Randl Humanities essay 23/02/19

To what extent was the Great Depression the most significant factor that helped Hitler

become chancellor in 1933?

In this essay I will be analyzing the main circumstances that helped Hitler become chancellor

in 1933. An argument will be drawn by evaluating the effects of the Great Depression on the

German people, the genius propaganda of the Nazi party and the underestimating of Hitler by

the heads of Germany. I suggest that there was no one most significant cause of Hitlers

political success in 1933, because all of the factors were differently significant at different

times/places and were all equally important parts of Hitlers path to success.

Firstly, the Great Depression was one of the main factors that caused unemployment in

interwar Germany. I suggest that this unemployment made the German population vulnerable

to Nazi propaganda and in turn helped Hitler get the opportunity to become chancellor. The

post 1929 unemployment in Germany affected all social groups, with over 40 percent of all

factory workers losing their job, 60 percent of all university alumni’s being unable to find an

employment and many businessman and farmers being without a source of income. The

unemployment and the rise of taxes caused many Germans to turn homeless. This means, that

the vast majority of German individuals were affected by the Great Depression and in a very

similar manner (they became unemployed and homeless), which in turn made these

individuals a very large, desperate and vulnerable target group to the Nazi propaganda. In

spite of this, the Great Depression was not the only event that formed this vulnerable target

group, with many other historical factors, such as the 1923 crises, playing a large role.

Secondly, Hitlers chance to get appointed chancellor was largely thanks to the Nazis organized,

flexible, modern and anti-communist/Jews/Versailles propaganda. The National Socialist

German Workers' Party, as the name itself suggest, was open to all sorts of supporters. In
Randl Humanities essay 23/02/19

addition to this, Nazis were often very flexible in what they said, changing and dropping whole

parts of their program and promising very vague guarantees. Furthermore, in the the daily

speeches of the Nazi propagandist, the speakers targeted many culprits of the problems the

Reich had. Later, they acted on their promises and organized many clashes especially against

the communist, an example of this are the 322 clashes and 569 casualties caused by the Nazi

party in Prussia in June of 1932. The Nazi party’s propaganda helped popularize Hitler and also

helped eliminate his possible opponents. His many supporters made Hitler very valuable in

German politics and gave him a chance to negotiate with the heads of the Reich in 1932/3.

Lastly, the heads of Germany helped Hitler rise to power because they underestimated the

capacities Hitlers political party had. In 1932 there was controversial manoeuvring between

two chancellors, von Papen and von Schleicher. Due to this, Hindenburg had to appoint Hitler

as the head of parliament, to save his own position as president. Hitler was appointed

chancellor into a country with unstable politics, which enabled him to take advantage of his

large group of supporters and stabilize his position as chancellor. Furthermore, thanks to the

political failures of von Papen and von Schleicher, Hitler had no other real opponents in the

Reichstag.

In conclusion, all of the factors listed above played a significant role at different times, The

Great Depression with other historical factors paved the way for Hitler to the Reichstag, the

Nazi´s genius propaganda took the difficult steps necessary for Hitler to get to the Reichstag

and Hindenburg, von Papen and von Schleicher voluntarily opened the door for Hitler to come

in. In other words, each factor was crucial for Hitler success at different moments of his

political rise.
Randl Humanities essay 23/02/19