2.3 Growth in Nazi support Flashcards
What caused the Wall Street crash?
- October 1929: share prices began to fall on the Wall Street stock exchange in New York USA
- US companies lost billions of dollars in value overnight:
* many banks and businesses were ruined and worldwide depression resulted
When was the wall street crash?
October 1929
What happened to Germany’s loans as a result of the Wall Street crash in the USA
Us stopped loaning money to Germany and demanded all the loans to be repaid
Describe how banks in Germany were affected as a result of the Wall Street crash?
- What did the German people do with their bank accounts and why?
- what happened to the German civil bank?
- German banks were major investors in shares on the US stock exchange and suffered huge losses
- german banks lost much money that German people feared they would have access to the money in their bank accounts
- people quickly drew money out of their accounts causing some |German banks to run out of cash
- the German civil servant bank event bust in 1929 so many people lost savings
Describe how German Industries were affected as a result of the Wall Street crash?
- businesses in industry and agriculture had to pay back loans due to Germany needing cash to pay back the loans from the USA
- because of this, German industries and forces had to cut back production or even close down completely which made the economy collapse further.
Describe how the German government were affected as a result of the Wall Street crash? (5)
- couldn’t borrow money from the US
- refused to print more money
- increased taxes
- made cuts in unemployment benefits
- Government workers had wages cut and some lost their jobs
Describe how German people were affected as a result of the Wall Street crash? (4)
- Businesses reduced staff or closed
- millions of workers and farm labourers lost their jobs
- young people were badly affected by job losses
- no work and benefits slashed = families suffered terrible poverty
Why was support strong amongst the working class in large towns for the communist party?
saw communists as the only party who would defend their jobs and their wages against employers and landowners
- there was a growth in unemployment and wages were falling
How many people were unemployed in 1932 and what were the real wages in 1932?
- 5 million people unemployed
- real wages in 1932 were 15% lower than 1928
Who was chancellor from 1930-32
Heinrich Bruning
what did Bruning propose to fix the economic situation in Germany?
proposed higher taxes to pay for unemployment benefits and put fixed time limits on unemployment benefits to make payments more affordable
Why did all the parties hate Bruning’s economic plans?
what did the right-wing/left/moderate parties hate about it?
Right-wing, the middle classes and the wealthy opposed to higher taxes
Left-wing parties and working classes opposed reduced benefits due to the fixed time limits
Social democrats refused to support Bruning - failure by moderate parties to co-operate (Bruning was the leader of the centre party) made the Reichstag powerless to make a decision
The reichstag went from meeting 94 times in 1930 to meting ___________ in ______
meeting 13 in 1932
Instead of the democracy what did Bruning rely on instead?
he relied on Article 48 to rule through Presidential decrees
How many presidential decrees did Brunin’g government rely on in 1931 and 1932?
1931 = 44
1932= 66
When did Bruning resign?
1932
What was the impact of unemployment on people?
- value of saving crashed which meant that if people became unemployed they had no savings to fall back on
- Jan 1933: six million workers were unemployed, the government was unable to pay unemployment benefits. Taxes were raised and unemployment benefits cut
- people desperate for work, employers cut wages, real wages in 1932 were about 15% lower than in 1928
- Many people became homeless as they couldn’t afford to pay rent. They became bored = boredom turned to violence
- there was an increase of 24% in arrests for theft in Berlin
How did the Nazi party appeal to Big businessmen?
- moderate parties had been powerless to solve Germany’s economic problem 1929-33
- Hitler persuaded them that the Nazi party was their best form of protection from the rise of communists
How did the support from Big businessmen benefit the Nazis?
- support from big businessmen benefitted Nazi finances as wealthy businessmen poured money into the NSDAP
- Nazi propaganda was benefitted as the National party leader, Alfred Hugenberg, was a newspaper tycoon and allowed Goebbels to use his newspapers for Nazi propaganda against the communists
Who was the leader of the National party?
Alfred Hugenberg
How did the Nazi Party appeal to the working class?
- promised them work and food
- they were called the Nationalist socialist german workers party which suggested that they were a party for the working-class people
- They also supported traditional german values and aimed to create a stronger Germany
How did the Nazi Party appeal to the middle class?
- they saw Hitler as a strong leader who could help the country recover from the Great depression
- Saw Nazis as a strong party that could protect them from communists
- Middle class believed that there had been a moral decline under the Weimar republic with more drinking and sexual openness. They saw the Nazis as a return to traditional German values
How did the Nazi Party appeal to farmers?
- Nazis could protect them from communists who might seize their land
- Nazis changed the Nazi policy of confiscating all private land in 1928. Instead, they would only confiscate private plant if it was owned by Jews.
- this meant farmers were a strong section of support
How many votes did the Nazi party gain in some rural areas in the 1930 Reichstag elections?
60%
How did the Nazi Party appeal to young people and women ?
young people found it exciting to be a part of
women saw it as the best party to save the Nation and their families
