1. The impact of the Treaty of Versailles

2. PROBLEMATIC ARTICLES OF THE WEIMAR CONSTITUTION OF 1919 Proportional representation guaranteed minorities a voice in the Reichstag but encouraged splintering. Power was divided between the Chancellor who answered to the Reichstag and a popularly elected President, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Article 48 authorized the President to issue emergency decrees with the force of law. Anyone who gathered the signatures of 10% of the voters could place any proposition on the ballot for a national referendum.

3. Otto Braun & Carl Severing (SPD) led the state government of Prussia, 1922-1932

4. French troops occupy the Ruhr Valley to compel Germany to pay war reparations, January 1923

5. President Ebert visits the Ruhr to encourage “passive resistance”

6. COST OF LIVING INDEX (1914=100)

7. HYPER-INFLATION IN 1923: In July a small businessman needs a cart to pick up his weekly payroll By September currency must be weighed to determine its value

8. A tense crowd waiting to buy bread in 1923

9. Alfred Rosenberg and Adolf Hitler review marching Stormtroopers in Munich, November 4, 1923

10. The “Beer Hall Putsch:” Nazi Stormtroopers outside Munich City Hall, November 9, 1923

11. Ludendorff, Hitler, & Ernst Röhm at their trial for treason in 1924

12. Gustav Stresemann made peace with France as Chancellor (Aug.- Nov. 1923) and Foreign Minister (1923-29). The U.S. banker Charles Dawes negotiated a new reparations plan in 1924.

13. A BROAD CONSENSUS EMERGED BY NOVEMBER 1923 TO ALLOW CHANCELLOR WILHELM MARX AND PRESIDENT EBERT TO DECREE HARSH AUSTERITY MEASURES 1. Taxation rose from 9% of total national income in 1913 to 17% in 1925. 2. Public expenditures sank from 42% of national income in 1920 to 25% in 1925. 3. One Article 48 presidential emergency decree fired 300,000 public employees and reduced all civil service salaries to 60% of their prewar level. 4. State labor arbitrators pegged real wages in 1924 at 87% of the level of 1913. 5. Work hours were deregulated (meaning abolition of the 8-hour day introduced in November 1918).

14. Field Marshall Hindenburg in 1925: “I extend my hand to every German who supports the nation and desires confessional and social peace.”

15. The Weimar Coalition united behind the Center Party chairman & ex-chancellor Wilhelm Marx But Hindenburg’s campaign aroused more enthusiasm, and he defeated Marx, 48.3% vs. 45.3%

16. Hindenburg applauded the recent decision by the moderate chairman of the DNVP, Count Kuno von Westarp, to support a right-of-center majority government coalition

17. Aristide Briand & Gustav Stresemann, who signed the Treaty of Locarno in 1925 and won the Nobel Peace Prize

18. The DNVP walked out of the government in protest

19. Hermann Müller’s cabinet of the Great Coalition (from SPD to DVP), June 1928-April 1930

20. THE GROWTH OF THE SPLINTER PARTIES IN 1928 PERSUADED MOST BOURGEOIS POLITICIANS THAT COMPROMISE WITH THE SPD MEANT POLITICAL SUICIDE YearKPDSPDDDP Cen- ter DVP Splin- ters* DNVPNazi Dec 1924 9.026.06.317.410.17.520.53.0 192810.629.84.915.28.713.914.22.6 193013.124.53.814.84.713.87.018.3 * Includes parties for farmers, inflation victims, small business, Hanoverian separatists, Bavarian separatists, etc.

21. Stresemann explains the Young Plan in a turbulent Reichstag session, 1929; unfortunately, its final version was not much better than the Dawes Plan

22. DNVP chairman Alfred Hugenberg and the leaders of the Stahlhelm allied with the NSDAP to combat the Young Plan “Unto the third generation must you slave away!” (“Freedom Law” referendum campaign poster, 1929)

23. Until 1930 the KPD was much larger and appeared more dangerous than any far right group (Ernst Thälmann leads the Red Combat Veterans in Berlin, June 1927)

24. The “Karl Liebknecht House” in Berlin, 1929: According to the Comintern’s new ultra- left line, the Social Democrats were denounced as “social fascists.”

25. THE GREAT DEPRESSION STRUCK IN THE WINTER OF 1929/30: PERCENTAGE OF LABOR FORCE UNEMPLOYED

26. CAUSES OF THE PARALYSIS OF THE REICHSTAG A deepening rift on the Left between the SPD and a newly Stalinized KPD The growth of single-issue splinter parties that drained support from the moderate parties The turn of the DNVP toward a fascistoid course under the media baron Alfred Hugenberg The growing impatience of President Hindenburg and the generals with Social Democratic opposition to rearmament --These factors help to explain why the SPD & DVP deadlocked in March 1930 over the question of whether to raise taxes or slash unemployment benefits.

27. Chancellor Heinrich Brüning (1885-1970) Born to a middle-class Catholic family in Münster Economics Ph.D Decorated combat veteran (rose to captain) Ex-functionary of the Christian trade unions Accepts Hindenburg’s commission in April 1930 to balance the budget, if necessary through Article 48 emergency decrees

28. The Nazis campaigned in September 1930 with the slogan, “For or Against Young?” “Freedom and Bread” They astonished everyone by winning 18% of the vote & 107 Reichstag seats

29. Brüning and Foreign Minister Curtius bid farewell to U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson, Berlin, July 1931 Brüning secures support for the abolition of reparations from Mussolini in Rome, August 1931

30. “Resignation & Discussion,” photo by Walter Ballhause from the series “Unemployment” (1930)

31. Brüning achieved a diplomatic breakthrough with the Hoover Moratorium of July 1931, but two major German banks failed at the same time

32. Brüning united a broad front from the SPD to moderate conservatives to secure Hindenburg’s reelection in April 1932

33. Corporal Hitler challenged Hindenburg for the presidency: “We choose Hindenburg! -- We choose Hitler! Look at these faces, and you will known where you belong!”

34. “Our last hope: HITLER” (March 1932)

35. THE FALL OF BRÜNING, MAY 1932 Hindenburg had long desired a rightist majority cabinet stretching from the Center to the NSDAP. Hindenburg was deeply wounded when most of his monarchist friends endorsed Hitler for President. In April 1932 Brüning banned the SA and sought to partition bankrupt agricultural estates for homesteaders. Hindenburg appointed the right-wing Catholic monarchist Franz von Papen to replace Brüning at the end of May 1932, hoping that his government would be tolerated by the Center Party and NSDAP.

36. Franz von Papen’s “Cabinet of Barons” was supported by only one party, the DNVP. Many regarded the new chancellor as the puppet of the Defense Minister, General Kurt von Schleicher Papen & Schleicher at the racetrack, September 1932

37. Papen lifted the SA ban, called for new elections, and forcibly removed the SPD-led Prussian state government on July 20, 1932 (in the Preussenschlag)

38. Joseph Goebbels addresses a campaign rally in Berlin, 1932

39. By 1932 the Nazis focused their propaganda on the traditional enemies of middle-class Protestants, the Reds and the Blacks: “The Final Blow!” (July 1932)

40. THE POLARIZATION OF THE GERMAN ELECTORATE IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION

41. Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher addresses a rally in Berlin on January 15, 1933

42. The “Cabinet of National Renewal,” appointed on January 30, 1933: Only 3 of 11 ministers are Nazis, but Papen allows Hitler to control the Prussian police & hold elections

43. “In our deepest need, Hindenburg chose Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor. You too should vote for List #1” “The Reich will never be destroyed – if you remain united and faithful”