Why was Hitler able to take on the role of Chancellor in 1933? To know the factors which allowed Hitler to become Chancellor To assess the significance of the factors which allowed Hitler to become Chancellor

Step One: Characteristics Hitler was a fantastic public speaker. He showed characteristics of strength and determination. He was able to make the most of his opportunities, such as appealing to people at times of weakness (during the depression)

Step Two: The weakness of democracy Other political parties were weak and constantly under-estimated the Nazis. Many believed the Nazis were just too absurd to gain the support of the German people. Many Germans had in fact lost all respect for democracy, as frequent elections had always failed to produce a stable government. Most Germans were seeking a stable leader.

Weimar politicians also did little to prevent the growth of the Nazi party. Instead of working together to ensure the stability of their own government, they worked to make deals with Hitler to keep him at bay. This highlighted yet more divisions and weaknesses within the existing Weimar government, and people began to turn to more extreme parties such as the Communists and the Nazis.

Step Three: Terror A lot of Nazi support was actually born from fear of the Communists. Hitler promised the people that he would stand up to Communism. Similarly the Middle Classes turned to Hitler as they feared the unemployed working classes would naturally turn to the Communists. In fact, the majority of the unemployed turned to the Nazis! The Nazis themselves employed terror, using the SA to fight bitter street battles with political opponents. This gave the impression things were out of hand and people needed a strong leader.

Step Four: Chance Hitler was able to seize many opportunities to gain support, most of which were out of his control. He had cleverly used his time in prison to gain publicity for his ideas with ‘Mein Kampf’ and the 1929 Wall Street Crash gave him perfect opportunity to win over the voters. 6 million people lost employment in the 1929 depression. Each of them listened with interest to Hitler’s promises to combat unemployment.

Step Five: Propaganda The Nazis used sophisticated propaganda to spread the Nazi message. This included the use of radio, posters, rallies and marches. It was almost impossible to be in Germany and not see some form of Nazi propaganda. The idea of Hitler the ‘superman’ showed how the Nazis portrayed the message of strong leadership that the people were wanted.

Step Six: Hindenburg invites Hitler to be Chancellor. In January 1933 Hitler was invited by president Hindenburg to take on the role of Chancellor. This was the opportunity Hitler had been waiting for, and more importantly, it had taken no effort on his behalf to get there! Von Schleicher, chancellor before Hitler was unpopular and had made a number of mistakes. He lost the support of previous supporters, such as fellow political personality Von Papen.

Von Papen tried his best to persuade Hindenburg to allow Hitler to become Chancellor, claiming that if they could limit the number of Nazis in the Government they could keep control of them. Hindenburg refused. But days within Von Schleicher finally admitting defeat Hindenburg finally agreed to allow Hitler to take on the role of Chancellor. Fully believing that he could control him and the Nazis.

“Hitler became Chancellor because he had the support of the German people” How far do you agree with the statement above?