum, and a postponable part, equal to the
remaining two-thirds, which would incur interest and be financed by a consortium of American
investment banks coordinated by the Morgan [banker J. P. Morgan] Guaranty Trust
Company.

However, Germany was fraught with social and
political problems as the Weimer Republic's liberal democracy ended with the dictatorial
presidency of Hindenberg, and then the dictatorial emergency powers of Chancellors Bruning,
Papen, and Schleicher. Finally, when the Great Depression of 1929 occurred in the United States,
the economic earthquake sent devastating ripples into Germany as the U.S. banks withdrew its
money. As a result, the Weimar Republic failed because America had been propping up Germany with
the Dawes and Young Plans. After the Crash of Wall Street, American banks gave Germany only 90
days to repay them; no other country could support Germany, either, because they were devastated
from World War I, as well. With hyperinflation, also, German companies went bankrupt and the
economy was in shambles as people could not afford the cost of goods and were starving and
desperate. In fact, unemployment rose from 650,000 in 1928 to 5,102,000 in 1932.


These conditions were what helped the Nazi Party rise to power. Before 1930, the Nazi
party only received 2.6% of the popular vote; however, after the Great Depression, it received
18.3% of the popular vote in the election and gained 107 seats in the Reichstag, and in 1932 it
gained 33.1% of the popular vote and 196 seats in the Reichstag. Starving and desperate, Germans
rejected a republic that had failed them, and turned their hopes to a government that would take
control of their lives and provide them a hope of renewal.  

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