Transcript Presentation 10: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic

Democratic development
& democratic decay
The collapse of the Weimar
Republic & The Rise of Nazism
Germany at war’s end
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Kaiser abdicates (1918)
Abortive revolution
Militias, paramilitary groups active
• Kapp putsch
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Weimar Republic proclaimed, 1919
• Accepts peace dictated by allies
• Doomed from the start?
Fragmented polity
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Extreme left:
• Communists committed to violent revolution
Left:
• Social Democrats, committed to economic
change, redistribution of wealth – increasingly
part of system
Centre:
• Christian Democrats,
Right:
• Liberals
• Conservatives
• Nationalists
Extreme right: opponents of liberal democracy
Bases of support
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Pro-system: the ‘Weimar parties:’
• Social Democrats (SPD)
• Catholics (Centre Party)
• Liberals (DVP, DP)
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Republic opposed, at best tolerated
by
• military
• civil service
• Judiciary
• upper classes
Changes over time
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Initially, ‘Weimar parties’ enjoy strong
support;
• But challenged from left and right:
revolutionaries, free corps, militias….
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Support narrows as early as 1920
• Communists and independent Socialists gain
on the left (20%)
• Nationalists gain on the right (33%)
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Further narrowing in 1925
• Hindenburg elected president
Three periods:
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1918-1923 -- Shaky start
1924-1929 -- Normalcy
1929-1933 -- Great Depression and
demise
1918-1923
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Problems of revolts from
right and left
• Eventual suppression
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1923 Ruhr crisis:
• France & Belgium occupy in
order to extract reparations
• Workers strike – with
approval of German
government
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Inflation and hyperinflation: money printed
to cover costs
Reparations conundrum
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Dawes plan (1924):
• Rescheduling of reparations payments –
make them manageable
• U.S. loans to Germany
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Enable Germany to make payments to
France
Enabling France to repay U.S.
1924-1929
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Stabilization of currency
Attempts to make Weimar work:
• Broader coalition:
such as DVP join
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centre-right parties
Period of relative success:
• Political stabilization
• Accommodations reached with
neighboring countries (Locarno Pact)
1929-1933
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US Stock Market Crash
German dependence on American loans
results in shutdowns, mass unemployment
Extreme parties – right and left – gain
support
Inability to sustain cabinets
• successive elections
• presidential intervention
• growth of support for Nazism
The Third Reich
The Nazi Seizure of Power
How and why?
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NSDAP as a relatively small group –
one of many ‘volkish”/nationalist
elements, kicking around in the early
1920s
How and why was it able to
• come to power in 1933?
• Consolidate power within six months?
• Establish a totalitarian regime by 1936?
Possible explanations:
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German culture:
• deep-seated
authoritarianism,
• fragmentation/divisions
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Fragility of Weimar
Republic
Hitler’s skill/charisma
Use of propaganda
http://www.thecorner.org/hist/video/v_hitler
.htm
Hitler
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Disaffected Austrian, social misfit
Served in German army,World War I
Afterward, one more ex-soldier
haranguing about defeat
Becomes leader of National Socialist
Workers Party (NSDAP), a small
party
Ideology or Weltaunshaung
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Supremacy of Aryan race
Nationalism/Romanticism
Establishment of a new order
Anti-Semitism
Lebensraum:
• Germany must expand east
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Importance of struggle
Fuhrer principle
Vague anti-capitalism –promises of
something better for everyone
1923-1925
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Origins as a paramilitary group
1923 Beer Hall Putsch, arrest and
imprisonment as a turning point
From 1924-25, pursuit of legality
Emphasis on building up party, while
propagating message
Organization increasingly refined,
with subsections for different
occupations, broader contacts with
society
Gaining power
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Impact of depression
Divisions among parties
• Collapse of SPD-led
government (1928-30)
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1930 election: NSDAP
gains 18%,
Brüning (Centre) uses
presidential emergency
powers (art. 48) to govern
1932 Presidential election:
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Hindenburg defeats Hitler 53%-37%
Brüning dismissed,
• replaced by Von Papen
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SPD gov’t in Prussia ousted –
Socialists fail to resist
1932 Parliamentary Elections
First election:
 NSDAP wins 37%
 Nationalists, von Papen and then
Schleicher, try to enlist NSDAP in a
coalition
 Hitler refuses, unwilling to be named
vice-chancellor
 2nd election called
1932-33
2nd 1932 election:
 NSDAP wins 32%
 Coalition with Hitler as chancellor,
von Papen as vice-chancellor
 Hitler assumes office Jan. 30, 1933
 Rapidly consolidates power by
successively eliminating his
opponents
The Third Reich:
Consolidating power
Dividing and ruling
 New elections called (Nazis win 44%)
 Reichstag fire as pretext for
emergency legislation, suspending
civil liberties, banning communists
from new Reichstag
 Enabling Act, 1933 transfers power
to chancellor
• Centre Party supports, lest it be banned,
supplying necessary 2/3 majority
Moves against other
organizations
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Social Democrats banned
Unions promised freedom to pursue
economic goals
• later reorganized into comprehensive labour
front
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Centre Party disbands following concordat
with Vatican, guaranteeing position of R.C.
Church
Nationalists subsequently marginalized –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod
/horstwessel.html
Control of government
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Power enhanced by creating new
ministries –with Nazis in charge
Enabling Acts used to take control of
provincial governments
Military and business acquiesce
Some objections, but Hitler placates by
moving against more radical elements:
• SA attached and destroyed during Night of
Long Knives (June 20, 1934)
• makes way for more disciplined SS
1934-35
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Hindenburg dies in 1934
Hitler as chancellor & president
• New role of Fuhrer
• endorsed by plebiscite:
 38 million for, 5 million opposed
Nazi penetration of government, society
• Independent organizations merged into Nazi
organizations:
• Gleichschaltung (‘bringing things into line’)
enhances control
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Increasing use of terror by SS, Gestapo
Policies and directions
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Expansive economic policy – rearmament, public
works (construction of autobahns…) –
• creates jobs,
• reflates economy
• generates support
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Successive moves against Jews, minorities
• Restrictions on numbers of Jews in professions
• Nuremberg laws (1935) remove citizenship
• Kristallnacht, 1938
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Foundation laid for war
• Rearmament in violation of Versailles, 1933
• Attempted anschluss with Austria 1934
• Reoccupation of Rhineland, 1936
The Nazi state
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Partial fusion of party and state
Hitler at the centre –
• remote – issuing vague directions
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Numerous empires within the
system,
• SS
• Gestapo
Why was this possible?
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Mass attitudes?
Attitudes of elites?
• Hindenburg, military, monarchists,
others…
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Fragmentation of Weimar society?
Hitler’s skill?
• Success of divide and rule tactics?
• Success of propaganda, big lie?
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Cumulative radicalization?