The Weimar Republic 1930 - 1933

1
The Weimar Republic 1930 - 1933
President Hindenburg greets the new Chancellor
Adolf Hitler on the 30th January 1933
2
The Origins of the Nazi Party

• The small German Workers Party (DAP) was founded
  in Munich in 1919 by Anton Drexler, a Berlin
  locksmith and war veteran.
• Hitler encountered the Party as a political
  education officer in the German army
  investigating undesirable left-wing groups.
• Although the Party had left-wing anti-capitalist
  tendencies, it also embraced right-wing
  anti-Semitic and nationalistic thinking.

Anton Drexler
3
Origins of the Nazi Party

• Hitler joined the Party and together with
  Drexler, they drew up a 25 Point Programme
  outlining their aims. These included revocation
  of the treaties of Versailles and St. Germain,
  the union of all Germans in a Greater Germany and
  the prohibition of profiteering by big business.
• The Party was also renamed the National Socialist
  German Workers Party (NSDAP) and membership
  increased to 3300.
• Hitler himself took over as leader in 1921.
• Even before becoming leader, Hitler had already
  developed much of the propaganda that would
  characterise the Nazi Party e.g. the salute, use
  of the swastika and formation of uniformed armed
  squads.

4
1921 1923 Strengthening the Party

• The armed squads were developed into organised
  paramilitary units led by Ernest Rohm and known
  as the SA (stormtroopers).
• A Party newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter (the
  Peoples Observer), was published from 1921.
• Hitler won the backing of Julius Streicher who
  gave the NSDAP publicity in his own anti-Semitic
  newspaper Der Sturmer.

Ernst Rohm
5
1921-1923 Strengthening the Party

• Hermann Goering, the son of a Bavarian landowner
  and husband of a Swedish aristocrat dropped out
  of university and joined the SA as a commander in
  1922.

• Many useful social contacts with powerful people
  were made as a result and this gave Hitler and
  Nazism respectability.

6
1923 The Munich Beer Hall Putsch

• By 1923, Nazi Party membership stood at 20 000
  and the economic crisis of 1923 had made the
  Weimar government deeply unpopular with many in
  Germany.

• Inspired by Mussolinis March on Rome the
  previous year, Hitler decided to overthrown the
  federal government of Bavaria and then takeover
  the national government in Berlin.

7

• On the 8th November 1923 when the Bavarian leader
  von Kahr was addressing a large meeting in a
  Munich beer hall, Hitler and the Nazis seized
  control.
• Hitler declared a national revolution, which he
  claimed was supported by the army and the police.
  Von Kahr and other Bavarian leaders were forced
  at gunpoint to support it.
• The next day Hitler and the war hero General
  Ludendorff marched into the city of Munich with
  2000 SA to meet up with Rohm who had occupied
  some government buildings but the uprising was
  easily crushed by police.
• 14 Nazis were killed and Hitler was arrested on a
  charge of treason.

8
Nazis barricade the War Ministry buildings in
Munich 9th November 1923
9
February 1924 Hitler on Trial
Frick
Rohm
Ludendorff
Hitler
The main leaders of the Putsch before their trial
10
Outcome of the Trial

• Hitler was found guilty of treason, jailed and
  the NSDAP were banned.
• However
• The trial brought Hitler weeks of valuable
  front-page publicity and was a great propaganda
  success.
• A sympathetic judiciary meant that he was allowed
  to interrupt and question witnesses and made
  speeches lasting for hours.
• Although jailed, Hitler was only sentenced to the
  minimum sentence (5 years fortress detention)
  and actually walked free before the end of the
  year.
• While in jail, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf which
  outlined his world view and was to become the
  bible of National Socialism.

11
December 1924 Release from Landsberg
12
1924 A Change in Direction

• Ten months in Landsberg allowed Hitler to
  consider the future of the Party.By the time of
  his release the future looked bleak. The Party
  was in disarray, membership was in decline and
  the atmosphere of economic crisis had subsided.
• Hitler therefore decided that Putschist (violent)
  tactics would have to be abandoned and instead
  the Nazis would try to win electoral support.
• .. we shall have to hold our noses and enter
  the Reichstag against the Catholic and Marxist
  deputies. If out-voting them takes longer than
  our shooting them, at least the result will be
  guaranteed by their own Constitution.
• Hitler, Landsberg 1924

13
1924 A Change in Direction

• Strict organisation of the Party was also deemed
  to be necessary. Up to 1923 Party supporters were
  largely from Bavaria but this geographical spread
  would have to be increased. A larger membership
  would also distinguish the Nazis from other
  nationalist groups.
• The Fuhrers will would need to dominate
  completely (Fuhrerprinzip) to enable the Nazis to
  appear united. Hitler planned only to intervene
  in party disputes when they had reached crisis
  stage and his decision would be final.

