1A.+Conditions+that+produced+authoritarian+and+single+party+states

= = = **CONDITIONS FOR EMERGENCE OF SINGLE PARTY STATES** =

[|Single-party states] are characterized as **crisis states**. Therefore it must be accepted that single-party states arise because many people are prepared to accept extreme solutions to problems that overwhelm their social group or society as a whole. Societies with [|democratic and liberal traditions] may be prepared to accept dictatorial or repressive government, if they feel that all other methods have failed. The **prospects of economic collapse, [|political revolution] or social [|anarchy]** are powerful inducements for radical change. Crisis environments may be accompanied by a **breakdown of order in the society** and many people are prepared to accept radical solutions if some sort of order and stability or predictability can be restored to their daily lives.

Single party states are the **creation of violence, despair division, anger and fear**. In fact, it may be asserted that they cannot emerge in societies that do not exhibit these desperate characteristics. Hitler’s rise to power cannot be explained without the economic crisis, fear and societal chaos brought on by the Great Depression in Germany.
 * Crisis states are induced by: war, including the aftermath of war, economic crisis, political instability, lack of leadership, unpopular or tyrannical governments, fear of revolution, new ideas introduced in politics.**




 * In Germany** after WWI, **these factors came together** in creating the conditions for Hitler's rise to power. They can be divided in long-term and short-term factors (listen to [|podcast]).
 * **Long-term factors**:
 * Consequences of **World War 1**;
 * **Weaknesses** of the **Weimar Republic**;
 * **Short-term factors**:
 * Impact of the **Great Depression**;
 * Breakdown of **Parliamentary Government**.

=CONDITIONS FOR EMERGENCE OF NAZI GERMANY, LONG-TERM FACTORS=

** FUNDAMENTAL WEAKNESSES OF WEIMAR **


 * Hostility of Germany’s vested interests: **
 * From the very start, [|Weimar]faced **hostility** of **Germany’s established elites**. The fact that so many key figures in German society and business rejected the democratic republic was a major problem.
 * While this was a handicap in successful times, it was a **decisive factor in its final collapse**.

This evidence can be used to argue that the emergence of Hitler as a single party states was due to the continuous absence of democracy in Germany: Hitler was able to come to power because, in Germany, democracy had never been a possibility.


 * Radicalization of politics: **
 * The radical **left parties became bitter opponents to the Republic** because of the Government’s suppression of the 1919 revolt of the [|Spartacus League] (the incipient Communist party).
 * As a result, the Communists could not be relied upon to support the [|SPD]against any offensive from the conservative right.

This could be used as evidence that the emergence of Nazism was a result of the political polarization and the political instability in Germany. This could be used to say that Weimar and democracy were failing or that Nazism was a response to a period of political crisis.
 * The latter became likely with the triumph of the “[|stab in the back]” myth, started by Hindenburg himself. Combined with the [|criticism of the Treaty of Versailles], this dealt a devastating attack on the rationale of the Republic.



This could be used as evidence to argue that Hitler's rise to power was inevitable because of Versailles. Hitler might have been another ordinary German statesman, and the conditions of his rise to power were already in place in 1919. It was only a question of time before Hitler, or someone else, took power.


 * Weimar’s structural flaws: **
 * [|Proportional representation], without a threshold, produced a multiplicity of parties, encouraged splinter groups and made [|coalition governments] inevitable.
 * This was exacerbated at certain points in the history of the Republic by economic crises.

This could be used as evidence to argue that Hitler's rise to power was not due to his particular skills or to the Great Depression, but that Weimar was doomed from the start because of its structural flaws.


 * Ongoing economic problems: **
 * The republic had been faced with problems from [|Allied reparations] to the burden of post-war reconstruction and expenses of new welfare benefits.
 * Following the[| inflation crisis in ’23], **Weimar’s economic problems remained unresolved** and lay dormant.



This could be used as evidence in order to argue that Weimar had shown irreparable flaws from the beginning. Hitler was an ordinary German statesman, his rise to power was favored by the flaws Weimar had from the beginning.


