How important were economic factors in the rise of the Nazi Party between

1919 and 1933?

It can be said that the rise of Nazi would never occur if the economic condition in Germany did not
deteriorate. Before World War I, Germany economy condition can be considered as one of the
strongest across the globe. This was because the country had plentiful resources like coal and mineral.
It also had very developed industry as well as the advanced education. However, after the four years of
World War, its economy had turned downward. This was because it had to support its allies as well as
being blockaded by Britain, making them become lack of resources and goods. Also, because the war
needs a lot of money, the country started to borrow money from other countries which even further
strain German's economic. This made Germany almost bankrupt at the end of the war.
The economic situation turned to be even worse after the war. After the war, Weimar party who
was just elected encountered with various issues. The first one that instantly required their attention
was the Treaty of Versailles. The Paris Peace Conference began in the January 1918 in order to set
the Peace term for the defeated country including Germany. In the conference, United States, France,
and Great Britain had the major disagreement as Woodrow Wilson (USA) believed that War was
everyones one fault and the harsh penalty on Germany would lead to the revenge, while France and
Great British wanted to punish Germany harshly for the responsibility of the War. The term that was
presented to German used the fourteen points of Woodrow Wilson which made them impress,
however the treaty actually came out much harsher than what they expected.
The treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, which took a toll a lot on Germany and sank
its turmoil economic states even further. In the treaty of Versailles, Germany took a sole responsibility
for the war. Its armed and military was limited, making a lot of men become unemployed. It also had
to give its land to the Allies country as well as people, making it lose a lot of people as well as lands that
some of them was their important industrial land as well as resources reserves like ore that it lost almost
75 percent. Moreover, it had to pay the reparation around 6.6 billion pounds for the cost of the war.
This made the economic condition of Germany that was already bankrupt even worse, a debt of the
nation was almost increased almost four times just in one year. and a lot of people was angry at their
government as they deteriorated the quality of living of citizens. The soldier also felt that the country
had betrayed them. This was the beginning of the crack that eventually would lead to the rise of Nazi
Party.
Later, the situation turned even worse. Even though the citizens were unsatisfied with the clauses
of Treaty of Versailles, the pressure from the Allies made Germany had no choice but followed.
However, the Weimar government did not even want to take the additional taxes from the citizens as
the situation itself was already, thus it began to print more money. This made the price of daily goods
began to rise even more as more money was put into the system, starting the cycle of the inflation.
Because the money and the banknotes were now becoming worthless, people started to trade goods
instead, in favor of wealthy people but worsening the conditions of other. Health minister at that time
noted that people had the relatively poor diet. Also, the crime rates and suicide all increased. Overall,
people suffered very badly. Some people began to crave for the strong leaders who would lead the
Germany like before the World War 1, which was when the extremist and the uprising including Hitler
began to rise.
During 1923, Germany situation began to reach its bottom as this had been called the Year of Crisis.
The downfall began right at the beginning of the year when Germany could not pay the reparation to
France, thus France decided to invade Germans most important steel production and took over it in
compensate for the reparation. This even damaged German's economy even more as many people
refused to work and more money needed to be print to support the unemployed citizens. In order to
solve this, Gustav Stresemann decided to borrow money from the USA which called Dawes Plan as well
as the Young Plan. This led to the ultimate economic downfall when the Great Depression hit German
in 1929.
At the same year 1923, due to crumbling state of the government due to the economic situation,
Hitler decided to take over. He thought of the plan as if he believed that the Bavaria local council, as
well as the army, would give the support for him and he would be able to take over Germany. However,
everything did not go as he planned. He was arrested and was trialed which he had prison sentence, a
light one. Nevertheless, this made him and his party become well-known to the rest of country through
his speech in the court. During his service in prison, he also wrote the book called Mein Kampf which
spread his ideology to the rest of country as this book eventually became the best seller. This event
emphasized the importance of the economic situation to the rise of Nazi. If the government was not
weakened by the inflation, Hitler might not rise and grab people attention at all.
After 1923, Germany economic situation went well for a while until the Wall Street Crash. The Wall
Street Crash occurred on 29 October 1929 when the stock market crashed. Even though this affected
in most of the developed countries, Germany was also largely affected due to the heavy loan that she
got from the USA. This result in the laying off of the labors in many of Germany companies. By 1931,
around 5000 companies were closed as well as 5.5 million people became unemployed. Due to this
factor that made the country became chaos, Hitler used this chance to give rise to his party that he
desperately needed. He could come into power if the general population became unsatisfied and
unhappy with the current government.
When the Great Depression hit Germany and many people were laid off from their works, people
began to find the answers to what made them have to suffer. Hitler used this time as his opportunity.
He tried to convince the rural and the middle class as at that time those groups of people were in the
desperate state that he would improve the conditions of living. Nazi Partys promised to solve this
economic crisis that was currently hurting them. He also promised that he would abolish the treaty of
Versailles that hurt them for decades. Furthermore, he also promised to build up the army and made
Germany become powerful again. His party also used a lot of propaganda to promote for themselves.
His propaganda was so popular as he just simply put things that people wanted to here. He also
promoted it through the latest technology like speaker and films to appeal his ideology to others.
Moreover, SA or their partys troop walked around a lot which made people feel impressed for their
party. All of these factors combined together and made his party gain popularity in which the seat
jumped to 107 seats after that year.
Another reason that made his party gain popularity was that middle class and upper class was afraid
of the rise of the communist. The economic crisis did not only give rise to the popularity of Nazi Party
but also communist. Communist Party had an idea in which everyone should receive equal things
regardless of the class. This idea appealed so much in the working class as it would improve the living
conditions of themselves to be better and they would no longer have to work so hard to the bone but
received such a little salary that they could barely buy anything. However, middle class and elite hated
this idea as this meant that they might lose their land and property. They did not want to have the same
economic status and living quality as the same as working class. This made these group of people turn
to vote for Nazi Party which eventually even heightened the seats in the Parliament in which in the
1923 election Hitler gained the vote around 30.1 percent and his party gained 230 seats in the
parliament which was around 230. This could be said that the Great Depression gave the rise of Nazi.
The Rise of Nazi did not stop at that point. By contrast, it continued to grow and later make Hitler
become the dictator and his party become the only party in Germany. The situation that gave rise to
that is the Reichstag fire. The Reichstag fired was conducted young Dutchman who was once
communist. This made Hitler use this as an excuse that the young man was the part of a communist
conspiracy that would destroy the government, thus he suggested Hindenburg to use the article 48 in
which the President could make the decision right way without the voting in parliament. However, he
could not yet control the country. In order to do that, he needed to be able to use power without
permission. He made an amendment to Weimar constitution. Because of the SA threatened and bribery
a large number of politicians as well as his party that had a lot of seats in parliament, the amendment
passed and he became the dictator.
In conclusion, the economic factor was so important to the rise of Nazi as the economic factors
from the treaty of Versailles that eventually led to Great Depression that totally made Hitler became
power. The economic factors also made people became unhappy with their previous government and
are conveyed to the promise of Hitler that he promised about the better future. Thus, they would be
no the rise of Nazi if the government could handle their economic condition greatly.
 SOURCES

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