14
Belief in a hierarchy of races (Aryans superior,
Slavs and Jews inferior)
All ethnic Germans should be part of Greater
Germany
Opposition to democracy and the Weimar Republic
Hitlers World View
Versailles must be overturned
Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe would
allow Germany to expand successfully
Opposition to Communism as a left wing ideology
and part of the Jewish conspiracy
15
Hitlers World View

• Hitler believed in social Darwinism which
  maintained life was no more than the survival of
  the fittest.He felt it was natural that
  inferior Jews and Slavs were dominated by the
  pure Herrenvolk (the Aryan master race of
  northern Europe)

• The purity of the Aryan line had to be
  preserved at all costs. In Nazi Germany this led
  to the development of the pseudo-science of
  racial hygiene.

16

• Abolition of the Treaty of Versailles and the
  return of lost territories would lead to the
  creation of a new empire (Reich).
• However, this Reich was to be bigger than the
  Germany of 1914. Austrian Germans as well as
  those in the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and
  the German communities along the Baltic coast
  were to be included.
• The German people must be assured the
  territorial area which is necessary for it to
  exist on earthPeople of the same blood should be
  in the same Reich.
• Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

17
Europes Victory is your prosperity -poster
from 1941 which saw the culmination of Hitlers
ambition in the East when he launched an invasion
of the Soviet Union.

• Conquest of Poland and the Soviet Union would
  allow Germany to obtain raw materials, cheap
  labour and food. This policy of Lebensraum would
  allow Greater Germany to compete as an equal
  alongside Britain and the USA on the world stage.
  

18

• This New Order would not only bring about the
  subjugation of inferior Slavs, it would also
  ensure the destruction of the USSR, the centre of
  world communism after 1917.
• For Hitler, the communist beliefs of Jews like
  Karl Marx and Trotsky was further proof that
  there was a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.

19

• Hitler also believed there was no realistic
  alternative to strong dictatorial government.
  Parliamentary democracy was weak and ineffective
  and at odds with Germanys military traditions.
• The November Criminals of the Weimar Republic
  had betrayed Germany by accepting the armistice
  and establishing democracy. Since then, Germany
  had lurched from one crisis to the next.
• Instead, a one-party state which rejected
  representative government and liberal values
  would control the masses for the common good. An
  individual leader (Fuhrer) should be chosen to
  take necessary decisions.
• The resulting Volksgemeinschaft (peoples
  community) would override divisions of class,
  religion and politics and encourage people to
  work together under a new collective national
  identity.

20
How new were Hitlers ideas?

• Nazism lacked coherence and was intellectually
  superficial and simplisticIt was merely a
  collection of ideas not very cleverly pieced
  together. (Layton 2005)
• Every aspect of Hitlers thinking can be found to
  have been voiced in nineteenth century Germany.
• His nationalism can be seen as an outgrowth of
  the fervour that led to unification in 1871.
• Demands for a Greater Germany had already been
  made after 1871 by those who felt unification had
  not gone far enough.
• Racist ideas and in particular anti-Semitism had
  been developing and the imperialist idea of
  Lebensraum had already been raised by those who
  saw the German race as superior.

21
Was the rise of Hitler in Germany inevitable?

• Germany also had a strong socialist tradition
  during the nineteenth century.
• A number of other countries, notably Britain and
  France, also witnessed the voicing of similar
  nationalist and racist ideas at the same time.
• Anti-Semitism in Europe was centuries old. For
  example, in 1290 Jewish people in Britain had
  been expelled, only being formally readmitted in
  the seventeenth century. Scapegoating Jewish
  people for a countrys problems was still easily
  accepted by many in the mid-twentieth century.

