The Rise of the Nazis

Twelve seats to 230

In the Reichstag election of 20 May 1928 the Nazis took 2.6 per cent of the vote and 12 seats out of 491, behind even the small Bavarian Peoples Party. Germany had had four years of Stresemann: American money under the Dawes Plan, new factories, new housing, and a Chancellor who could keep a coalition together. The Nazis were a Bavarian curiosity with a leader who had been in prison, and Hitler spent the summer rewriting the party for a country that did not need it. On 24 October 1929 share prices on Wall Street collapsed, and the American banks called in the short-term loans on which the German recovery had been built. Factories that had borrowed to expand closed; banks that had lent to them failed, the Danat Bank in July 1931 among them; registered unemployment rose from around 1.3 million in 1928 to around 3 million by the end of 1930 and around 6 million by January 1932, with millions more on short time. Chancellor Bruning, in office from March 1930, answered with cuts in wages, pensions and benefits and higher taxes, and when the Reichstag would not pass them he governed by presidential decree under Article 48: five decrees in 1930, sixty-six in 1932. Democracy stopped being seen to work before it stopped working. The Nazis were ready. In September 1930 they won 107 seats; in July 1932, 230, with 37.3 per cent of the vote, more than any party had won in the Republic. The Communists rose too, from 54 to 89. AQA asks how the Depression produced that rise, and the grade-9 skill is the link: not a list of what the Nazis offered, but an explanation of why what they offered found buyers after 1929 and not before. This module gives you the slump, the party, the voters and the shapes.

Five terms with their dates

Each definition carries the date and the figure that make it evidence for an explain or judgement answer.

The rise in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• The Nazis win 12 seats in a Reichstag election
• Share prices collapse in New York and American loans are recalled
• Bruning becomes Chancellor and begins governing by decree
• The Nazis win 107 seats and become the second party
• Hitler campaigns by aeroplane for the presidency and wins over a third of the vote
• The Nazis win 230 seats and become the largest party

Why did the Depression help the Nazis?

The Nazis offered the same programme in 1928 and 1932 and won 12 seats the first time and 230 the second. Which explanation best links the slump to the rise?

• The Depression created the audience and discredited the alternatives at the same time: six million unemployed and a middle class that had lost its savings for the second time in a decade were open to a party that promised bread, work and order; the Bruning cuts and the switch to rule by decree made the Republic look both cruel and unable to act, so that voting for a democratic party seemed pointless; the growth of the Communists to 89 seats frightened farmers, shopkeepers and the churches into the arms of the one party that promised to crush them; and the Nazis alone had the machine, an SA of 400,000, a propaganda chief and a leader who flew, to turn that fear and hope into votes.
• Germans finally read Mein Kampf and agreed with it.
• Big business paid for the Nazi campaigns and bought the election.
• Anger at the Treaty of Versailles suddenly appeared in 1930.

What the slump did, and what the party did with it

The grade-9 habit AQA rewards on this key element is the link, so the two columns are written to be read across: each Nazi method on the right answers a Depression effect on the left.

Question 1: how do the interpretations differ?

Two interpretations of why Nazi support grew, written for this module. Interpretation A: Without the Depression there would have been no Hitler. The Nazis had been a fringe party in the good years and grew only as unemployment grew; their vote in July 1932 was the vote of a country that had lost its jobs, its savings and its faith in a parliament that no longer met. The slump did the work. Interpretation B: The Depression opened a door, but the Nazis were the only party organised to walk through it. Their propaganda spoke to every group, their SA gave the unemployed a home, and their leader was the one politician Germans could name. Other countries had a slump; only Germany had Hitler. AQA Question 1 asks how they differ about why Nazi support grew. Tap the TWO statements from Interpretation B that show the difference.

• The Depression opened a door, but the Nazis were the only party organised to walk through it.
• The Nazis had been a fringe party in the good years and grew only as unemployment grew.
• Other countries had a slump; only Germany had Hitler.
• The slump did the work.
• Their vote in July 1932 was the vote of a country that had lost its jobs, its savings and its faith in a parliament.

