Why Is Hitler Appointed As Chancellor

The Great Depression was triggered by the Wall Street Crash of October 1929. It meant that companies throughout Germany went bankrupt and workers were laid off in their millions. Unemployment affected nearly every German family (by 1929 1,320,000 were unemployed) meaning that the public was in a state of distress and wanted change desperately. This gave Hitler an opportunity to put his message across and take advantage of Germany’s desperation. He manipulated the ruling elite (who thought that they could control him) and through his skills as an orator and leader, became elected as Chancellor of Germany in 1933.
The Great Depression is often argued to have significantly aided Hitler’s rise to power, forcing Germany into an economic state in
The government struggled to respond to the consequences of the depression, the Weimar constitution created weak coalition governments that were unlikely to be effective in times of crisis and as a result, Germans opted for extremes of both left and right. The German people were used to a strong government using the collective power of the nation to overcome serious problems thus, Hitler appealed to them. The Nazi party had increased its vote from less than 1 million in 1928 to over 13.5 million in 1932. Even though the Depression managed to significantly boost the Nazi Party’s votes, it was also mainly to do with Hitler and Goebbels’ well planned campaigns that outwitted their opponents. National bodies for example churches, the armed forces and the legal system spent most of their time being concerned with themselves instead of the country at large and Hitler’s opposition was becoming increasingly weak, divided and did not take the Nazi threat seriously until it was too late. Also, a significant number of Germans voted for the Nazis thinking that it did not matter who was in power as long as they got Germany out of the mess it was currently in; for many the sacrifice of personal freedom was an acceptable price to pay. Nazi propaganda targeted urban workers which enabled Hitler to win the support of peasants, rural labourers and quite a few large land owners. Due to political mobilisation being less developed in the provinces and countryside than in large cities, Hitler and his followers were able to build support in small provincial towns and rural areas. The Nazi party managed to recruit its members and voters from a broad range of social groups, from both sexes and from both the older as well as younger generation. Although it did