The Rise of Nazism in Germany: Economic Crisis and Political Power, Appunti di Storia

Scarica The Rise of Nazism in Germany: Economic Crisis and Political Power e più Appunti in PDF di Storia solo su Docsity! NAZISM IN GERMANY Part 1: post-war problems The days of defeat The First World War finished on 4'* November ,1918. Germany had been defeated. A Republic was proclaimed on 9! November when the Emperor, William II, fled to Holland. It was called the “Weimar Republic” after the German city where the new State constitution was written. It was a time of desperation, consternation, and resentment. Years of war had thrown Germany into a deep economic crisis. Poverty, insufficient wages, and distress were widespread throughout the population. The birth of Nazism In such a difficult, tense, and turbulent political and social climate people started to protest because they were frustrated and angry about the loss. The National Socialist Party was founded on 5°" August 1920, based on: - The fight for democracy. - A desire for revenge against the States that had defeated Germany and therefore cancelling the Treaty of Versailles. - Racism and antisemitism. Adolf Hitler was one of the leaders of this newly born Party. Born in Austria in 1889, Hitler was a Corporal in the German Army. The National Socialist Party organized a coup d’etat in Munich in November 1923. The police discovered the plans and arrested Hitler. During this year long imprisonment, he wrote the first part of his Mein Kampf. A torn country There were three basic political guidelines in defeated Germany: - The National Socialist Party on the extreme right: soldiers, fanatical racists, and democracy deniers were convinced that Germany had been defeated not because its army had surrendered but because it had been stabbed in the back by its internal enemies who had betrayed it by selling it out to enemy nations. The idea spread that Germany had to rearm to regain its former strength to wash off the shame of the defeat suffered in the First World War. - Partiesin the centre were inspired by democracy; the Social Democratic Party, the Catholic Party, the Liberal Party. Despite great difficulty they tried to reintegrate Germany into a peaceful Europe. - The Communist Party on the extreme left wanted to create a Communist Revolution similarto the one which had occurred in the Soviet Union. The economic crisis The extremely precarious situation worsened around 1920 and 1930 due to a serious economic crisis which had two causes: The first cause was the war reparations that the victorious countries, especially France, imposed on Germany. The astronomical sum of about $35 billion confiscateda great part of Germany”s wealth. To cope with this onerous debt, Germany printed a huge amount of bank notes. Consequently, the value of the German mark collapsed. Day by day the wages went down in value, the little savers were completely ruined, and pensioners were reduced to starvation. The second cause was the financial crisis of 1929, which had begun in the USA. It hit Germany violently, worsening their state of distress. In 1929 there were 2,000,000 people unemployed. This figure grew to 6,000,000 by 1932. And between 1929 and 1932 German industrial production fell by 50%.