22
1925-1929

• On the 27th February 1925 the NSDAP was
  officially refounded in Munich and the following
  year Hitler formally established his leadership
  of the Party.
• The party was reorganised into regions (Gaue) and
  a vertical structure was set up that did not
  detract from Hitlers position of authority.
  Regional leaders (Gauleiters) were responsible
  for creating district (Kreis) and local branches
  (Ort).
• Associated Nazi organisations were set up to
  appeal directly to specific interest groups e.g.
  Hitler Youth, Nazi Teachers Association, Union of
  Nazi Lawyers.

23
Hitler at the Nuremberg rally of 1927
24
1925-1929

• The SS were set up in 1925 under Himmler as an
  elite bodyguard sworn to absolute obedience to
  Hitler.
• By 1928 Party membership stood at 108 000, a four
  fold increase from 1925.
• However, the Party failed to make inroads in the
  cities and in May 1928, it did poorly in the
  Reichstag elections, winning only 2.6 of the
  total vote and a mere 12 seats.
• The seats that were gained were in mainly rural
  areas where the fall in agricultural prices was
  leading to increasing discontent and
  bankruptcies. The Nazis tried to capitalise on
  this by calling for expropriation of Jewish
  agricultural property.

25
The Depression and the Rise of the Nazis

• Only a year after the Wall Street Crash
  unemployment in Germany had reached 3 million and
  by January 1932 it stood at 6.1 million.
• An estimated 20 million people were relying on 6
  marks a week in family welfare payments and 1
  million had no support at all.
• Many manual industrial workers faced the prospect
  of long-term unemployment.
• The middle classes were also dragged down as
  there was little demand for the goods and
  services of small shopkeepers, lawyers and
  doctors.
• As world demand fell further, the agricultural
  depression deepened and some tenant farmers faced
  the humiliation of being evicted from homes which
  had been in their families for generations.

26
Nazi Breakthrough September 1930

• Chancellor Muller had been replaced in March 1930
  by Bruning following disagreements in Mullers
  coalition over levels of welfare payments.
• Bruning however, was soon relying on presidential
  decree to get legislation passed.
• Reichstag elections in September 1930 saw the
  Nazis make dramatic gains. With 107 seats and
  18.3 of the total vote, they were now the second
  largest party in the Reichstag.

27

• These gains had come at the expense of centre
  right parties who lost rural and middle class
  votes to the Nazis.
• Turnout had also improved from 75.6 to 82 and
  there had been 1.8 million new young voters.
• The Nazis appeared as a youthful, dynamic and
  vigorous alternative to most Weimar parties who
  appeared to consist of dull middle-aged men who
  were constantly embroiled in self-serving
  coalition squabbles.

1930 Nazi election poster reads Freedom and
Bread
28

• Facing potential opposition from at least 64 of
  the Reichstag, Bruning was re-appointed
  Chancellor.
• However, Hindenburg was prepared to use
  presidential decrees to support him and the SPD
  tolerated him through fear of the increasing
  influence of the extreme parties.
• Parliament did indeed appear to be dying. The
  number of Presidential decrees passed increased
  from 5 in 1930 to 66 in 1932 while the amount of
  Reichstag laws passed by votes decreased from 98
  in 1930 to 5 in 1932.
• Although a self-confessed opponent of the
  democratic Republic and keen to see a return to
  more authoritarian government, Bruning was wary
  of the Nazi Party and banned the SA in April 1932.

29
Presidential Elections Spring 1932

• Hindenburg was re-elected with 53 of the vote
  and supported by the moderate left and centre.
• Hitler meanwhile had polled 36.8 of the vote and
  had projected a very powerful personal image
  during the campaign.

Hindenburgs election poster says vote for a man
not a party while Hitlers shows a strongman
breaking free of his chains
30

• Hindenburg by now was extremely elderly and it
  has been claimed that he was suffering from
  advancing senility and mental blackouts.
• A scheming and ambitious army officer Kurt von
  Schleicher, who held the ear of Hindenburg,
  wanted Bruning out of office. Schleicher felt
  that Brunings opposition to the Nazis was wrong
  in the face of recent popular support and that
  they should be included in government.
• From Spring 1932, Hindenburg refused to sign any
  more decrees for Bruning whose position now
  became untenable. Bruning resigned at the end of
  May.