 * Limited base of popular support: **
 * The republic had **never enjoyed widespread political support**. Its narrow base of popular support was caught between political extremes. The associations with defeat and the humiliation of Versailles remained a stigma
 * The “[|breathing space]” from ’24-’29 did not result in a strengthening of the Weimar system; the republic’s chances of surviving the economic crisis were pretty slim.



This evidence can be used to argue that the emergence of Hitler as a single party states was due to the continuous absence of democracy in Germany: Hitler was able to come to power because, in Germany, democracy had never been a possibility.Those who had the power in Germany never supported Weimar but favored the advent of Nazism.

=CONDITIONS FOR EMERGENCE OF NAZI GERMANY, SHORT-TERM FACTORS=

THE IMPACT OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS ON GERMANY
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Almost immediately after the [|October ’29] crash, the **American loans and investment dried up**. This was quickly followed by demands for the repayment of those short-term loans. The crisis caused a further decline in the price of food and raw materials as industrialized nations reduced imports. With world trade slumping, **German industry could no longer sustain itself.**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">However, the Wall Street crash was not the source of all problems. Before the onset of the crisis:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The **balance of trade was already in the red** (debt).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Unemployment** was at 1.9 million.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Farmers had been facing **falling incomes** since 1927
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">German **government finances were run in deficit**, since 1925.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The [|depression] caused **unemployment to reach 6.1 million**, dragged down the middle classes and lead to widespread rural poverty. One in three workers was unemployed in 1933. This created the necessary **breakdown of social order** to allow for the creation of a single party state.



This could be used as evidence to argue that it was really the Great Depression that made Hitler's rise to power inevitable. Before 1929, the Locarno Spring had made Germany and Europe hope for a change. After the Wall Street Crash, though, the new situation of economic crisis in Germany favored Hitler's rise to power. This also suggests that the citizens freely supported Hitler, and that he didn't take power "by force" but through the law.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT’S BREAKDOWN **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Collapse of Muller’s Coalition**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Already in disarray, **Muller’s coalition government (see table) was brought down by disagreements between the SPD and Centre party** over proposals to cut unemployment benefits to deal with the deficit in the national insurance scheme.

This could be used as evidence to argue that the internal structure of Weimar produced the conditions of Hitler's rise to power. It could also be used as evidence to argue that it was the Great Depression to cause the breakdown of the government and the political instability that led to Nazi Germany.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Appointment of Bruning as Chancellor and implications**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|President Hindenburg] appointment is seen as crucial step towards the end of true parliamentary democracy.




 * **Bruning was maneuvered into office by a select group of //conservative-nationalist// political players** surrounding the President, none of whom had any faith in the democratic process.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Brüning’s response to the economic crisis led to a **political constitutional crisis.**

This could be used as evidence to argue that democracy in Germany was destroyed by the upper classes, which did not support it, and which favored Hitler's rise to power.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">His policy proposal, cuts in government expenditure, was rejected by the [|Reichstag]. But Bruning implemented them anyways using an emergency decree, signed by Hindenburg.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Reichstag challenged the decree’s legality and voted for its withdrawal; Bruning asked Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call for new elections.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Though Bruning had hoped to garner support for centre-right parties, the real beneficiary was the Nazi party. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the 1930’s election results saw an astounding rise in Nazi popularity; in contrast, moderate, pro-democratic parties saw their numbers fall. The implications of the elections mean that the left and right extremes made extensive gains against pro-democratic parties.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** BRUNING’S PRESIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT **




 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">Under Brüning, parliamentary democracy gave way to **presidential democracy**.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Bruning governed Germany by the use of [|Article 48] through Hindenburg.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">He was a **semi dictator**, as can be seen from his growing use of presidential decrees.

