RP 1
Raul Patel
Year 13
History
“Weimar politicians must bear the greatest responsibility for Hitler becoming Chancellor in
1933, Discuss this view.”
Adolf Hitler, one of the most notorious leaders of the 20th century, rose to power in 1933 after
uniting his chancellorship and presidency to become the Fuhrer of Germany. The socio-
economic problems created by the Great Depression of 1929, and the Weimar Republic’s
inability to deal with them accordingly was played an essential role in allowing for Hitler’s
chancellorship, however, it must be said that his charisma/personality, use of propaganda, and
SA played a massive role.
Undoubtably, the main reason behind Hitler’s rise to chancellorship was the Great Depression of
1929. As in any country, a recession would always lead towards support for alternatives, mainly
due to the devastating impact on society, as unemployment rose to 6 million by 1932, with over
20,000 farmers and 50,000 businesses gone bankrupt. These severe social problems can be
reinforced with the lack of industrial production, which fell by 70%, thus creating a cycle of
economic recession. However, many historians believe this problem was intensified due to
Weimar failures to solve the issues. Though global protectionism prevented Germany from
kickstarting their economy through trade (which was a big part of German income), due to
countries going into isolation to protect their businesses, (which was a big part of German
income), Weimar leaders failed to act to ease the consequences of the depression. This can be
exemplified with Bruning’s chancellorship, who was appointed in 1930 and dismissed only a few
months later, as his failure to take action to combat the consequences of the depression during its
early stages led to a disastrous impact on Germany, highlighted with the fact that he aimed at
consolidating his personal position within the Reichstag, such as calling in new elections, which
led to a rise of extremism and lack of focus to achieve the goals he promised; which was to re-
stabilize businesses. This proved to be a common attribute within the republic, as Muller also
failed to agree on action to deal with the depression, as there were disagreements within the
government, particularly over whether to increase unemployment funds from 3% to 3.5%, as
Weimar leaders felt government spending was unnecessary, as previous recessions had recovered
naturally. Overall, the fact that there had been 4 different chancellors within the space of 5 years
showed how inefficient the Weimar government was at the time, which allowed Hitler to use
their failures to his advantage.
Furthermore, Hitler’s use of propaganda allowed for his rise to chancellorship. Goebbels; the
Nazi propaganda minister, was able to diminish the reputation of the Weimar leaders by playing
to German nationalism, to create a scapegoat for the blame of losing WW1, showing how Jewish
democracy within the government stabbed Germany in the back, which was distributed through
posters, radio broadcasts and the Nuremburg Rallies, repeated to the point where the known
falsehood (the big lie) is treated as if it was self-evidently true. This proved to be successful as
the German people needed to believe in a reason why they lost the war, and were in the
economic situation that the so called “Jewish traitors” had placed them in. One of the most
successful aspects of his propaganda campaign was the “Arbeit und Brot (work for bread)
