The Rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany

There are many reasons people say as to why the nazi party was created and what some of the causes were. Throughout the duration of my paper I am going to explain and discuss some of the major topics that could have led to the rise of Nazism in Germany, such as the treaty of Versailles and some of the restrictions that were put on Germany, the loss of the war, and the Weimar Republic. These are just some of the reasons that are going to be looked at and discussed.

Germany's beating in World War One made political, economic and social fall in the Weimar Republic and led to the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) or Nazi party.

The First World War put stress on the German people. The space between the rich and poor got bigger and also between classes. It had direct effect on the workers as wages dropped and the amount of food went down. Food was sold on the black market but the prices were high and the poor could not afford to buy it. This led to as many as 700,000 deaths because of hypothermia and starvation in the winter of 1916-17.

In order to get the German people to allow the fatigue of the war, chancellor Bethmann Hollweg promised political rebuild in a speech on February 1917. This promise led to a political crisis and sent 400, 000 ammunition workers in Berlin on strike, this threatened to do enormous amounts of harm to the arms production. However, as long as the military held their powerful position and the chance for a the win of the war remained, they didn't seem to worried about it. After the chancellor was forced to resign in July 1917 military fixation got bigger. In September 1918 the military effort suddenly fell apart. The allied powers, in particular President Wilson of the United States, made Germany become a democracy. On November 1918 the they announced the breakthrough of the birth of the new Weimar Republic.

On June 28 1919 the German government signed the Treaty of Versailles demanded by the allied powers. Clause 231 blamed Germany for causing the war and the majority of Germans did not agree with this part of the treaty. They blamed the Weimar government for losing the war and signing the Treaty. This was also linked to the demand for financial compensation for the cost of the war paid to France and Britain. This caught the Germans by surprise, as it would be hard to pay anything since the war had hurt the country so much. Germany's army was to be reduced to 100 000 and was not aloud to produce "offensive" weapons. There was to be no air force or submarines and the navy was to be reduced to six small battleships and six cruisers. Maybe the hardest thing to get by was the losses of land that Germany had lost. Germany's land was reduced by 13 % and all of the colonies were taken. Because of fears of another attack, German land (Rhineland) was forced to be completely demilitarized.

Political conflict also got much bigger in the Weimar government. The far left wing, called the Spartacist League or the Communist Party, created an uprising, which was overcome by the Free Corps - a group of former army officers who later became Nazis. The leaders, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were arrested and murdered. This led to a final break between the SPD and the USPD.

Smaller army's, put into force by the Versailles Treaty, set off the Kapp Putsch, the extremist group also known as the National Association tried to stop the government using the help of Free Corps units. The workers overcame the up rise due to a strike.

Inflation helped the government to pay back war debts in almost worthless currency. Inflation and high interest rates also helped some investments that Germany had made. Inflation also led to loss of wealth and those whose wealth was in savings lost everything. While this was going on the strength of the republic continued to be unstable against the nationalist attempt to bring it down.

Rural Germans were on the verge of bankruptcy and starvation. This is another reason why the Nazi party attracted so much support during the 1920's. They promised too much concessions and aids to a group of voting Germans, who would be more than ready to accept the Nazi's promises. Hitler also made many other promises to the German people. One promise came after another. After the treaty Was signed forcing Germany to pay thirty seven annual payments from 1700 million gold marks to 2400 million gold marks, and then twenty one annual payments at 1700 million gold marks. This meant that Germany would be making payments at an average of just over 2000 gold marks until 1988. When this was brought to Hitler's attention, he said he would not make payments and cursed the Weimar Government's decision to agree