Reasons Behind the Nazis Coming to Power

Reasons Behind the Nazis Coming to Power

In January 1933, Hitler became chancellor of Germany, there are many

reasons for him and the Nazis coming into power. They are long term

and short-term cause, which can be classed under 3 main headings:

weakness of opposition, strengths of Nazis and economic factors.

The weaknesses of the opposition helped the Nazis come into power

because Hitler took advantage of them. The failure of the Weimar

government was a long-term reason. The government had been doomed from

the start, when it took over from the Kaiser in 1918, it had many

problems to face. Firstly, the Weimar was democratic, it believed the

people should have a say in how their country was run. Many people

felt that democracy was being forced upon them and they weren't used

to it.

The Weimar government was blamed for Germany's defeat in the war and

especially for the problems created by the Treaty of Versailles. They

became known as the "November Criminals" and many people including the

army felt that they had been "stabbed in the back." They had to accept

the post-war treaties and were hated by many Germans for the terms

such as the war guilt clause, reparations and loss of territory etc.

Germany suffered a post-war depression, thousands of people were

starving, and a flu epidemic was killing thousands. The poverty was

made worse in 1923, when Germany could not afford to pay the

reparations and French and Belgian troops entered the Ruhr.

Hyperinflation set in, the Weimar government lost support from the

classes hit worst: Middle class and working class. Many riots and

uprisings broke out which had to be put down with force. On ...

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Hindenburg hadn't made Hitler chancellor he wouldn't have come into

power, or maybe he would have.

The main reason why Hitler came into power was because of the economic

problems, which Germany was suffering from after the war. If there

hadn't been any problems, then the people wouldn't have been so

desperate to find a way out. They wouldn't have turned to extremist

groups for the answers, and probably would have been happy under the

democratic system. Evidence shows that there was an improvement in the

1920's of German life under Stresemann and they were beginning to

recover, if it hadn't have been for the Wall Street crash, they

probably would have recovered. The other reasons are not as important

because on their own without the depression they probably would not

have had such a big effect at all.