1930-33? And why was Hitler appointed

Chancellor in January 1933? Why did parliamentary government decline in Germany 1930-33?

The Government in Germany has always suffered from having a structural weakness. The system of proportional representation used in the Reichstag meant that there was too many different parties with contrasting views, and so there was always a lot of quarrelling between them. This meant that there was always danger of a division.

On June 28th 1919 the German Government signed the Treaty of Versailles, admitting Germany's defeat in World War One. The German people were disgusted with this treaty and waited until April 1921 when the reparation figure was announced. Germany has to pay a certain sum each year, which would add up to £6,600,000,000. Most Germans were very annoyed about the Treaty of Versailles, the war guilt clause and the huge sums of reparations that had to be paid. At the end of 1922 Germany had made no payments. This led to a terrible economic crisis, which had been caused by the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops. During the hyperinflation of 1923 the value of the Deutsch Mark plummeted until it was virtually worthl

The depression was a big problem for the German Government, they were just staring to get some of their problem sorted, and were now forced to make decisions on what to do. Due to the number of parties in the Reichstag these decisions proved to be hard to make. The depression emphasised the problem in the structural weakness of the Government due to the parties arguing over how much unemployment benefits should be paid to the people of Germany.

All the problems that were being thrown at the parliamentary government, and the weakness that was already there meant that it could not cope with all the pressure being put on it, and so it started declining.

In 1932 Hitler had stood for President against Hindenburg but Hitler lost. In the same year the Nazis were made the largest single party in the Reichstag, but not having an overall majority. Proportional representation was being used in the coalition government, which meant that the different parties were constantly arguing. No-one could agree on anything, so President Hindenburg had to rule by emergency decree, which did not have to be approved by the Reichstag. Next Von Papen took over from Hindenburg and then in December 1932, Von Papen was succeeded by Von Schleicher.

The economy now started to pick up again and the Nazis started to lose some votes. At this point it looked as if Hitler's bid for power may fail, but Hitler cleverly used a combination of persuasion and blackmail to persuade Hindenburg to allow him to become Chancellor. Hindenburg feared the Communists growing power and was also scared of violence from the SA, so fell for Hitler's trickery along with both Von Schleicher and Von Papen. In January 1933 Von Schleicher was not a very strong Chancellor and had failed in raising support in the Reichstag and so was fired by Hindenburg. Hindenburg had been persuaded by Von Papen to make Hitler Chancellor and make himself (Von Papen) vice-chancellor. Von Papen thought that it would be all right if the Nazis led the coalition and that he would be able to control Hitler but he was very wrong. Now that Hitler had got what he wanted, he decided to do what he wanted and soon gained absolute power.

Some topics in this essay:
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