Rise of the Nazi Party in Germany: 1929-1933
The Rise of the Nazi Party in Germany: 1929-1933
When the effects of the 1929 crisis began to be felt, large landowners, industrialists, the main sectors of the army, and President Hindenburg himself sought a substitute for the Social Democrat Hermann Müller in the Chancellery. In 1930, Heinrich Brüning, a former official and parliamentary leader of the Zentrum, was appointed. He inaugurated the presidential government, relying on the extraordinary powers provided in Article 48, provided that the Reichstag remained neutral. When he encountered opposition from the parliament to approve economic measures, he dissolved it and called elections. The SPD was again the most voted political force, although far from obtaining a majority, and the Nazi Party made significant gains.
In the winter of 1931, the number of unemployed stood at six million. In October of that year, the Harzburg Front was organized. This front was formed by the nationalist and militaristic organization Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet) and the Nazis. It served the Nazi party to appear alongside bourgeois groups, facilitating their social acceptance. In March 1932, Hindenburg was re-elected President of the Republic in the second round, supported by democratic parties with a single purpose: to prevent the election of Hitler, who had been second in the first round. The Nazi Party was now the main political force in the Weimar Republic.
Intrigue and the Fall of the Weimar Republic
The beginning of a series of intrigues between the President, conservatives, and nationalists marked a turning point. Brüning’s dismissal in favor of the former army officer Baron Franz von Papen, who belonged to the conservative wing of the Catholic Zentrum, was the first decision along that line. The dissolution of Weimar entered its final stretch. New elections were called, which could only benefit extremist parties. Nazi Party members involved in killings of communists were pardoned, the SA and SS were legalized (prohibited by the previous government), and there was a coup in Prussia. Papen was dismissed, and the Social Democratic government itself was appointed, using an emergency decree, as Imperial Commissioner of Prussia. The lack of social opposition meant the disappearance of the last bastion against the irresistible rise of Adolf Hitler.
The 1932 Elections and Hitler’s Appointment as Chancellor
In the elections of July 31, 1932, the Nazis were triumphant. On August 13, Hitler was first received by the President, to whom he demanded to be appointed chancellor. Hindenburg refused and reproached the excesses of his followers. The next few months, marked by extreme violence on the streets by the Nazis, were practically without a government. On November 6, new elections to the Reichstag were held after the Chancellor lost the confidence of the House. In these elections, the Nazis lost 34 seats (3,000,000 votes), and the Communists, by contrast, gained 500,000 votes. The outcome of the elections, in which 1,500,000 people who voted in July did not participate, did not solve any of the problems.
In December, von Papen was replaced by Schleicher, the army chief. He was a strict man driven by personal ambition who would only be in office for two months. He tried to win over trade unions and the left wing of the Nazi Party by posing as the “social general,” prompting alarm from the business world. Intrigues were initiated by landowners, bankers, Hitler, and Papen to entrust the country’s future to the Nazis. It was a part of big business that allowed the Nazis to rise to power. The President refused to appoint “that Austrian” as Chancellor, but the lack of operability of Parliament, along with political polarization, favored the president’s inner circle, composed of industrialists and large landowners.
The Appointment of Hitler and the Beginning of the Third Reich
On January 30, 1933, the elder President gave in and appointed Hitler Chancellor. To supposedly control this appointment, von Papen occupied the Vice-Chancellorship, and only two Nazi ministers were featured. The idea was to surround the new Chancellor with people linked to right-wing parties, claiming that this would stop their totalitarian claims.
The Third Reich (1933-1945)
On March 5, 1933, new elections were held. The Nazi Party, which openly exercised repression and censorship, won but did not reach the majority needed to amend the Constitution. On February 27, likely caused by the Nazis, the Reichstag burned, and the Communist Party was blamed. The acts of the Marxist parties were prohibited.