Hitler: Rise of a Dictator in Germany: Great Depression

Why Germany suffered from Great Depression?

The Great Depression was due to the stock market crash of Tuesday, October 29, 1929 on wall street in the New York Stock Exchange.It caused a great damage to Germany as it dependent on loans and investments from the USA,therefore when USA recalled the loans and deposits from German banks, (American banks to end the new loans that had been funding the repayments under the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan.) Germany suffered an economic crisis which also caused a social crisis.America needed those loans back to assist her faltering economy therefore Germany suffered badly from the Great Depression especially after hyperinflation in 1923.

Effect of the Great Depression

People suffered with poverty, homelessness and starvation. Unemployment was the most noticeable effect of the Depression which put six million men out of work.

Unemployed queuing at an employment office in Hanover in 1930.

September 1928	650,000 unemployed
September 1929	1,320,000 unemployed
September 1930	3,000,000 unemployed
September 1931	4,350,000 unemployed
September 1932	5,102,000 unemployed
January 1933	6,100,000 unemployed

How did Adolf Hitler benefited from the Great Depression?

Public dissatisfaction with the economic conditions and the government led to a dramatic increase in voter support for Hitler and the NSDAP, who became the largest party in the Reichstag. People supported Hitler because he promised them what they wanted to hear. The Weimar Republic appeared to have no idea how to solve the problems brought on by the Great Depression. The Nazis, on the other hand, promised to solve the problems. Hitler told most groups in Germany what they wanted to hear. To many Germans, at the time, Hitler made sense; he united everyone by providing explanations for Germany's problems. Hitler promised to make Germany proud again and this was exactly what people wanted to hear.