Weimar Republic: Encyclopedia II - Weimar Republic - The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises 1930–1932

Weimar Republic - The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises 1930–1932

Weimar Republic - Loss of credibility for the Republic

The last years of the Weimar republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years and the administrations of Chancellors Brüning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler (from 30 January to 23 March 1933) were all Presidentially appointed Dictatorships. On March 29, 1930, the finance expert Heinrich Brüning had been appointed the successor of Chancellor Müller by Paul von Hindenburg after months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift towards conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the Reichspräsident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the Reichstag.

After an unpopular bill to reform the Reich's finances was left unsupported by the Reichstag, Hindenburg established the bill as an emergency decree based on Article 48 of the constitution. On July 18, 1930, the bill was again invalidated by a slim majority in the Reichstag with the support of the SPD, KPD, the (then small) Nazi Party (NSDAP) and DNVP. Immediately afterwards, Brüning submitted to the Reichstag the president's decree that it would be dissolved.

The Reichstag general elections on September 14, 1930, resulted in an enormous political shift: 18.3% of the vote went to the NSDAP, five times the percentage compared to 1928. This had devastating consequences for the Republic. There was no longer a majority in the Reichstag even for a Great Coalition of moderate parties, and it encouraged the supporters of the NSDAP to bring out their claim to power with increasing violence and terror. After 1930, the Republic slid more and more into a state of civil war.

From 1930 to 1932, Brüning attempted to reform the devastated state without a majority in Parliament, governing with the help of the President's emergency decrees. During that time, the Great Depression reached its highpoint. In line with liberal economic theory that less public spending would spur economic growth, Brüning drastically cut state expenditures, including in the social sector. He expected and accepted that the economic crisis would, for a while, deteriorate before things would improve. Among others, the Reich completely halted all public grants to the obligatory unemployment insurance (which had been introduced only in 1927), which resulted in higher contributions by the workers and less benefits for the unemployed -- not exactly a popular measure to adopt.

The economic downturn lasted until the second half of 1932, when there were first indices of a rebound. By this time though, the Weimar Republic had lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. While scholars greatly disagree about how Brüning's policy should be evaluated, it can safely be said that it contributed to the decline of the Republic. Whether there were alternatives at the time remains the subject of much debate.

The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally gave support to the Conservative experiment: not from any personal liking for Brüning, but believing the Conservatives would best serve their interests. As, however, the mass of the working class and also of the middle classes turned against Bruning, also more of the great capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour of his opponents-Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931 Conservatism as a movement was dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg and the Reichswehr would drop Bruning and come to terms with Hugenberg and Hitler. Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hugenberg and Hitler.{ source Arthur Rosenberg-A History of The German Republic,1936)

On May 30, 1932, Brüning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been reelected Reichspräsident with Brüning's active support, running against Hitler (the president was directly elected by the people while the Reichskanzler was not).

Weimar Republic - Franz von Papen calls for elections

Hindenburg then appointed Franz von Papen as new Reichskanzler. Von Papen lifted the ban on the SA, imposed after the street riots, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the backing of Hitler.

Papen was closely associated with the industrialist and land-owning classes pursued an extreme Conservative policy on Hugenberg's lines. He appointed as Reichswehr Minister Kurt von Schleicher and all of the members of the new cabinet were of the same political opinion as Hugenberg. This Government was to be expected to assure itself of the co-operation of Hitler. Since the Republicans and Socialists were not yet ready to take action and the Conservatives had shot their political bolt, Hitler and Hugenberg were certain to achieve power. (ibid p312)

If the working class had taken concerted action against Papen, the Left [NSDAP] would have been swept along in the movement, its Right wing isolated, and Fascist danger wholly averted. However Trades unions and the SPD refused support to the strike, which was the last proletarian blow against the ruling capitalist dictatorship. Although Papen ( having un-armed demonstrators shot) was victorious , 9/10 of the Reichstag were hostile to his Government.

