Transcript How did Adolf Hitler become Chancellor?

How did Adolf Hitler become
Chancellor?
The Background
Hitler and the Nazis
Began as the German Worker’s Party
 Led by Anton Drexler
 1919 Hitler joined
 Party renamed to National Socialist
German Workers' Party
 By 1922 Hitler was the undisputed leader
 Hitler set up his own party army, the SA
(storm troopers or brown shirts)

Inflation in Germany
DATE
GERMAN MARKS
U.S. DOLLARS
1919
4.2
1
1921
75
1
1922
400
1
Jan. 1923
7,000
1
July 1923
160,000
1
Aug. 1923
1,000,000
1
Nov. 1, 1923
1,300,000,000
1
Nov. 15, 1923
1,300,000,000,000
1
Nov. 16, 1923
4,200,000,000,000
1
German children with stacks of inflated currency,
virtually worthless in 1923.
Problems faced by the Weimar Government
1919-1923
1. Ineffective Constitution
- Article 48.
- Proportional voting led to too many parties.
- German states had too much power.
- Army not fully under government control.
2. Left-wing (Communist) Rebellions
- 1919 Spartacist (communist) revolt.
3. Right-wing Terrorism
- 1920 Kapp Putsch – Freikorps brigade rebelled against Treaty of Versailles
- Nationalist terrorist groups murdered 356 politicians
- Matthias Erzberger (signed the armistice) and Walter Rathenau (SPD Foreign
Minister made a treaty with Russia) assassinated.
4. Invasion
- 1923, Germany failed to make reparations payment and France invaded the
Ruhr (western industrial part of Germany).
5. Inflation
Munich Beer Hall Putsch

1923 Hitler believed time was ripe to topple the Weimar Republic

Walked into a local Bavarian government meeting taking place at a
Munich beer hall

Hitler announced he was taking over the Bavarian government

He was accompanied by WWI war hero, General Erich Ludendorff

The SA began to take over local government office buildings

Police launch a counterattack

Rebellion breaks up in chaos, fails
Results of Beer Hall Putsch
At the well publicized trial Hitler and Nazi
party attract even more followers
 Ludendorff freed
 Hitler received a 5 year sentence (of which
he only served 9 months)
 While in prison Hilter writes Mein Kampf
 Also decides Nazi rise to power
must be democratic

Structure of the Weimar Government
Getting Organized - Nazi Party

By 1928 the Nazi party was still a fringe minority
party with only 3% of the populations’ support

BUT during this time the party becomes well
organized

They: enlarge the SA, learn propaganda methods,
set up local party offices, and establish youth groups

When the effects of the Great Depression set in they
have the structures in place to grow
Worldwide Depression, 1929
Bread lines for the unemployed in the U.S.
Unemployment in Germany
1928-1933
September 1928
650,000
September 1929
1,320,000
September 1930
3,000,000
September 1931
4,350,000
September 1932
5,102,000
January 1933
6,100,000
• The Nazi Party, political
unknowns, promised the
German people a solution to
their hunger and poverty:
Work & Bread.
• After the Nazis came to
power, public works programs
similar to those initiated by
FDR’s “New Deal” stimulated
the German economy.
• Prior to World War II,
average Germans credited the
Nazis with their improved
standard of living.
“Work and Bread!”
Nazi Party election poster
from the early 1930’s.
Nazi propaganda poster illustrating the Nazi’s desire to
break the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles.
Nazi Political Rise







1924 Nazi party won 32 seats in Reichstag
elections
1928 they won only 12 seats
1930 win 107 Reichstag seats
1932 win 230 Reichstag seats (biggest party but
not a majority)
1932 Hitler ran for President
Won 13 million votes but loses to Hindenburg’s
19 million
Hitler demands to be made Chancellor . . .
Hindenburg refuses!!!!
Structure of the Weimar Government
Hitler Makes a Deal

After a deal was made, Hitler gains
Chancellor position.
But, how does he get to be
complete ruler of Germany???