Political Impact

political impact

• strains on political system caused by depression had far-reaching consequences

  • caused collapse of grand coalition, led by muller, in march 1930

  • provided opportunity for parties of extreme left and right to gain support and by doing so undermining demo system

  • led to intensification of political violence

Collapse of grand coalition

• one of most broadly based coalition gov in weimar period, rep 5 political parties from SPD on left to moderate right wing in form of DVP.

• after wall street crash, unemployment soared and rising cost of unemployment benefit placed severe strain on state finances, with falling tax rev adding to problem state budget in serious deficit by end of 1929.

• split coalition, on right= DVP want reduce unemployment benefit whilst on left= SPD want protect level of benifits and raise tax, gov deadlocked on issue so march 1930 muller resigned.

• successor appointed by Hindenburg was bruning, leader of centre party, hindenburgs decision heavily influenced by two key military leaders- General groener and Schlieder, role in appointment was indication that the army had began to play key role in politics.

• both men opposed to parl democ ans saw political crisis of march 1930 opportunity to impose authoritarian style of gov

• Bruning coalition excluded SPD largest party in reichstag, meant his gov didnt have enough support to pass laws, after march 30 no gov had maj support in reichstag so had to rely on rule by decree

• 1930-98 laws passed by reichstag 5- pass by decree

• 1932-5 laws passed by reichstag 66-pass by decree

September 1930 reichstag election and growth in support for extremist parties

• bruning response to depression was to cut expenditure and raise taxes to balance budget, since x maj persuaded Hindenburg to issue pres decree passing budget into law,

• provoked political crisis , since article 48 only supposed to be used in emergency not for normal political business

• SPD won reichstag support for demanding decree be withdrawn, Bruning dissolved reichstag and called an election in sep 1930, result changed G political landscape.

• number of deputies elected in 1930 election= KPD- 77, SPD-143, Centre-68, NSDAP-107

• extremist party on left n right gained most, communist gained over a million votes, mostly from SPD.

• growth in nazi party receiving nearly 6.5 million votes making them second largest party

• in election as whole, 2/5 voters gave support to anti-democ parties

• as reichstag began to be unmanageable, proceedings became increasingly irrelevant, didnt meet at all between feb and oct 1931 even after that sessions shorter and infrequent

• political power shifted from reichstag to president and circle of advisors also to streets.

intensification of political violence

• early years of weimar republic between 1919-1923 had seen frequent riots, political assisinations and political uprisings

• during years 1924-29, violence subsided but not entirely disappear, nazi claimed 29 of men killed in clashes with communists, whilst the communists said 92 of their supporters were killed

• 1930-33 level of political violence increased dramatically, nazi and communists, the latter with their red-front fighters league took their political struggle onto the streets

• each side attempted to break up political meetings of opponents and rival marches often degenerated into full scale riots, violence particularly severe at election times

• end of 1931 violence so intense bruning decided to act, issued decree in dec 1931 banning wearing of political uniforms, had little effect as SA (Nazi stormtroopers) continued to march wearing white shirts

• April 1932- hindenburg persuaded to sign decree outlawing SA, even this failed to stop activities of SA

• membership continued to grow, political violence not brought under control, by end of 1932, SA estimated to have 400,000 members.