Collapse of Weimar/Rise of Nazis

Overall judgement

While ultimately responsible for the collapse of the Weimar Republic, the rise of the autocratic Nazi Party and end of democracy was a symptom of weaknesses in the preceding structure, societal fragility and political leadership

The actual collapse: legislation in power

Post 23 March 1933: the 27 February Reichstag Fire Decree suspended civil liberties, arresting 4,000 communists, and by June 1933 25,000 KPD and SPD members were in concentration camps; 14 July: Law against the Establishment of New Political Parties; the November 1933 elections marked the Republic's collapse with 661 Nazi seats

Leadership failure: Bruning

Chancellor Bruning's reckless policy left 6 million unemployed by 1933 - against which Hitler campaigned with the slogan "bread and work"

Leadership failure: von Papen and von Schleicher

Both were broadly unpopular, forcing them to negotiate the widely popular Nazis into government; between Gregor Strasser (organiser of the Nazis) resigning and a shortage of funds, they believed Hitler could be tamed

Structural failure: Article 22

Proportional representation - seats matched vote percentages, seating many fringe parties, weakening coalitions and making laws difficult to pass; the 1930 Muller Coalition collapsed and no one achieved a real governing coalition after that

Hitler's alliance with Hugenberg

Alliance with the DNVP and media baron Alfred Hugenberg, whose anti-Young Plan campaign made Hitler a nationally recognised politician - against US $29 billion reparations, comparable to Article 232

Structural failure: Article 48

The President could rule without consulting the Reichstag in an emergency; in 1932 only 5 laws were passed in the Reichstag while Article 48 was used 59 times; compare Article 6 NSDAP: "the right to…determine the laws of state shall belong only to citizens"

Class divide

Between the Prussian elites (Junkers) and the urban poor; the urban poor favoured the Nazis during the Great Depression - Article 7: "every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood"

Nazi electoral rise

Seats rose from 108 in September 1930 to 230 in July 1932, then 196 in November 1932

Volkisch policy and antisemitism

The 1890s Jewish Business Boycott explains the trend of antisemitism; Article 4: "only a member of the race can be a citizen"

Traditional values backlash

Berlin had 33 different gay publications, prompting a counter-movement toward 'traditional values' - von Papen cracked down on homosexual nightlife in 1932; Mein Kampf: "the goal of female education must invariably be the future mother"

Failure of a united left

The KPD believed the Nazis were the last stage of a failed "capitalist system" before proletarian revolution; the moderate left alliance broke down in 1923 when Stresemann's Reichswehr suppressed communist activity in Saxony, making the SPD leave his coalition