Note 5: The Crisis of the Weimar Republic 1929-1933

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Economic impact of the depression

  • The Golden Years of Weimar had been heavily funded by US loans
  • after WSC, US lenders and banks demanded repayments immediately 
  • USA had been Germany’s main trading partner, Germany’s experts fell sharply 
  • Between 1929 and 1932, German exports declined by 61% and German industrial output fell by 58% 
  • By 1832, over 1/3 of German workforce was unemployed 
  • January 1933, around 8 million unemployed 
  • Worst impact on industrial areas like Ruhr 
  • white collar workers and farmers very badly hit 
  • government makes a lot of civil servants redundant so even "stable" government jobs were lost 
  • Banks that had lent loans to industry amd fans during the golden years went bankrupt as ppl couldnt pay back debt 
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Social impact of Depression -Poverty

  • Mass unemployment 
  • eventhough weimar's welfare system was well developed, it was not equipped with the level of poverty and unem the depression brought 
  • From 1930, the gov made it harder to get unemployment benefits 
  • Unemployed workers were only given the dole for a fixed period 
  • After that period, they had to apply to local authorities for relief, local benefits were less generous and strictly means tested 
  • Disease, malnutrition and suicide increased 
  • tenants who could pay rent kicked out, shanty towns on outskirts like Berlin formed 
  • no running water, electricity or gas
  • Towns dependent on only 1 industry hit worse than others
    1. Case study: Brand-Erbisdorf: a centre for glass making, after local glassworks closed, nearly half the population was receiving dole payments. Most unemployed for over 2 years so no longer qualified for dole and had to rely on stingy local relief. 
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Social impact of depression -young people

  • unemployment was high in all age groups but was particularly high among young people 
    • eg in Hamburg unemployment rate of men aged 14 to 25 is 39%
  • Juvenile crime 
    • Overall rate of juvenile convictions did not increase, but the number of 14 to 25-year-olds accused of crime increased. number of young men charged with theft and offences against the state, such as participating in violent disorder during political demonstrations grew during the period
  • Political extremism 
    • Bored and unemploye, many young men joined political extremism groups like 
      • Hitler youth and the SA offered unemployed boys and young men food, uniform, shelter, and excitement in fighting in the street battles during the depressing realities of the depression
      • the  KDP recruited, working-class young men to join political demonstrations and fight the opposing groups in the streets
  • Brüning's response 
    • Established the centres for young people were, they could participate in work related activities and socialise
    • Emergency labour scheme set up where unemployed youths were required to undertake unskilled manual labour receiving below minimum wage. Obviously unpopular with young people and led to 2 waves of strikes for higher wages.
    • Voluntary labour schemes for young unemployed people being sent away from cities to residential work camps, 
    •  These schemes did not offer a prospect of vocational training or finding permanent unemployment
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Political impact of Depression - Collapse of the G

  • The grand coalition had five political parties from the SPD on the left to the DVP on the right
  • The problem of rising cost of unemployment benefits and falling tax revenues resulted in a serious deficit by the end of 1929 which split the coalition
  • DVP wanted to reduce unemployment benefits
  • SPD wanted to protect benefits and raise taxes
  • The government was deadlocked on the issue and in March 1930, Müller resigned
  • After Müller, Brüning, who was more authoritarian in nature, became Chancellor 
  • Hindenbur's decision of appointing Brüning was heavily influenced by 2 key military figures: General Groener, defence minister and Kurt Bin Schleicher, his political adviser which showed that the military was getting involved in politics 
  • since Brüning's government didn't include the SPD, the largest party in the Reichstag, they couldn't pass any laws in the reichstag since they couldn't get the majority in order to pass laws 
  • so they resorted to using article 48 to pass laws, even in non-emergency situations 
  • Laws passed by article rose from 5 on 1930, 44 in 1931 and 66 in 1933
  • laws passed by Reichstag fell from 98 in 1930, 36 in 1931 and 5 in Reichstag 
  • By this point, democracy had effectively died, even before Hitler became chancellor 
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Political impact of Depression - September 1930 Re

  • Brüning wants to balance the budget by cutting gov expenditure and increasing taxes 
  • he tries to persuade Hindenburg to agree to his budget and pass it via 48  but this angers SPD because he keeps using Article 48 for pure political and non-emergency purposes 
  • so Brüning dissolve ps the Reichstag ano calls for an election in September 1930 
  • The Communists gained 1 million votes amd 77 seats in Reichstag 
  • Nazis grew from 810,00 votes in 1928 to 6.5 million votes in 1930, increased Reichstag seats from 12 to 107, making them the 2nd largest party 
  • As a whole,in the election, 2/5 of votes were given to anti-democratic parties 
  • Now that Nazis made up a sizeable % of the Reichstag they disrupted meetings by shouting and chanting , making meetings unorganised and unproductive 
  • Reichstag became unmanageable and irrelevant 
  • The Reichstag did not meet at all between February and October 1931 
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Political impact of Depression - intensification o

  1. In the years, 1930 to 1933, the level of political violence increased dramatically
    • Nazis (SAs) and Communists (Red front fighters league) fought each other on the streets, violence severe in election periods 
  2. Bruning banned (through decree) the wearing of political uniforms in December 1931
  3. This was ignored by the Nazi SAs 
  4. April 1932 Hindenburg was persuaded to sign a decree outlawing the SA, signifying their threat 
  5. This ban still failed to end the SA, their membership growing, by the end of 1932 estimated 400,000 members 
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Appointment of Hitler as Chancellor (intro)

  • Jan '33 Hindenburg asks Hitler to form a 'government of national concentration' (coalition gov with Nazis and DNVP and Papen) 
  • thier aim was that by putting Hitler in a coalition gov with more experienced politicians like Papen, he would be easily manipulated, hoping to make the Nazi party less extreme and undermine the Nazi party 
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The political and economic crisis: The fall of Brü

  • Brüning in power from march 1930 to may 1932 but did not have a majority in Reichstag 
  • could only pass laws through 48
  • schleicher was the person responsible for Brüning being chancellor, he wanted someone who was more authoritarian 
  • Brüning's economic policy was cutting gov expenditure, reducing welfare, firing civil servants and cutting wages 
  • 'Hunger Chancellor' 
  • 1932, unemploymentor was over 6 million 
  • Growing support for Nazis and communists 
  • rich afraid of communists revolution 
  • bruning banned SA in April '32, didn't do anything 
  • Schleicher withdrew support realisibg that a gov could not rule without Nazi support 
  • Hitler refused to join coalition gov unless he was chancellor 
  • Brüning forced to resign as Hindenburg refused to sign a presidential decree he submitted (following Schleicher's advice) 
  • Brüning replaced with Von Papen 
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The political and economic crisis: Papen’s gov May

  • papen's attempt at a 'government of national concentratio' was constructing his gov on a non-party political basis 
  • His cabinet were filled with non-political aristocrats, rich landowners and industrial elite 
  • "Cabinet of Barons" 
  • Anti-democratic gov, massively undermine "democrac" 
  • continued to rule by decree, also authoritarian leaning 
  • saw the communists as the biggest threat to Germany
  • looked down on Nazis but still sympathetic to Hitler amd saw the Nazis and a useful ally due to their popularity 
  • june '32 liften the ban on SA and imposed curbs on left wing press 
  • increased street violence during reich electio campaign of July '32
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Political and economic crisis: July ‘32 Reichstag

  • Moderate parties (DVP and DDP) saw a serious loss of support, became fringe parties 
  • Nazis won support if middle class and unemployed but not KPD, SDP or the Catholics from the Centre Party 
  • After election, Papen invites Hitler to be part of his coalition but Hitler refuses saying he wants to be chancellor 
  • also the Nazis didn't want to be in coalition with Papen's gov in case it collapses, they don't want to be teamed up with a failure gov that would hurt their popularity 
  • The Nazis team up with other parties (including the communists ) for a vote of no confidence in Papen's gov, passed by huge majority of 512 to 42
  • hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag and called for a new election in November 
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The political and economic crisis: November ‘32 el

  • Nazis saw a loss of support, shooked 
  • Still the largest party but lost 2 million votes and 34 seats in Reichstag 
  • mainly bc the MC was alienated by Hitle's attacks on Papen's gov and his refusal to join a coalition unless he was chancellor 
  • these MC voters turned to DVP and DNVP 
  • The MC want a stable gov so Hitler's constant refusal to join coalition gov made some of them turn away from Nazis 
  • Also the Nazis could not afford so many election campaigns( 3 in 8 months), propaganda and campaigns were expensive and could not keep up, running out of steam ?
  • ultimate loser was Papen 
  • he considered banning the Nazis and the communists and using the army to enforce a more authoritarian regime, completely bypassing the Reichstag but Schleicher said the army wouldn’t support him so
  • Papen resigned. 

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Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor: The Role of Ba

  • Germany was essentially run by Hindenburg's close circle of advisors:
  • Schleicher ( who wanted to restore a authoritarian rule in Germany as seen by his role in the appointment of Brüning and Papen) 
  • Hindenburg's son, Oskar Hindenburg mainly economic advice
  •  Dr Otto Meissner , go-between Hitler and and Hindenburg 
  • hindenburg didn't like Hitler bc he was noisy and undisciplined but he was running out of options 
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Schleicher’s gov: December ‘32 to Jan ‘33

  • After Papen was forced to resign, Schleicher convinced hindenburg to make him chancellor 
  • since the Nazis were losing some popularity, they were getting desperate so maybe that would agree to joining a coalition 
  • also the Nazis were getting tired of Hitler's refusals of joining coalitions 
  • Schleicher wants to use these divisions and agitations within the party
  • He goes to the Nazi party's organisational leader, Gregor Strasser, and asks him to join his government 
  • He was going over Hitler's head 
  • Hitler gets rid of Strasser, asserting dominance (remember FUHRERPRINZIP) 
  • Schleicher tried to gain support of trade unions (workers)  through progressive socialist policy 
  • Cancelled wage cuts and benefit cuts (economy was slowly improving )
  • He considered a large scale job creation scheme to relieve unemployment and even talked about breaking up some large estates in east and redistributing the land to small farmers, sounding kinda communist imo
  • This obv scares off industrialit's and landowners
  • Last attempt to stay in power: he basically asked Hindenburg to suspend the constitution, dissolve the Reichstag and give him dictatorial powers. Hindenburg refused and Schleicher resigned 
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Hitler becomes Chancellor

  • Papen, Hitler and Hindenburg’s inner circle (now minus Schleicher ) led to a deal where Hitler would form a coalition gove with himself as Chancellor 
  • But since hindenburg didn’t like Hitler he didn’t want to give him a free hand to run the country by himself so he made Papen vice-Chancellor and made his son, Oskar, Minister of Economics and food 
  • Papen and Hindenburg believed that Hitler would be easy to control since he was inexperienced in government 
  • They were wrong 
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