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Conditions that contributed to the emergence of Hitler as Chancellor -…

- - - - Rarely has a more fraudulent lie been foisted on the people, yet it was persistently repeated and widely believed - because so many wanted to believe it. (Bullock)
  - - - War Guilt
        
        ~War Guilt
        *Article 231 specifies Germany is to accept full responsibility for the war.
        ~Article 231 (War Guilt) Clause was considered unacceptable as the German people believed they had fought for defensive reasons being threatened by an encirclement between France and Russia in 1914.
      - Diktat (Dictated Peace)
        
        ~As military action was threatened if Germany did not sign the treaty, it was viewed as a Diktat (Dictated Peace) with Germany also being excluded from the peace talks itself and the League of Nations.
      - Reparations
        
        ~Repatriation
        
        A sum to be paid to the Allies (Figure was eventually fixed at 6.6 billion pounds in 1921)
        
        ~The Reparations were also deemed totally unreasonable uneconomically considering the state of the German economy.
        *Furthermore, the fact that the figures for reparations were left undecided at the time of the signing add to further worries.
      - Disarmament
        
        ~Disarmament
        Conscription banned and the army to be limited to only 100,000 No airforce or submarines were to be developed or fielded.
        A limit to only 6 battleships for the navy. The Rhineland to be demilitarised.
        ~Disarmament was further viewed as unfair as Germany was subjected to unilateral disarmament whereas Wilson’s fourteen points spoke of universal disarmament.
      - ~The Treaty was seen as total hypocrisy from the perspective of the German people and there was widespread anger and bitterness to it from across Germany.
  - - - The Total disgrace and collapse of the Wilhelmine Autocracey
        
        *The Monarchy was forced to abdicate in November of 1918.
        *Initial attempts were made to reform the constitution into a constitutional monarchy by the political elite (nobility/Junkers) and the military who wished to keep the monarchy in a form to ensure a form of stability alongside an interest in protecting their own status. <October Reform>
        
        *There were also elements who goes were more revolutionary far left elements demanding for more extreme changes (leading political polarisation leading to violence and assassination)
        
        A significant portion of the parties that form the government were on the left of the political spectrum (socialists)
        
        -The public wanted far more than what was offered and soon Germany was declared a Republic with a provisional government under the lead of Friedrich Ebert.
      - Overall Effects
        
        ~ Demoralization and national shock at the result of the war. Germany was proud of its military heritage (Earlier German Unification was built on the back of military might and victory).
        *Many people believed close to the war (When Russia left the war), that Germany was close to the war. Yet, the fact that they were not able to do so shocked and traumatised most of the common citizens who could not accept such a result could happen.
        
        ~The matter of demobilising the standing army they have by the end of the war (1.5 million) with many coming back demoralised and with trauma from the stress of the form of warfare they have been through.
        ~ A society which entered the war in seemingly total patriotic unity comes out of it divided and traumatised by the experience (Kershaw)
        
        ~ The attritional nature of the long heavy industrial warfare of WW1 means Germany suffered heavily from the war. * Economies were not built for the long total war it was forced into in addition to the British and Allied naval blockade of Germany. (Inflation And Rising Costs; Starvation And Lack Of Resources; Turnip Winter)
        
        A generation of young men were killed off in the war itself made worse by the coming of the ‘Spanish Flu’.
        
        ~ Suffered massive damage economically with the economy and industry (Alongside agricultural capacity) wrecked and destroyed from the stress of total war that Germany goes under.
- - - - The Great Depression in Germany was caused by the Great Depression in the USA. This was because Germany’s economy had relied on Dawes Plan loans but now American money dried up.
        German businesses had foolishly failed to invest the loans properly so their industries had little chance of survival on their own. Much of the money had gone to the great big corporations which employed large numbers of men. Middle sized enterprises might have been able to keep going but the large industries ground to a halt.
    - - World trade slumped and this led to a collapse of German exports.
        Industrial production fell to just 58%
      - Banks closed their doors, cities couldn’t pay their debts; 50,000 businesses were declared bankrupt. It seemed as if society was breaking down.
      - Unemployment soared:
        1929-1930 – 2 million
        3 million - 12 months after the crash
        6.1 million - Jan 1932
        
        40 % of unemployed were manual industrial workers facing long term unemployment and, for their wives, the impossible task of feeding the family and maintaining the home.
        60% of the unemployed were under the age of 30.
      - Overall
        
        Human suffering was vast; the depression affected virtually every family.
        For the middle class it was not just the onset of poverty but the loss of pride and respectability (lawyers, medics) Rural towns were far worse off.
        Widespread rural poverty set in as wages and incomes fell sharply. Tenant farmers (those that paid rent to work land) were often evicted from their homes.
- - - - His hope was that this agreement would create a right-wing authoritarian govt with some popular support from the Nazis. Papen and Schleicher agreed.
        
        The Reichstag was dissolved and an election called for 31 July 1932. The Nazis won 230 seats and 37.3% of the vote becoming the largest political party in the Reichstag (although still no majority).
        
        Hitler demanded to be made Chancellor, but Hindenburg refused. Hindenburg held little respect for Hitler, he had only gained his German citizenship in 1932 and was a low ranked corporal in WW1.
        Hindenburg referred to him as the ‘little Bohemian corporal’– he has been misinformed by someone that Hitler was from the Czech region of Bohemia rather than Vienna.
  - - - Hindenburg agreed to the proposal because he felt, on Papen’s encouragement, that the traditional conservatives and Nationalists would contain the Nazis.
- - - - The PR system especially with the polarised political condition at the time means it was very hard to form a working stable coalition government to rule the state.
        Additionally, it also encourages the development of extremist/splinter parties such as the Nazis due to it being relatively easier for them to poach votes and support from the voting base relative to other systems.
        
        Was the Weimar Constitution Fatally Flawed
        
        ~In hindsight, one would say that the answer is obvious with the Republic lasting for only 14 years, leaving it no surprise that the constitution has come under harsh scrutiny and criticism.
        *Historians such as Finlay McKichan and Gerhard Ritter have made arguments that the flawed clauses were the real reason for the fall of the Republic and the rise of Nazism.
        ~However, for what it’s worth, it could be said that the Constitution did try to provide for every opportunity to allow democracy to succeed, and if only the people had accepted it with their all from across the political spectrums, then perhaps the Republic may have flourished.
      - Weimar Constitution
        
        ~The Weimar Republic was established in January of 1919 in the town of Weimar (As Berlin was under the hands of the Communist at the time).
        ~The President was democratically elected by the people (all over the age of 20 eligible to vote). He ruled for 7 years and had the power to: (Dissolve the Reichstag; Appoint the Chancellor; Command the Army; Rule by decree Article 48.)
        ~ The voting system for members of the Reichstag uses a proportional representation (PR) system with the percentage of votes to political parties equating to the seats allocated in the Reichstag.
    - - The President has a high amount of power relative to their position with powers and authority above the ruling parties, amounting to a substitute Emperor in lieu of the Kaiser.
        *Article 48 for instance gives the President the ability to suspend civil rights in emergency and rule through the use of presidential decrees.
        *This fundamentally overrode the power of the Reichstag, the elected authority, and create as said by Gordon Craig, a ‘constitutional anomaly’
    - - Furthermore, various institutions were not reformed alongside the change in government such as the : (Civil Service; Judiciary; and the army)
        Thereby, these institutions are allowed to exert great influence on the running of the state, so even though the new Republic holds the ideal of progressiveness and liberty, the institutions that form its structures were still very much that of old Imperial Germany.