This could be argued as evidence that it was the breakdown of the parliamentary government that led to Hitler's rise to power. It could also be used as evidence that the Great Depression caused this breakdown: since democracy had already been unstable in Germany for a longer period of time, the Great Depression was the final blow which caused it to collapse.
 * || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">1930 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">1931 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">1932 ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">Presidential decree laws (Article 48) || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">3 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">44 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">66 ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">Reichstag laws || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">98 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">34 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">5 ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">Sitting days of the Reichstag || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">94 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">42 || <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: center;">13 ||


 * ECONOMIC POLICY**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">While in office, Brüning imposed his economic aims by presidential decree:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">To balance the budget.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">To prevent the chance of restarting [|inflation].
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">To get rid of the burden of German reparations.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">His policy’s main measures were to cut spending drastically and raise taxes.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">This lowered demand and led to a worsening of the economic slump. As a result, there was a large increase in the unemployed, earning him the nickname “Hunger Chancellor”. **




 * HISTORIOGRAPHY :** Was Brüning economically competent?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">NO
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Post- 1945, historians generally condemned the [|Chancellor]for his policy.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">It was believed that by sticking to a policy of reducing expenditure that he seriously worsened the situation and **made possible the rise of the Nazis//.//**

This could be used as evidence to argue that Hitler's predecessors paved the way to Nazism. Because of them, Hitler was able to take power through constitutional means.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">YES
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Weimar in the late ‘20s was already “incurably sick”. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The German economy entered the depression with severe weaknesses (excessively high wages, an already large government debt, low investment dependent on credit from abroad).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Therefore, any German government was not in position to expand the economy.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> By the time the severity of the depression was recognized, **it was already too late** to introduce measures to prevent unemployment rising above 6 million.

This could be used as evidence to argue that Hitler's predecessors had nothing to do with Hitler's rise to power. It was the instability and structural inefficiency of Weimar which allowed Hitler to take power. And, it if hadn't been Hitler, it would have been someone else.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">MIDDLEGROUND
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">There were weaknesses in Weimar’s economy but it was not doomed to collapse in the depression. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Bruning’s commitment to getting rid of reparations no longer made sense, as pursuing it exacerbated the depression. In doing so, he was prevented from facing the problems of the depression.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**There were alternative options**: economic measures in summer ’31 (work creation schemes in construction, reduction of agricultural subsidies to make spending possible elsewhere) might have been enough to lessen the effects of the Depression.

Hitler's predecessors did what they could, but the Great Depression was the decisive factor's for Hitler's rise to power: after the Depression hit, Weimar was doomed.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">**BRUNING'S FALL FROM POWER**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">By May 1932, Hindenburg forced his chancellor to resign by refusing to sign any more emergency decrees. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The effects of the depression had begun to take their toll by the end of 1932, causing **confidence in Brüning to wane.**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The **closure of major banks** revived fears of financial crisis.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">These circumstances brought together a range of right-wing political, military and economic forces who demanded Brüning’s resignation.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">However, Bruning still enjoyed the support of Hindenburg.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">What //did// cause Bruning’s fall from grace was the President’s displeasure at his aim to issue an emergency decree to turn some //Junker// estates in East Prussia into land allotments for unemployed. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Landowners regarded this a threat to their properties: “agrarian [|bolshevism]”.
 * Germany's landed classes pressured Hindenburg into dropping the chancellor.
 * It's also important to note that Hindenburg himself was a Prussian landowner.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">- **ASSESSMENT OF** **BRUNING'S CHANCELLORSHIP:**
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Brüning only survived as chancellor because he had the backing of the president. **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">With ending reparations Brüning’s priority and no real hope of improvement in the economic crisis, it’s not surprising that large sections of the population looked to the Nazis to save the situation.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Presidential rule had accustomed Germany again to rule by decree.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">This way **//democracy was undermined//** and the way was cleared for more extreme political parties to assume power.

This could be used as evidence to argue that democracy in Germany was already dead by the time of Bruning's Chancellorship, and that it was only a question of time before someone like Hitler took power.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">PAPEN’S GOVERNMENT **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">- **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Franz von Papen became Chancellor at the suggestion of Schleicher and formed a new “non-party” government of ‘national concentration’. **




 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">It was nicknamed the “[|Cabinet of Barons]” because it was dominated by aristocratic landowners and industrialists – and many were not even members of the //Reichstag//.



<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">- <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">In order to secure support from the Nazis, Papen and Schleicher agreed to:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The dissolution of the //Reichstag// and the calling of fresh elections.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The ending of a government ban on the [|SA and SS].



