WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES ENCOURAGED THE GROWTH OF THE NAZI PARTY

AFTER WORLD WAR I?

The traumatic shock of defeat in World War I, which millions of Germans could not accept;
the terms of the Versailles Treaty, universally condemned by Germans; and the economic
collapse, involving hyper-inflation by 1923 and the massive depression beginning in 1929 were
the conditions which rendered the German people, particularly, the middle class, vulnerable to
the appeal of the Nazis.
HOW DID THE NAZI PARTY GROW DURING THE WEIMAR YEARS?
During the recovery period of the Weimar Republic (1924-1929), the Social Democratic
Party was the leading party in a liberal, constitutional regime, which had considerable success in
restoring Germany to an equal place among the community of nations. They became parties to
the Locarno peace agreement and the League of Nations. All of this was lost upon the Nazis,
who were a minority party in the Reichstag, consumed by their obsession with the Versailles
"Diktat", but also organizing on a
nationwide basis.

WHAT EFFECT DID THE GREAT DEPRESSION HAVE UPON THE FORTUNES OF THE
NAZI PARTY?
The Great Depression, begun in the United States, and spreading to Europe because of the
economic dependence of Europe upon the United States, brought a return of the economic
hardship which had prevailed at the beginning of the decade. The inability of the centrist parties,

who were committed to following Constitutional procedures, to solve the economic problems,
led to the rising popularity of extremist parties, particularly
the Nazi Party.
WHAT POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES DID HITLER TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TO
COME TO POWER?
The Weimar Constitution provided for a Parliamentary democracy in which the leader of the
majority party became the chancellor. Because there were several parties, it was rare for one
party to achieve a majority. It was usually necessary for the leader of the party with a plurality to
negotiate an agreement with another party to form a majority coalition. The President was
elected by the people for a six-year term. He was responsible for appointing the Chancellor from
among the party leaders. However, in circumstances in which the Chancellor failed to form a
majority, the President could rule by decree.
The Nazi Party never obtained a majority, but they did obtain a plurality (the single largest
party in the Reichstag) during the Depression years. Hitler used this position to demand that he
be appointed Chancellor, and by refusing to accept a coalition with any other party, he assured
paralysis of the democratic process. He contested for election as President when he was at the
peak of his popularity in July, 1932, but lost to the aging war hero, Hindenberg. Hindenburg,
long opposed to the appointment of "the corporal", but frustrated by his inability to appoint
anyone else who could form a majority capable of dealing with the economic crisis, finally gave
in to pressures to appoint Hitler.

ONCE IN POWER, WHAT WERE THE ROLES OF POLICE TERROR AND

PROPAGANDA IN MAINTAINING POWER?
Police terror was essential to the intimidation of the political opposition to the Nazis. Control
of the press and a skillful campaign of propaganda kept news of negative developments away
from the public, while every success, real or imagined, was exaggerated and brought to public
attention. Communists were fictitiously identified as planning a rebellion and used as an excuse
to give Hitler's government special powers. Members of the Reichstag were pressured into
giving Hitler an Enabling Act which allowed him to rule by decree for 4 years. Opponents were
rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
HOW DID HITLER CONSOLIDATE HIS POWER OVER GERMANY IN THE 1930,s? HOW
WAS NATIONALISM INVOLVED?
On the occasion of the anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg, Hitler identified his
government, the Third Reich, with the second empire created by Bismarck, thereby establishing
a link with a past which Germans remembered with pride, while at the same time, denouncing
the "disgraceful" Weimar period.
In 1934, he purged the Nazi Party of all potential dissenters, including some of the original
party members, in a "night of the long knives" during which about a thousand party members
were executed. He sharply reduced the numbers of the Nazi paramilitary movement, the Sturm
Abteilung, or brown shirts. This re-assured the German Army which had viewed the S.A. as a
rival military force. Hitler then organized a massive party rally at Nuremberg which helped to

restore the confidence of party members

shattered by the purge.
By 1936, Hitler had organized a new paramilitary movement, the S.S., which was personally
sworn to a dedicated allegiance to him, under the command of his loyal follower Himmler. Hitler
also required, by that time, a personal oath of allegiance to him by all members of the armed
forces.
Hitler identified himself with the German nation and required all Germans to consider their
national loyalty as synonymous to loyalty to him as the leader. The constant, ostentatious display
of national flags and Nazi banners, coupled with patriotic music, helped to enlist national feeling
behind support for his regime.
HOW WAS ANTI-SEMITISM EXPRESSED BY THE NAZIS IN THE 1930,s?
As soon as the Nazi government could act, Jews were systemically denied prestigious
occupations in the professions and in the schools, and Jewish-owned stores were boycotted and
often attacked. By 1935, the Nuremberg Laws (decrees) were imposed, defining Jews as a
separate, inferior race, requiring them to wear the yellow, Star of David, armband and
discriminating aginst them in a variety of ways. In 1938, after the
assassination of a Nazi official in Paris by a Jew, the Nazis carried out a campaign of systematic
destruction of Jewish shops and synagogues throughout Germany in the night known as
Kristallnacht.