Hitler's Rise To Power In 1932-34

On the 30th of January 1933, Hitler became chancellor. Many historians say that this was due to the depression, however others claim that there were a variety of factors, including the Nazi propaganda and the political situation in 1932-3, which aided Hitler’s rise to power.

The Depression was a result of the 1929 Wall Street Crash in the USA. When the depression hit Germany, it hit hard. Germany was asked to repay the money given to them on loan, and fast. As a result of this, businesses went bankrupt, workers were laid off and unemployment skyrocketed. The Weimar government was having great difficulties in solving the problem of unemployment. Also, as the Weimar Constitution was a fair and balanced one, it was very difficult for a decisive
action to be made. Due to this indecisiveness of the Weimar Constitution, Hitler realized he could play up to the fact that Germany needed a strong leader. In 1930 the Chancellor at the time, Brüning, cut government expenditure, wage and unemployment pay. This was effectively the worst thing to do during the depression. Since he couldn’t get the Reichstag to agree with him, President Hindenburg used Article 48 to pass measures by decree. The anger and bitterness blamed on Brüning aided Hitler with Nazi support.
Another way Hitler twisted the money crisis in Germany to his advantage was reminding the people that it would make sense to get rid of the Treaty of Versailles, and Hitler came across as the right man to do this job. Hitler promised the crowds that he could undo the terms of the Treaty. The long-term aggression towards the Treaty of Versailles fuelled people to vote for the Nazis, believing that Hitler was the answer to their problems. During this time of crisis people started looking for a solution, whatever that meant. This was when the population turned to the extremes, political polarization, seeking help for their ruined country. As the people turned did this, so did important political leaders such as Papen, who was also seeking support from the Nazis after the Weimar Republic had lost all faith and respect from Germans. The unemployed were promised a number of jobs under Hitler’s power as chancellor, such as building weaponry for him. Not only that but Hitler’s 25-point plan became increasingly attractive to those hit hardest by the depression, the unemployed, the middle classes and the elderly. The
middle classes were dragged down with the economic crisis, adding numbers to the list of people who felt Hitler could solve all their problems during their desperation. Hitler provided a scapegoat for the Germans to blame their troubles on - The November Criminals and the Jews. Hitler then promised to try and get revenge for the people who caused them these problems. This appealed to many Germans. It hadn’t worked during the prosperous time of the Stresemann era, but in this crisis, Hitler started to get more and more votes. In the 1930 elections, the Nazis got 107 seats. In November 1932 they got nearly 200. It became apparent to Hindenburg that the Nazis were the single biggest party. It wasn’t always that way however. In 1928 the Nazis only had 12 seats. This highlights how much the depression actually helped Nazi popularity. It helped that, 4 years after the depression hit, unemployment had gotten worse. In 1932 the number of unemployed people was 6 million. These people became desperate and turned to either the communists or the Nazis. However, many of them felt betrayed by the Weimar republic and wanted to return to the tradition of having a strong leader, which is what Nazi propaganda styled Hitler as. This meant that the Nazis were very politically intriguing to them.

The appeal of the Nazi party started with Hitler appointing Joseph Goebbels to head of propaganda. Goebbels had two main tasks in the Nazi party. He was to ensure that no one in Germany could see or read anything that harmed the reputation of the Nazi party, and secondly he had to enforce Nazi views in the most persuasive way possible. Another successful campaign of the Nazi party was Deutschlandflug. During this, Hitler took to the skies and addressed a number of rallies in 20 different cities over a period of 6 days. Hitler was now widely recognized by the media, and Hitler recognized that the media was a potent political force. With this knowledge he would use media to get his image across in his personality cult. On the day of the elections if 1932, Goebbels made a speech claiming that they would unite Germany and ‘that unity is the best guarantee of the power, strength and future of the Reich.’ The crowd he was speaking to would believe their claims of uniting the nation, and that Communists would tear the country apart, ‘this seed should grow on 31 July. 31 July will show if Germany will find new inner unity that will break the chains of Marxism, or if it will collapse entirely, still bound by those chains.’ Goebbels used people’s fear of uncertainty and instability to portray Hitler as a man with a great vision for prosperity and stability in Germany.