Plot the rise

The graph shows Nazi seats in the Reichstag. The points for May 1928, 12 seats, and September 1930, 107 seats, are given. In July 1932 the Nazis won 230 seats. Plot that point.

Who voted Nazi, and who did not

Select the THREE statements that are accurate about the growth of support between 1928 and 1932.

• The Nazi vote rose from 2.6 per cent in May 1928 to 18.3 per cent in September 1930 and 37.3 per cent in July 1932, and then fell to 33.1 per cent and 196 seats in November 1932, so the peak had passed before Hitler was appointed.
• Support was strongest among Protestant farmers, small-town shopkeepers and the lower middle class of the north and east, and weakest among Catholics, who kept voting Centre, and industrial workers, who stayed with the Social Democrats and Communists.
• The Communists grew at the same time, from 54 seats in 1928 to 89 in July 1932 and 100 in November, so that by the end of 1932 the two parties that wanted to end the Republic held a majority between them.
• The Nazis won an overall majority of seats in July 1932.
• Industrial workers in the big cities were the core of the Nazi vote.
• Catholic areas swung to the Nazis more strongly than Protestant ones.

Question 2: why do the interpretations differ?

AQA Question 2 asks why the two interpretations differ, for 4 marks, and the answer is about what each author is looking at, not about which is right. Interpretation A is looking at the voters and at the numbers that move together: unemployment from 1.3 million to 6 million, Nazi seats from 12 to 230, the Reichstag from 98 laws to 5. Its question is why so many Germans changed their vote, and the answer it finds is in their circumstances, so the party itself is almost absent. Interpretation B is looking at the party: the SA barracks, the regional posters, the aeroplane. Its question is why the Nazis and not the Communists or the Nationalists collected the discontent, and the answer it finds is in organisation and leadership, so the slump becomes a door rather than a cause. Both are using real evidence. This meant that the difference comes from their focus, the voters against the party, and from the question each asks, why votes moved against where they went. A top-level answer names the focus of each, gives one piece of evidence each has chosen, and says that the choice explains the difference. Writing that one author blames the economy and the other blames Hitler describes the difference rather than explaining it.

Four Germans, 1929 to 1932

Four voters at four moments. Choose what such a person actually did, and notice what the Depression had done to each before the Nazis reached them.

• 1929. You farm forty acres in Schleswig-Holstein. Grain prices have halved since 1927, the bank is foreclosing on your neighbours and the government in Berlin has done nothing. A Nazi speaker in the village hall promises guaranteed prices and blames the Jews and the Republic. What do you do?
• 1931. You are nineteen, in Berlin, out of work since the factory closed, living in one room with your parents and sleeping in shifts. An SA man in a brown shirt offers a bed in the barracks, two meals a day and a uniform. What do you do?
• 1932. You are a bank clerk in Dresden whose savings vanished in 1923 and whose bank failed in 1931. The Communists have just won your district and are talking about taking over the flats. Hitler is speaking at the stadium tonight, flown in from Munich. What do you do?
• 1932. You are a Catholic steelworker in Essen, still in work on short time, a member of the union and the Centre Party, and the priest has read out a pastoral letter against the Nazis. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because the German recovery had been built on short-term _____ loans, the Crash of October 1929 reached Germany within months. Because unemployment rose towards _____ million, a party with barracks and soup kitchens could recruit the young men nobody else wanted. Because Bruning cut benefits and governed by _____, the Republic looked both cruel and useless, and voters stopped defending it. Because the _____ rose to 89 seats and took the cities, farmers, shopkeepers and churches looked for a party that promised to crush them. And because the Nazis alone had the machine and a leader who could be seen in five cities a day, the discontent went to them, and the party of 12 seats in 1928 won _____ in July 1932.

Seats gained

The Nazis won 12 Reichstag seats in May 1928 and 230 in July 1932. How many seats did they gain between the two elections?

Question 4: describe two effects, marked

AQA Question 4 asks: Describe two effects of the Depression on Germany. It is marked for 4, two marks per effect, one for identifying and one for supporting detail. Which answer scores all four?

