Free Sample Essays > European History
Which reason is most important to why Hitler rose to power?
was arrested for the crime. It presented Hitler with an excellent opportunity:
· The Nazis were quick to blame the communists
· Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to pass an emergency law restricting personal liberty
· Using the law thousands of communist supporters were thrown in prison and the Nazis increased their control in the Reichstag in the election.
Despite increasing their share in the vote, the Nazis still did not have overall majority in the Reichstag. They were forced to join together with the 52 Nationalists members to create a government.
Hitler still did not have enough support to have complete control over Germany. An Enabling Act would give him the right to pass laws for the next four years without having to obtain the support of members in the Reichstag. In order to pass the enabling act Hitler needed to obtain the votes of two thirds of the Reichstag members, but he only had the support of just over half. This is what happened:
· Hitler ordered his SA (storm troopers) to continue intimidating the opposition
· The 81 communist members were expelled and the enabling act was passed by 441 to 91.
· Hitler was given power to rule with consulting the Reichstag
In July 1933 Hitler increased his grip on power even further. Using the powers on the Enabling Act he outlawed all other parties and Germany became a one party state. The democratic Weimar Republic had been destroyed and Germany had become a dictatorship.
If they had not lost the war however and the reparations crisis hadn’t occurred the Wall Street Crash wouldn’t have bothered them so much.
The recovery of the German economy was fragile. It depended heavily on American money. In 1929 disaster struck with the Wall Street Crash. Many American banks were forced to recall their loans. German companies were unable to pay and hundreds of German businesses were forced to close and millions lost their jobs. There was worldwide repercussion but Russia were not involved. It was Germany that it had the biggest effect on because they depended on America so much.
The link between voting and unemployment was if they had a job they wouldn’t need extreme measures and the link with reparation was that if they didn’t have to pay reparations then they wouldn’t be unemployed.