IB Hail Mary: For emergencies: February 2015

Hitler's rise to power

The association between the Weimar and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles
Weak constitution

Gave the President extensive emergency powers
He was able to suspend civil liberties in the event of an emergency
This undermined the populations confidence in the democratic state
Became important after the Reichstag Fire where Hindenburg used it to declare a state of emergency in which Hitler was enabled to arrest Communist and Socialist opponents and close down their newspapers

Parties gain the same percentage of seats in the Reichstag as the percentage of votes they gain in the elections
Led to weak coalition governments, which undermined the credibility of the Weimar Republic, and led to many different governments (8 between 19-23). This also led to the fact that the governments had a hard time agreeing on anything.

Lost 13% of European territory and all overseas colonies
This included important industrial areas, such as Upper Silesia, Alsace-Lorraine and the Sudetenland.

Allied Reparations Committee in April 1921 had determined the reparations to £6,600 million
This led to serious inflation as the government tried to finance the war pensioners and the reparations by printing more paper money undermining the mark. This led to serious dissatisfaction from the population whose savings were lost
The Ruhr Crisis (1923)

Worsened the economic situation and led to hyperinflation and this resulted in the creation of the Dawes Plan (1924)
The Dawes Plan (1924) and the Young Plan (1929)

Although the decreased the rate of payment and the Young Plan reduced the final amount of reparations they did tie the German economy closer to the American ones which had grave consequence when the Wall St Crash happened

Ring-wing and nationalists blamed the Politicians (Catholics, Socialists and Jews) for losing the war as they believed that Germany still had the military strength to win the war. Hitler used this propaganda in his campaigns to gain their votes.

The Germany economy was greatly dependent on loans from America to keep their economy afloat, with the Wall St Crash this flow of capital seized and the Allied powers demanded their reparations this deeply damage the economy
Unemployment rose from under 2 million before the crisis to 3.5 in 1930, 4.4 million in 1931 and peaked at 6 million in 1932
This caused further distrust in the government by the population
Correlation between unemployment and Nazi votes

Von Schleicher replaced Von Papen as Chancellor, however Von Schleicher’s land reform worried the conservative president Hindenburg and he therefore wanted to replace him with Hitler to stabilize the government and he and his allies also believed that they would be able to control Hitler
He was appointed in March 1933 and immediately had the SA begin to attack their political enemies (especially the Communists and Social Democrats). They closed down their papers, their meetings were attacked and their members were beaten. Hitler promised the army to tear up the military clauses in the Versailles Treaty to stop them from intervening

Alleged Dutch communist Van der Lubbe set fire to the Reichstag building, which Hitler took advantage of and passed an emergency law which allowed the Chancellor to suspend the parliament, which formed the basis of a police power state

March 1933 Nazi gained 52% in elections
Hitler passed the emergency law called the ‘Enabling Act’. To gain support for the act the SA stood outside the parliament to intimidate the members of parliament to vote for the act. The act allowed Hitler to pass laws without seeking the approval of parliament or the President. It formed the legal basis of the Nazi dictatorship. The Nazis could now close down the other opposing political parties, arrest political opponents etc. They could crush all opposition.
In 1934, Hitler was the sole leader of the Nazis and he could start build the Nazi dictatorship.