Rallies were key in the campaigns. They were vast, well planned events with about 100,000 people attending. Hitler’s oratory skills helped him to appeal to the masses and their patriotism. The rallies held by Hitler were planned with the intention of creating an atmosphere that would provoke emotion so the crowd would succumb to the Nazis and their beliefs. His propaganda would play up to the majority of the unemployed. Many workers did turn to communism, although, wealthy businessmen feared Marxism so Hitler knew that he could manipulate this fear by acting as a safeguard for them. It particularly appealed to industrialists who feared a loss of their businesses to the communists. Hitler conveniently included the social elements to the Nazis to win back the support of the industrialists. In fact, one powerful industrialist gave the party 1 million marks. This is one example of Hitler’s manipulations of fear. Hitler’s propaganda portrayed the Communists as violent and aggressive, despite them being just as violent as the Nazis were. Hitler said during a speech in 1993 that ‘Communism with its method of madness is making a powerful and insidious attack upon our dismayed and shattered nation.’ He continued by saying that ‘It seeks to poison and disrupt in order to hurl us into an epoch of chaos.’ Speaking to 100,000 impressionable people, Hitler attacked the public view of communism. After Hitler was elected they still used propaganda for Hitler to become President. Goebbels set up the Reich Chamber of Commerce in 1933. This dealt with all forms of media, and for anything to be produced on media; you had to be a member of the Reich Chamber. Anything that was published without the consent of the Nazis would cause problems and there would be severe consequences. The censorship gave Nazis the upper hand in their campaign, with all media only supporting the Nazis.

In 1932, during the presidential elections Hindenburg had 19 million votes to Hitler’s 13 million votes. In the July elections the Nazis had 230 seats, which meant they were the largest party, but didn’t have overall majority. Hitler then demanded to be chancellor and Hindenburg refused due to the fear that he wouldn’t be able to control him and the Nazis were too violent. Papen then became chancellor however, didn’t have enough support in the Reichstag and had to rule by emergency decree. Hitler wouldn’t have to do this because he had a strong power base in the Reichstag, and Papen was aware of this. The next November election the Nazis got 196 seats and Hitler was still refused chancellorship. Von Schleicher, who persuaded Hindenburg that he would have more support than Papen, became chancellor. Schleicher was wrong and had to rule by emergency decree, which annoyed Hindenburg. Papen became angry and felt that the best way to get revenge would be to replace Schleicher. Hitler was the only leader remaining on the right wing that had mass support. There was fighting amongst the moderates in their own parties. This also helped Hitler’s campaign. The backstairs intrigue then followed and Papen persuaded Hindenburg to have Hitler become chancellor with Papen as vice. Hitler made the both of them believe that he could be controlled. Then in 1933 on the 30th of January Hitler became chancellor. Many Germans, including Hindenburg were annoyed at the continuous change of chancellors making the country even more politically unstable. Hindenburg was tired of ruling by decree and felt that he needed a leader who had support from the masses and could pass laws that many would agree with. However, Hindenburg’s fear of Hitler and his need for power caused Hindenburg to be reluctant. Papen felt that Hitler could be controlled if he became vice-chancellor so persuaded Hindenburg. The volatility of the political situation was key to Hitler becoming chancellor. It also was helpful to Hitler that all the parties were fragmented and couldn’t get along. Hitler saw an opening in this, which is why he refused vice chancellorship.

In conclusion, it can be argued that the depression was key in helping Hitler become chancellor in 1933.
He turned the depression and the unemployment, as well as the fact that everyone had lost faith in the democracy after the depression, to his advantage. There were 6 million unemployed in Germany and Hitler would offer jobs in the SA for them, coming across as generous and making them feel a sense of purpose, but really using it for his own purposes. Hitler also opened soup kitchens for the unemployed. By doing this, Hitler had gained lots more votes for the Nazis, being noticed even more by the political elites. Another way he did this was when the Weimar government became divided and was too weak for a decisive decision to be formed. This weakness made the Germans crave a strong leader and Hitler felt he was perfect for the role. The depression also links with propaganda as both Hitler and Goebbels cleverly played the depression to gain as many followers of the party as possible. They knew who was affected in the depression and how they knew what would appeal to them the most. Furthermore, during the crisis people turned to the extremes after everything else seemed to fail. His manipulation of power during the depression was key for his rise to
Chancellorship.