Introduction II: The Republic Destroyed

October 25, 1929: The Great Depression

"Black Friday" at the New York Stock Exchange signaled the beginning of a severe worldwide economic crisis which affected Germany as well. In 1932 there were more than six million unemployed in Germany. Reflective contemporaries increasingly asked themselves if the Weimar Republic could withstand the social challenges and maintain political stability.

The economic difficulties reinforced the widespread dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles. Domestic conflicts intensified as the National Socialists (Nazis), with the support of the conservatives, gained prestige and votes at the end of the 1920s. Under the impact of the National Socialists' electoral successes in September of 1930, the crises of the party system came to a head. The governing parties in the parliament evaded responsibility for political decisions and proved incapable of forming stable coalitions.

Authoritarian ideas and anti-Semitic beliefs deeply rooted in the society influenced many Germans' idea of political order and forced the few supporters of the republic into the defensive. Political appeals to emotions and prejudices increased electoral participation while strengthening the anti-parliamentary and anti-republican parties on the left and on the right. After the resignation of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning in May of 1932, his successor, Franz von Papen, attempted to do away with the republican constitution. He drove the democratic government of Prussia, the largest German state, out of office on July 20, 1932. This blow to Prussia sealed the fate of the Weimar Republic. No resistance was mobilized.

After von Papen's government failed, Hindenburg commissioned Minister of Defense General Kurt von Schleicher to form a government in November of 1932. After von Schleicher failed to find support in parliament, Hindenburg unexpectedly appointed Adolf Hitler, the leader of the NSDAP, Chancellor on January 30, 1933. At first, Hitler's opponents did not see through the pseudolegality of the "seizure of power". By the time they realized that the National Socialist government was pursuing the permanent destruction of the republic, Hitler had already obtained the decisive instruments of power for establishing a dictatorship.