• One effect was mass unemployment: because American banks recalled the short-term loans after the Crash of October 1929, German firms lost their credit, and registered unemployment rose from around 1.3 million in 1928 to around 6 million by January 1932, roughly a third of the workforce. A second effect was the breakdown of parliamentary government: the Grand Coalition collapsed in March 1930 over the cost of unemployment insurance, and Bruning governed by presidential decree under Article 48, with 66 decrees in 1932 against five laws passed by the Reichstag.
• The Depression caused unemployment and people were poor.
• Effects included unemployment, poverty, bank failures, hunger, homelessness, suicide and extremism.
• The Depression caused hyperinflation and people needed wheelbarrows of money.

Question 6: the 12-mark judgement, marked

Question 6: "The Depression was the main reason for the growth in support for the Nazis between 1929 and 1932." How far do you agree? Explain your answer. The Depression was the main reason because it changed the voters without changing the party. In May 1928, after four years of Stresemann prosperity, the Nazis won 12 seats on the same programme they later won 230 with; what had changed by July 1932 was that around 6 million Germans were registered unemployed, the middle class had lost its savings for the second time in a decade, and farm prices had collapsed. This meant that the promises of bread and work and of an end to the Republic, which had found no buyers in 1928, now found millions, and the vote rose in step with the dole queue, from 107 seats in September 1930 when unemployment was 3 million to 230 when it reached 6. The Depression also discredited the alternatives: Bruning governed by 66 decrees in 1932, so that voting for a democratic party looked pointless, and the Communists rose to 89 seats, which frightened farmers and shopkeepers into the one party that promised to crush them. However, the slump alone does not explain why the discontent went to the Nazis rather than to the Nationalists or the Communists. That was the work of the party: an SA of around 400,000 that gave the unemployed a home and beat the Red Front in the streets, propaganda under Goebbels that spoke separately to every ruined group, and a leader who campaigned by aeroplane in 1932 and won 13.4 million votes for the presidency. The Depression created the demand and the Nazis supplied it, and since other countries had the slump without producing a Hitler, the supply mattered. I largely agree: the Depression was the main reason the Nazi vote grew, but the party machine is the reason it grew for the Nazis. What earned the marks: the case for the statement built on the link between slump and vote, with the 1928 comparison as the proof; a counter-case that explains why the Nazis and not another party gained, with figures; a link phrase that turns evidence into explanation; and a judgement that answers "how far" by separating why the vote grew from why it went where it did. That structure is what reaches the top level, and the writing task next asks you to do it for a different statement.

Question 6: your turn

"The SA was the main reason for the growth in Nazi support between 1929 and 1932." How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

• Make the case for the SA: its size, what it offered the unemployed and how it was used against the Communists, with figures
• Set other reasons against it: the Depression, the appeal of Hitler and the propaganda machine, and the failure of the Republic, each with a date or a figure

Question 3: which interpretation is more convincing?

AQA Question 3 asks which of the two interpretations from Question 1 is more convincing about why Nazi support grew, for 8 marks. Interpretation A said the slump did the work; Interpretation B said the Nazis were the only party organised to use it. Which answer reaches the top level?

• Interpretation A is convincing about timing and scale, because the Nazi vote moved with unemployment, 12 seats with 1.3 million out of work in 1928, 107 with 3 million in 1930 and 230 with 6 million in 1932, and the Communists rose in the same years, which shows that the discontent came from circumstances rather than from any one party. But it is less convincing than B about direction, because the Nationalists and the Communists faced the same slump and neither quadrupled its vote, and the November 1932 fall to 196 seats when unemployment was still 6 million shows that the vote did not follow the dole queue automatically. B is more convincing because it explains what A cannot, why the votes went to the Nazis, through the SA of 400,000, the regional propaganda and the flights of 1932, while accepting that A explains why there were so many votes to win.
• Interpretation A is more convincing because the Depression was terrible.
• Interpretation B is more convincing because Hitler was a great speaker.
• Both are equally convincing because both are partly true.