Since most parties opposed the new government, von Papen had the Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections. The general elections on July 31, 1932 yielded major gains for the KPD and the NSDAP. The latter won 37.2% of the vote for the NSDAP, supplanting the Social Democrats as the largest party in the Reichstag.

Hitler now demanded to be appointed Chancellor, but was rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932. There was still no majority in the Reichstag for any government; as a result, the Reichstag was dissolved and elections took place once more in the hope that a stable majority would result.

July 1932 resulted in the question as to now what part this immense Party [NSDAP] would play in the Government of the country . The NSDAP owed its huge increase to an influx of workers, unemployed, despairing peasants, and middle class people. The millions of radical adherents at first forced the Party towards the Left .They wanted a re-newed Germany and a new organisation of German society. The left of the NSDAP strove desperately against any drift into the train of such capitalist and feudal reactionaries. Therefore Hitler refused Ministry under Papen, and demanded the Chancellership for himself, but was rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932.

Weimar Republic - November and 'Socialist General' Schleicher

The November 6, 1932 elections yielded 33.0% for the NSDAP: it dropped 2 million voters. Franz von Papen stepped down, and was succeeded by General von Schleicher as Reichskanzler on December 3. The political army officer Schleicher, had developed in atmosphere of semi-obscurity and intrigue that encompassd the Republican military policy. He had for years been in the van of those supporting the Conservative counter-revolution. Schleicher's bold and unsuccessful plan was to build a majority in the Reichstag by uniting the Trade Unionist left wings in the various parties, including that of the NSDAP led by Gregor Strasser. This did not prove successful either. (ibid p.315) In this brief Presidential Dictatatorship entr'acte, Schleicher took the role of 'Socialist General', and entered into relations with the Christian Trade Unions , the Left [NSDAP], and even with the Social Democrats . Schleicher's plan was for a sort of Labour Government under his Generalship. It was an utterly un-workable idea as the Reichswehr officers were hardly prepared to follow Schleicher on this path, and the working class had a natural distrust of their future allies. Equally Schleicher aroused hatred amongst the great capitalists and landowners by these plans. (ibid:316) The above suspicion accompanied an opening for the Republicans and Socialists. The SPD and KPD Could have achieved success building on a Berlin transport Strike.

Hitler learned from von Papen that the general had no authority to abolish the Reichstag parliament, whereas any majority of seats did. The cabinet (under a previous interpretation of Article 48) ruled without a sitting Reichstag, which could vote only for its own dissolution. Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi debts were to be relieved by German big business.

On January 22, Hitler's efforts to persuade Oskar von Hindenburg (the President's son) included threats to bring criminal charges over estate taxation irregularities at the President's Neudeck estate (although 5000 extra acres were soon alloted to Hindenburg's property). Out maneuvered by von Papen and Hitler on plans for the new cabinet, and having lost Hindenburg's confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. On January 28th von Papen described Hitler to Paul von Hindenburg as only a minority part of an alternative, von Papen-arranged government. The four great political movements, the SPD, KPD, Centre, and the [NSDAP] were in opposition. If this continued there was real danger the Centre and the [NSDAP] would radicalize further, and that in the end a vast united national bolshevist front would be formd against the ruling system. (ibid p.314)

On 29 January Hitler and von Papen thwarted a last-minute threat of an officially-sanctioned Reichswehr takeover, and on 30 January 1933 Hindenburg accepted the new Papen-Nationalist-Hitler coalition with the Nazis holding only three of eleven Cabinet seats. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). Eyeing the Catholic Centre Party's 70 (+ 20 BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for constitutional "concessions" (amounting to protection) and planned for dissolution of the Reichstag.

Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals and about Hitler as a person, reluctantly agreed to Papen's theory that, with Nazi popular support on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as chancellor. The date dubbed Machtergreifung (seizure of power) by the Nazi propaganda is commonly seen as the beginning of Nazi Germany.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises 1930–1932", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki