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Which reason is most important to why Hitler rose to power?
The Passage below shows just how the Nazi’s crushed the communists
“Walking along the pavement ahead of me were three SA men, they all carried Nazi banners on their shoulders. All at one the three SA men came face to face with a youth of seventeen or eighteen…I heard one of the shout “that’s him!” and immediately the three men flung themselves on the young man. He uttered a scream and tried to dodge them, but they were too quick for him. In a moment they had jolted him to the side of a house entrance and were standing over him, kicking him and stabbing him with sharp metal points of their tanners. All this happened at such incredible speed that I could hardly believe my eyes – already the three SA men had left their victim and were barging there was through the crowd
‘Good Bye’ Christopher Ishawood
This pleased the rich of Germany.
Speer “the perils of communism which were on their way were halted by Nazis”
Previously, respectable, middle class Germans had seen the Nazis as nothing more as hooligans but because they had stopped the communists they were seen as heroes. They saw the Nazi as the best way of the communists from gaining power.
R. Overy “Above all Nazism was violently anti communist. It was the only party visibly combating the treat of communism on the streets. Although the violence put many respectable Germans off, they hated communism”
The fear of communism gave a major boost to Hitler’s Support
In the 1920’s things started to improve again but the Wall Street Crash soon stopped it. The money the Americans had loaned them to pay reparations with was wanted back and communism became very popular again. The rich persuaded Hindenburg to let Hitler be Chancellor in January 1933, the Reichstag building was burnt down and the Communists were blamed.
This discarded the Communist party again and the support went to Hitler. It was suggested that Hitler did this in his order to dis-credit the Communists. In difficult times support goes to extremists and Hitler backed by the well off used his propaganda and his skills as a way to spread the message.
By a Hamburg School teacher recalling a Nazi meeting 1932
“It was nearly 3 pm. The Futirer is coming; a ripple went through the crowd… When the speech was over there was a roaring enthusiasm and applause. How many look up to him touching faith as their helper, their savior, their deliverer from unbearable distress”
However if prosperity had continued it would have not been an issue. It only became an issue after 1929 when poverty loomed again. Therefore this was a direct link between the Wall Street Crash and Communism.
Weimar Germany faced political as well as economic troubles in this period. In 1923 a new nationalist leader was called Hitler came to power. In November 1923 Hitler and the Nazi’s tried to seize power of the Bavarian government .The [next page]