31
Backstairs Intrigue Hindenburg, von Schleicher
and Franz von Papen photographed in 1932
Von Schleicher
Von Papen
32
Backstairs Intrigue

• In place of Bruning, Schleicher recommended Franz
  von Papen an aristocrat and a member of the
  Centre Party with strong nationalist sympathies.
  Hindenburg was convinced and appointed him.
• However, von Papen did not even have a seat in
  the Reichstag and his Cabinet of Barons
  included some leading industrialists and
  aristocrats who did not have seats either.
• To ensure support from the Reichstag and in
  particular the suddenly popular Nazi party, the
  ban on the SA and the SS were lifted. Von Papen
  also agreed to hold new elections for the
  Reichstag in July 1932 as Hitler demanded and
  hoped that with support from the Nazis, this form
  of presidential government could work.

33
Reichstag Elections July 1932

• Germany witnessed a brutal campaign with 86
  people killed in political street fighting during
  the month of July alone.
• The election was a fantastic success for the
  Nazis with 37.3 of the total vote and 230 seats.
  The NSDAP was now the largest party in the
  Reichstag.
• The nationalists (DNVP), middle class democratic
  parties (DDP, DVP) and the moderate left wing
  (SPD) all lost votes, although turnout had again
  increased.
• The Nazis were not the only success story. The
  KPD also increase their share of the vote to
  14.3. This meant that only 39.5 of the German
  people had voted for pro-democratic parties
  whereas over half (51.6) had voted for the
  extreme left and right.

34
How important was the economy for the Nazis?

• Childers (1983) claims it was the fear of
  unemployment rather than unemployment itself that
  made people look to the Nazi party during the
  early 1930s (the politics of anxiety).
• The NSDAP vote was concentrated among the
  agrarian and small-town middle classes in the
  Protestant north and east. In other words it was
  those who still had something to lose and who
  feared loss of social status who voted NSDAP.
• He maintains that Catholics tended to remain
  loyal to the Centre party and that the workers
  who were laid off first and were therefore
  actually unemployed at the time, would have still
  voted for the traditional working class parties
  (SPD and KPD).

35
Voting Patterns in Germany 1920 - 1933
36
Hitler was not offered the Chancellorship in the
summer of 1932 and he rejected Hindenburgs offer
of Vice-Chancellor, greeting it with
derision. September 1932 Von Papen received a
vote of no confidence from the Reichstag.
Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag the next
day. November 1932 Reichstag elections were
held. The Nazis lost ground and their share of
the vote fell to 33, though they were still the
largest party. However, this decline in fortune
perhaps encouraged the idea that Hitler could be
tamed and used by those who wished to harness his
mass following for their own purposes.
37
December 1932 Schleicher persuaded Hindenburg to
dismiss Papen and appoint himself as Chancellor.
However, he failed to gain the support of trade
unionists and managed to antagonise the
industrialists and landowners. January 1933
Papen now got his revenge on Schleicher. The Nazi
party appeared weak with a lack of funds and
falling membership. Papen met with Hitler and
offered him the Chancellorship with himself as
Vice-Chancellor. Two other Nazis could join him
in the cabinet. Hindenburg was encouraged to
accept this proposal though he personally
disliked Hitler. It was assumed that Hitler would
be a Chancellor in chains and that he could be
used in the interest of the conservative
establishment.
38
January 30th 1933 Chancellor Hitler greeting the
Nazi torchlight parade passing the window of his
new office. President Hindenburg also gazes out
the window at the sight.
39
The Establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship January
March 1933 Control at the Centre
In two months well have pushed Hitler into a
corner so hard that hell be squeaking. Von
Papen January 1933

• Hitlers position appeared to be weak in January
  1933
• Only 3 out of 12 Cabinet ministers were Nazis.
• Hitlers coalition government did have a majority
  in the Reichstag, making dramatic legislation
  difficult to introduce.
• Hindenburg could dismiss Hitler at any point.
• The army could arrange a military coup if
  antagonised.
• Trade unions could organise a general strike as
  they did against the Kapp putsch.