<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">- <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The election campaign led to an increase in street violence in the cities. This bloodshed provided Papen and Schleicher with the **excuse to abolish the most powerful regional state government in Germany: [|Prussia]**. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">- <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">This, the so-called //Prussian coup//, was of immense significance: - **When Hitler became Chancellor in '33, he inherited control of the Prussian state and used the precedent of Papen's actions to overthrow other state governments. Papen's coup was thus a mortal blow to the Weimar republic.**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">On July 20th, it was simply removed by Papen, who declared a state of emergency and appointed himself Reich Commissioner of Prussia.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">It was arbitrary and **unconstitutional**.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">It replaced a parliamentary system with a **presidential authoritarian government**.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Democrats – especially the SPD and trade unions – gave in without any real opposition. Their passive responses show how far the forces of democracy had lost the initiative.

This could be used as evidence to argue that Hitler's predecessors had already destroyed democracy in Germany and that, if Hitler hadn't took power, somebody else would have done it.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">- <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The Nazis came out of the elections with 13.7 million votes, and 230 seats.

This could be used as evidence to argue that Hitler took power through constitutional means, and not through force.




 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Hitler was therefore the leader by far of the largest party in Germany. Constitutionally, he had every right to form a government.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">- <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Also noteworthy: the middle-class democratic parties, DDP and DVP collapsed disastrously:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Only 39.5 percent voted for pro-democratic parties.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The combined percentage of voters for the KPD or NSDAP was 51.6

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">- <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Essentially, the German people **voted to reject democracy**. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Watch a video on Hitler's establishment of power: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">[|Hitler's establishment of power] <span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> This could be used as evidence to show that democracy in Germany was rejected by the population, and that Hitler did not take power through force.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">


 * OLD IB QUESTIONS**:
 * 1) "Single party regimes are not necessarily authoritarian and oppressive." How far is this borne out of __either__ the history of Europe before 1945 or by the history of Africa since 1960? (1985) (HL/SL)
 * 2) "Single party regimes have all had one feature in common: they have all been products of a crisis situation." Examine with reference to specific examples, the truth of this claim (1985) (HL/SL)
 * 3) What evidence is there, if any, in the history EITHER before OR after the Second World War to support the claim that "single party states are not always authoritative and oppressive"? (1987) (HL)
 * 4) Assess the importance of each of the following factors in helping to bring Hitler to power in 1933:
 * 5) the Versailles Peace Settlement
 * 6) anti-Semitism
 * 7) the Weimar Republic's political structure, and
 * 8) the Weimar Republic's economic problems (1988) (HL)
 * 9) "A single party regime does not have to be autocratic and oppressive." Choosing __TWO__ examples of single party regimes, support or refute this claim. (1989) (HL)
 * 10) "Single party regimes emerged in Europe between wars in countries where traditions of democracy were short and unfamiliar and where a democratic system had failed to find solutions to current problems." How appropriate and how adequate is this explanation? (1990) (HL)
 * 11) "The establishment of one party states has invariably been a desperate response to a political crisis." Evaluate this statement with reference to ONE European state before the Second world War and ONE non-European state after the Second World war. (1992) (HL)
 * 12) Analyze the conditions which led to the establishment of **two** single party states each chosen from a different region. [specimen] [1998]
 * 13) "In the twentieth century right wing Single Party states have often been the result of a conservative reaction to change whilst left wing Single Party states have achieved power as the outcome of a revolutionary process against tradition." Using examples from at least **two** regions explain how far you agree with this quotation. [HL] [1999]
 * 14) "Promise of improved social and economic conditions win more support for would-be single-party rulers than ideological pronouncements." How far do you agree with this claim? [HL] [2001]
 * 15) Analyze the conditions that led to single-party states during the twentieth century. [HL] [2002]
 * 16) Analyze the methods used and the conditions which helped in the rise to power of one ruler of a single party state. (HL) (2005)

