Decline+of+Weimar+and+the+Rise+of+Nazism+Discussion+Notes

1. What were the effects of the global economic downturn on Weimar Germany? 2. Make a time line of the collapse of Parliamentary democracy in Weimar Germany. 3. Why are Bruning and Article 48 considered so important to the emergence of authoritarian rule in Germany? Bruning began using the authoritarian like article, Article 48, increasingly often which paved the way for an anti-system party to get elected. 4. Why did Hitler come to power?
 * Economic**:
 * Extreme rural poverty
 * Crazy inflation
 * Excess in materials due to export based economy
 * High Unemployment
 * Social**:
 * Market collapse
 * Public opinion believing that democracy was the cause for the economic downturn because with a dictator Germany had not experienced a depression like the one they were in.
 * Anti-system parties gained strength and actually made sense.
 * Political**:
 * Anti-system parties gained a majority.
 * Article 48 was used increasingly often
 * Germany became increasingly more unable to pay reparations
 * 1919/1920- Treaty of Versailles
 * 1929- Wall Street crash
 * 1930- Nazis emerged as second largest party
 * 1930- Bruning increasingly puts to use Article 48
 * 1931- Formation of Harzburg front
 * 1932- Nazis emerge as largest party
 * 1) **Social:**
 * 2) **Internal:**
 * 3) No public support for democracy.
 * 4) Democratic government getting blame for poor economy
 * 5) All the strong leaders were members of anti-system parties; no exciting democratic leaders

2. **External:**


 * 1) Red Scare, widespread fear of communism in Europe made anti-system parties such as the Nazis less creepy.
 * 2) The general longing for a strong leader to fill the power vacuum left at the end of World War I

2. **Political:**


 * 1) **Internal:**
 * 2) Bruning and his increased use of Article 48
 * 3) Few prominent pro-democratic leaders

2. **External:**


 * 1) Settlement of World War I
 * 2) War Guilt Clause

3. **Economic:**


 * 1) **Internal:**
 * 2) High unemployment
 * 3) Export based economy in time of global economic downturn
 * 4) Reparations
 * 5) Inflation

2. **External:**


 * 1) Market Crash
 * 2) Decrease in world trade