40
Reichstag Elections March 1933

• Within 24 hours of his new appointment, Hitler
  had called another election both to increase the
  Nazi vote and to enhance his own status.
• Campaigning would be more successful now the
  Nazis had access to the resources of the state.
  Goebbels capitalised on the increased access to
  the press and radio. Goering was responsible for
  the police in Prussia and used this to blatantly
  harass opponents while ignoring Nazi crimes.
• Hitler also secured financial backing for the
  Nazi election campaign from 20 leading
  industrialists to the tune of 3 million marks.

41
The Reichstag Fire 27th February 1933
A young Dutch communist , Marinus van der Lubbe,
was arrested following a blaze in the Reichstag.
Opinions vary as to whether he was actually
responsible but the Nazis were quick to exploit
the incident to their own advantage
42
Aftermath of the Reichstag Fire

• Claiming the fire was evidence of a communist
  plot to takeover Germany, the Law for the
  Protection of People and State was drawn up and
  presented to Hindenburg who promptly signed it.
• In a few short clauses most civil and political
  liberties were suspended, including freedoms of
  assembly and expression.
• Crucially, central government now had the right
  to arrest and detain individuals without trial
  for unlimited amounts of time.
• The Nazis used these measures to restrict the
  campaigning of their political opponents for the
  March election.
• Unsurprisingly, the Nazis increased their share
  of the vote to 43.9.

43
The Enabling Act 23rd March 1933

• Hitler decided to propose a bill that would allow
  him to govern without parliament for the next 4
  years. However, any changes to the existing
  Weimar constitution required a two-thirds
  majority.
• Bargaining with parties such as the DNVP
  increased the Nazi majority and Hitler falsely
  promised the Centre party that he would respect
  the rights of the Catholic church if given these
  powers.
• Intimidation and the physical barring of
  communist members of the Reichstag did the rest.
  The Enabling Act was passed by 444 votes to 94.
  The Weimar Republic had voted itself out of
  existence.

44
The National Socialist movement will seek to
reach its goals through legal meansWe will seek
to gain a decisive majority in the lawmaking
bodies, and at the moment in which we succeed we
will give the state a form corresponding to our
ideas Adolf Hitler 25th September 1930
How Hitler says legal
45
When and why did Weimar die?

• Layton (2005) has identified three major
  weaknesses facing the Weimar Republic.
• The hostility of Germanys vested interests
• Key powerful figures in German society and
  business rejected the idea of a democratic
  republic. They hoped instead for a return to the
  pre-war situation and worked against the
  interests of Weimar.
• Ongoing economic problems
• Almost continuous economic problems affected all
  levels of society. The costs of the war plus the
  burden of reconstruction, reparations and the
  expense of the new welfare payments were
  difficult challenges for Weimar. Even after the
  1923 crisis, key problems remained unresolved and
  this would have dramatic consequences in the
  global economic crisis from 1929.

46
When and why did Weimar die?

• Limited base of popular support
• There was never total acceptance of, and
  confidence in, Weimars system and values. From
  the start its narrow base of popular support was
  threatened by extremes of left and right. It was
  also associated with defeat, Versailles and
  reparations and its reputation was further
  damaged by the crisis of 1922-3.
• Liberal parties (DDP, DVP) lost support from 1924
  onwards, and the Centre party and DNVP moved
  further to the right. Even the SPD failed to join
  coalitions in the mid 1920s and would not
  cooperate with its left-wing partner the KPD.

47
When and why did Weimar die?

• Crucial to any consideration of why Weimar died
  however, is when Weimar collapsed.
• Was it a gamble with no chance of success right
  from its birth in 1918?
• Did the crisis of 1923 leave key supporters
  disillusioned and unwilling to defend it?
• Did the Wall Street Crash herald the end or was
  Weimar over when the Nazis became the largest
  party in the Reichstag in July 1932?
• Did the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor
  signal the end of democracy there and then or did
  it limp on until the Enabling Act was passed in
  1934?

48
The death of Weimar democracy accident, suicide
or murder?

• Fulbrook (2004) claims there is an element of
  each in the death of Weimar.
• Accident because had the Wall Street Crash not
  occurred there would have been some chance for
  continued stabilisation over time.
• Suicide because key elites had no will to
  uphold democracy and took the wrong decisions,
  most tragically at the very end.
• Murder because Hitler made no secret of his
  intention to destroy democracy, having abused the
  democratic system to attain power legally.

49
Banff Academy 2005