**BACKGROUND: POLITICAL PARTIES** **BACKGROUND: CHANCELLORS OF WEIMAR, 1930-2**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The parties of the Republic** (= the parties in Muller’s “Great Coalition”)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The SPD (Social Democrats)** were a moderate socialist party and the largest of the parties committed to the Republic. It was strongly anti-communist.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The Centre Party (Zentrum)** was set up to defend Catholic interests in 1870. It drew support from all classes. It was present in every Weimar coalition government until 1933. The BVP was its Bavarian ally.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The DDP (German Democratic Party)** was a middle class Liberal party. It lost support rapidly after 1920. In 1919 it received 19% of the vote. By 1932 this was down to 1%.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The DVP (German People’s Party)** had reservations about the new Republic and at heart they were Monarchists. They were supported by the middle-classes. The outstanding political figure of the Weimar Republic, Gustav Stresemann, was the leader of this party. Its highest point of support was in 1920 when it received 14% of the vote. By 1932 this was down to 2%. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The opposition of the left**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The USPD (Independent Socialist Party)** had broken from the SPD in 1917 because they did not support Germany’s continued participation in WWI. It declined rapidly after 1920 with the rise of the Communist party.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The KPD (Communist Party)** was formed from the **Spartacus Union** that had led a revolt against the Weimar government in January 1919. It was very closely allied to Moscow and it refused to co-operate, in any way, with the parties that supported Weimar. They were especially hostile to the SPD. This refusal to support Democratic parties went as far as allying with the Nazis (their sworn enemies) in Reichstag votes. This was in order to further destabilize the Republic ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The opposition of the right**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The DNVP (German National People’s Party)** was set up in 1918. It was composed of supporters of the old Monarchy. It had strong rural support especially in Protestant areas. They were Hitler’s coalition partners when he came to power in 1933.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**The NSDAP (National Socialist German Worker’s Party)** was founded in Munich in 1919. At first it favored the violent overthrow of the Weimar Republic. But after the failed Putsch of 1923 it adopted a legal approach to achieving power. The onset of the Great Depression and the economic chaos of the 1930s greatly aided its rise. It came to national prominence in 1930 when it won 18% of the vote and by 1932 it was the largest party in the Reichstag. ||
 * [[image:http://www.info-regenten.de/regent/regent-d/pictures/germany-mueller.jpg align="center"]] || ** Hermann Muller **

Muller signed the Treaty of Versailles and was briefly Chancellor after the Kapp Putsch in 1920. He became Chancellor for the second time in 1928 and formed a coalition government ranging from the SPD to the DVP. It failed to agree on how to fund the rising unemployment payments brought about by the Depression. When President Hindenburg refused to support him, he resigned in 1930. His was the last genuine parliamentary government. ||
 * [[image:http://www.info-regenten.de/regent/regent-d/pictures/germany-bruening.jpg align="center"]] || ** Heinrich Bruning **

Bruning was elected to the Reichstag in 1924 and became the Center Party's Reichstag leader in 1929. He was appointed Chancellor in 1930. In July 1930, in order to win Reichstag support, he called a new election which led to major gains for extremists. He failed to take action to reduce the impact of the Depression, and his austerity program earned him the nickname of "Hunger Chancellor". He was forced to resign when he lost the confidence of Hindenburg over plans to divide up bankrupt states in east Germany. ||
 * [[image:http://www.info-regenten.de/regent/regent-d/pictures/germany-papen.jpg align="center"]] || ** Franz von Papen **

Born into a Catholic noble family, he married the daughter of a Saar industrialist. He was always a monarchist and nationalist. In 1921, he was elected as a Center Party candidate to the Prussian Landtag. A friend of Hindenburg, he had limited political experience but was asked to be Chancellor in 1932. He aspired to undo the Weimar Constitution and so he was quite happy to rule by presidential decrees and to denounce the state government of Prussia. After his dismissal, he intrigued with Hitler to replace Schleicher. ||
 * [[image:http://www.info-regenten.de/regent/regent-d/pictures/germany-schleicher.jpg align="center"]] || ** Kurt von Schleicher **

He was an officer in Hindenburg's regiment and considered the army the true embodiment of the nation, far more so than the new Weimar Republic. In 1932, worried about the power of the Nazis and the danger of the civil war, he tried to tame them by including them in government. He was murdered by the Nazis in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. ||


