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== How did the Weimar Republic react to the Great Depression? ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-S38324,_Tag_von_Potsdam,_Adolf_Hitler,_Paul_v._Hindenburg.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|President Paul von Hindenburg meets Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1933 at the new Reichstag]]
In 1929 the Great Depression was triggered by a massive US stock market crash. Counterproductive and damaging economic policies exacerbated it. Financial panics and bank failures slow crept around the world. The repercussions were felt around the globe and especially in Germany. The United States could no longer provide the loans that the Weimar Republic needed. Furthermore, global trade almost came to a standstill, and many Germans became unemployed. One in three Germans were unemployed at the height of the economic crisis, and poverty and hunger were widespread. The Republic was in the grip of an economic and social crisis.
Furthermore, global trade almost came to a standstill, and many Germans became unemployed. One in three Germans were unemployed at the height of the economic crisis, and poverty and hunger were widespread. The Republic was in the grip of an economic and social crisis.
== How did Hitler become the Chancellor of Germany? ==
In 1930, the conservatives won the election. Chancellor Brunning embarked on a series of disastrous economic and political policies. His economic policies involved devaluing the German currency, but this had only the effect of causing hyperinflation that compounded Germany’s economic problems. Furthermore, Brunning discarded the Constitution and ruled by Presidential decree to manage the country's socio-economic conditions. The Great Recession and Brunning's response led many people to become disillusioned with the Republic and even democracy. <ref>Nicholls, Anthony James (2000). <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312233515/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312233515&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=c73d8de75e0efebecb8d0388f55c8f79 Weimar And The Rise Of Hitler]</i>. New York: St. Martin's Press, p. 117.</ref>
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President Hindenburg and his allies offered the Chancellorship to Adolf Hitler as part of a strategy to keep the Communists out of power. Hitler began to assume more and more power and suspended the Weimar Republic's Constitution, and it was effectively dead. Under the 1934 ‘Enabling Act,’ Hitler was made the German people and nation's undisputed leader.<ref>Kershaw, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393320359/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393320359&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=0aa7f979a9f767b4c910f6c8ddbb276a Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris]'', p. 347.</ref>
====Conclusion==Why did the Weimar Republic Fail? ==
The Weimar Republic was born out of war and revolution. The Republic faced many internal threats from Communists and right-wing extremists. It also had to manage an unprecedented economic crisis and a war-ravaged society. It was also left with the task of signing the unpopular Versailles Treaty. However, it was able to negotiate these and could bring stability and some limited prosperity to Germany. The Great Depression was to prove fatal for the Republic. The Weimar political parties were unable to deal with the socio-political crisis caused by the Depression, which led people to seek their salvation in Communism and Nazism, which led to the death of the Republic, after only a 15-year existence.