The failure of Weimar democracy

• Coalitions

  • In Weimar Germany, there were lots of political parties
  • However, parties rarely ever got a majority
  • In Weimar Germany, they usually formed a coalition government
  • A Chancellor was then chosen from the coalition
  • But coalition governments often disagreed with each other, and very little was done
  • The President, however, could use Article 48 of the Constitution to appoint new Chancellors in emergencies
  • Against his wishes, President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933
• The 1930 Reichstag election

  • There was an election in September 1930
  • A year after the Depression hit the country, unemployment had more than doubled in Germany, to around 3 million
  • As usual, a coalition government was formed since no single party won a majority, and Heinrich Bruning, a Centre Party politician, became the Chancellor
  • However Bruning was not a popular Chancellor because he reduced unemployment pay and increased taxes for everyone
  • However one very significant event happened during this election
  • Hitler, who was hoping to get 50 or so seats in the Reichstag, gained far more than that
  • The Nazi Party was now the second largest party in the Reichstag
• Support for the Nazis

  • After the September 1930 election success, the Nazis worked hard to get their messages across to even more people
  • They put up millions of posters and flags, and Hitler gave speeches at huge meetings, called mass rallies, all over the country
  • Hitler's popularity was clearly growing fast
• Violence on the streets

  • The Stormtoopers (SA), Hitler's private army, helped him at this time too
  • They beat up the Communists and disrupted their meetings, making it hard for them to campaign freely
  • Other political groups had their own version of the SA too
  • The Reichsbanner supported both the Social Democratic Party and the Centre Party, and regularly clashed with the Nazis and the Communists
  • In 1932 alone, there were dozens of bomb plots, street fights and murders as different groups fought
  • To many people, the chaos and violence on the streets and the unstable governments proved that the Weimar government was failing
  • Some argued that democracy had already failed because one man, Hidenburg, was using his emergency decrees to make decisions without the consent of the democratically elected Reichstag
• The 1932 Reichstag election

  • The increasingly unpopular Bruning resigned in July 1932 and Hindenburg appointed another Centre Party politician, Franz von Papen
  • Von Papen didn't have much support either, so called an election
  • The results were astonishing: the Nazis were now the largest political party
• More success for the Nazis

  • As a result of his success, Hitler demanded the Chancellor's job - but Hindenburg refused because he thought the Nazis were a disruptive and violent party
  • Instead, Hindenburg used his emergency powers to give the job to von Papen again
  • Von Papen called yet another election in November 1932
  • This time, the votes for the Nazis fell slightly, but they were still the largest political party
  • Von Papen's Centre Party got fewer seats too, so he resigned yet again
• Another new Chancellor

  • Next, Hindenburg gave the Chancellor's job to his old friend, Kurt von Schleicher
  • Again, the new Chancellor had no support and couldn't make any new laws - so he resigned
  • So two Chancellors had come and gone in less than a year
  • On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor
  • He tried to limit Hitler's power by appointing von Papen as Vice Chancellor and restricting the number of fellow Nazis that Hitler was allowed in the cabinet to two
  • Hindenburg and his closes advisers thought they would be able to control him