 * BACKGROUND: WORKLESS MILLIONS OF GERMANY By GARETH JONES, 1933**

As I was looking into a shop window in the elegant main street of Dresden I felt someone tap my elbow nervously, and, turning round, I saw a young worker, who begged shamefacedly for a little money. “What was your work?” I asked. “Farm labourer,” he answered. “So I do not get any unemployment insurance. I can get no work on the land, and here in Dresden it is terrible. A curse seems to have come over the country. Unemployment and the misery which follows it are sending millions of honest German workers into the camp of the extremists. It is arousing among the middle class in Germany burning hatred of the system under which they live. It is creating a tense feeling that anything is better than the present distress. Here in Dresden, which has a population of 650,000, nearly 200,000 men, women, and children depend on help from the public bodies in order to live. In most German towns nearly one-third of the inhabitants receive what little money they have from relief and unemployment insurance. Investigations I have made into the way the German unemployed live reveal a grim picture, and one is astounded that revolutionary outbreaks of violence have so rarely occurred. One reason for the calm and the quietness of the unemployed is probably the under-nourishment, which does not encourage energetic action. Health, conditions among the children of the unemployed are getting worse and worse. I have been shown the private reports of teachers and of inspectors of the homes, and they make tragic reading. Many children cannot go to school because they have no shoes. There is a terrible lack of bed clothing in the houses. The children come to school in the most meager of rags, and few of them in the poorest quarters have sufficient warm clothing. Often a child, when given a free meal, will gulp down without stopping eight large plates of soup.


 * BACKGROUND: "Why the German Republic Fell", 1938, by Bruno Heilig**

Seven million men and women (one-third of the wage-earning people) unemployed, the middle class swept away: that was the position about one year after the climax of prosperity. Progress, conditioned as it was, had rapidly produced the most dreadful poverty. Yet why had Germany taken the road from individual political liberty through mass hysteria to the surrender of all liberty and the despotic "leadership" of one man? Was there a link between the economic and the political collapse? Emphatically, yes. For as unemployment grew, and with it poverty and the fear of poverty, so grew the influence of the Nazi Party, which was making its lavish promises to the frustrated and its violent appeal to the revenges of a populace aware of its wrongs but condemned to hear only a malignant and distorted explanation of them. In the first year of the crisis the number of Nazi deputies to the Reichstag rose from 8 to 107. A year later this figure was doubled. In the same time the Communists captured half of the votes of the German Social Democratic Party and the representation of the middle class practically speaking disappeared. In January 1933 Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler; he attained power, as I said before, quite legally. All the forms of democracy were observed. It sounds paradoxical but it was in fact absolutely logical. I do not believe that the Germans would have followed Hitler in his hates and revenges if the people had been living under reasonably good social conditions instead of being as they were under the lash of so much unemployment and privation. The unequal distribution of wealth makes government corrupt, and "a corrupt democratic government must finally corrupt the people, and when a people become corrupt there is no resurrection." Germany's masters, the owners of agricultural and industrial land, the Junkers and the Ruhr industrialists, had no actual love for Nazidom as such, but they were willing to use it to destroy the hated Republic. "A mere aristocracy of wealth will never struggle while it can hope to bribe a tyrant," which is just how the German landlords behaved. Nazidom was financed as everyone knows by the heavy industry in the first place, but the Junkers also contributed to the millions of marks which were paid to the leaders of the Nazi Party.


 * SOURCES**

//Hitler and Nazi Germany// by Stephen J. Lee. Routledge 1998, London. //Weimar and the Rise of Nazi Germany 1918-1933// by Geoff Layton, Third Edition. //Access to History// series. Hodder Murray 2005, London. //Weimar and Nazi Germany// book from in class.
 * Books:**

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~semp/weimar.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/germany/hitlerpowerrev1.shtml http://www.johndclare.net/Rempel_Nazi27.htmd http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERnazi.htm http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/german_articles/german_articles.htm http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/elect.htm http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.asp http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm http://www.johndclare.net/index.htm http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111heil.html http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/german_articles/welshman_looks_at_europe_11.htm http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111heil.html http://dmorgan.web.wesleyan.edu/materials/weimar.htm
 * Sites:**