RECENT SCHOLARSHIP TO EXPLAINTHE NAZI SEIZURE OF POWER

ECONOMIC HISTORY (neo-liberal): Knut Borchardt and Harold James criticize the Weimar Republic’s effort to guarantee a high standard of living, not only through social insurance but also through compulsory state labor arbitration and rent controls.

ECONOMIC HISTORY (Social Democratic): Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich argues that cartels, trusts, and syndicates weakened the German economy, and that Heinrich Brüning failed disastrously to combat unemployment through “Keynesian” measures.

CONSERVATIVE ELITES ARE TO BLAME (e.g., Hans Mommsen, The Rise & Fall of Weimar Democracy, 1996).

GERMAN VOTERS ARE TO BLAME: Authoritarianism and/or anti-Semitism permeated the electorate.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES, 1928-1933

(The French figures are doubtless understated.)

Chancellor Heinrich Brüning

(1885-1970)

• Born to a middle-class Catholic family in Münster

• Economics Ph.D.• Decorated combat veteran

(rose to captain).• Hired in 1920 as advisor to

the Christian trade unions.• Elected to Reichstag in

1924; Center Party’s expert on fiscal policy.

• A lifelong bachelor, he lived an austere life and preached austerity.

BRÜNING’S INITIAL ASSUMPTIONS

Germany must balance its budget AT ONCE, because government credit was so weak that a budget deficit would soon result in default on obligations and fighting in the streets (most probably TRUE).A policy of deflation would benefit export industries, promote a trade surplus, and strengthen Germany’s case that reparations harmed the world economy (but deflation also slows the velocity of the circulation of money!).If unemployment rose, he could always sell bonds to finance public works (FALSE; all credit sources dried up!). The government could retain popular support as long as it distributed necessary sacrifices fairly among all social classes (but Hindenburg insisted that landowners and the military be spared any sacrifices!).

Brüning’s first pivotal decision was to impose a balanced budget by Article 48 decree in July

1930

Two cabinet ministers advised that agreement could be reached with the SPD on a balanced budget.Brüning judged that the SPD was bound to insist on at least one concession that would drive the DVP into opposition.When the SPD voted against the budget, Brüning imposed it by Article 48 decree; the SPD then joined with the KPD, NSDAP, and DNVP to overturn that decree.Brüning then called for new elections, and imposed his budget by decree during the election campaign.

Brüning and the SPD were both shocked when the Nazis won 18% of the vote, so the

SPD resolved to tolerate Brüning’s emergency decrees as the “lesser evil” compared

with a fascist takeover.

The SPD co-chair Rudolf Breitscheid

addresses the Reichstag, Sep. 1930

In 1931 Brüning hurled himself into diplomatic

talks over the abolition of reparations

He achieved a diplomatic breakthrough with the Hoover Moratorium of July 1931, but two major German banks failed at the same time, causing

widespread panic

TRENDS IN INTEREST RATES(the discount rate charged by central banks to other

banks)

BRÜNING RESOLVED TO PERSEVERE WITH DEFLATION

IN HIS 4TH COMPREHENSIVE EMERGENCY DECREE OF DECEMBER 1931

All wages bound by collective labor contract returned to the level of January 10, 1927.All cartel prices were reduced by 10%.All long-term interest rates on bonds and mortgages of 8% and higher were reduced by 25%.All government salaries were cut by 9%.The national sales tax was raised by 2%.The cabinet demanded that the Discount Rate be lowered from 8% to 6%, but the autonomous Reichsbank would only accept 7%.Despite some “Keynesian” proposals, the cabinet decideded that it could not launch a public works program until reparations were abolished….

GERMANY’S BALANCE OF TRADE(in billions of marks)

Year With Great Britain With France All foreign trade

Import

Export

Bal. Import

Export

Bal. Import

Export

Bal.

1928 0.96 1.18 +0.22

0.74 0.69 -0.05 14.00 12.28 -1.72

1929 0.87 1.31 +0.44

0.64 0.93 +0.29

13.45 13.48 +0.03

1930 0.64 1.22 +0.58

0.52 1.15 +0.63

10.39 12.04 +1.65

1931 0.45 1.13 +0.68

0.34 0.83 +0.49

6.73 9.60 +2.87

1932 0.26 0.45 +0.19

0.19 0.48 +0.29

4.67 5.74 +1.07

1933 0.24 0.41 +0.17

0.18 0.40 +0.22

4.20 4.87 +0.67

“Resignation & Discussion,”

photo by Walter Ballhause from the

series “Unemployment”

(1930)

Alfred Hugenberg APPEARED to forge a united front of the “National Opposition” at Bad Harzburg in October 1931

But Hitler refused to appear on the grandstand with them

Brüning united a broad front from the

SPD to moderate conservatives to

secure Hindenburg’s reelection against

Hitler in March-April 1932

THE FALL OF BRÜNING, MAY 1932

Hindenburg had long desired a rightist parliamentary majority stretching from the Center to the NSDAP.Hindenburg was deeply wounded when most of his monarchist friends endorsed Hitler for President.In April 1932 Brüning banned the SA and sought to partition bankrupt agricultural estates for homesteaders. Hindenburg appointed the right-wing Catholic monarchist Franz von Papen to replace Brüning at the end of May, hoping that his government would be tolerated by the Center Party and NSDAP.Papen foolishly lifted the SA ban and held new Reichstag elections without securing any guarantee of Nazi support.

Franz von Papen’s “Cabinet of Barons” was supported by only one party, the DNVP. Many

regarded the new chancellor as the puppet of the Defense Minister,

General Kurt von Schleicher

Papen & Schleicher at the racetrack, September

1932

Papen made huge concessions to the Nazis when he lifted the SA ban and dissolved the Reichstag,

and he then removed the Prussian state government led by Otto Braun in July 1932, blaming it for the upsurge in street violence

caused by the SA.

A symbolic show of force at the Prussian state capitol, July 20, 1932

But the Nazis soon turned against Papen:

“Bravo Herr von Papen! Just continue with your emergency

decrees: You are giving us Communists

our best chance!”(November 1932)

Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher addresses a rally in Berlin on January 15, 1933

The “Cabinet of National Renewal,” appointed onJanuary 30, 1933: Only 3 of 11 ministers are Nazis, but

Papen allowed Hitler to control the Prussian police & hold elections

“In our deepest need, Hindenburg chose Adolf

Hitler as Reich Chancellor. You too should vote for

List #1”

“The Reich will never be

destroyed – if you remain united and

faithful”

The Reichstag burns, 27 February 1933: The Nazis falsely depicted Marinus van der Lubbe as a KPD

agent

SA round-up of Communists after the Reichstag Fire

STORMTROOPERS BRUTALIZED MANY THOUSANDS

OF “ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE”

“I am the biggest pig in town, because I

only go out with Jews.”

SPD politicians, forced to remove anti-Hitler graffitti

A newly deputized SS

trooper patrols the streets with

a Prussian policeman on election day,

March 5, 1933,when the Nazis won 44% of the

vote

Stormtroopers guard the new “concentration camp”at Oranienburg, 1933

“Der Tag von Potsdam,”

March 21, 1933:The Corporal

greets the Field Marshall as the newly elected

Reichstag delegates gather

Hindenburg’s speech to the new Reichstag:

“The place where we are assembled today summons

us to look back on old Prussia, which became great through fear of God, dutiful work, never failing courage,

and devoted love of the fatherland, and which united

the German tribes on this basis. May the old spirit of this place inspire today’s generation, may it free us

from selfishness and partisan quarrels, may it bring us

together in a national revival and spiritual renewal for the sake of a united, free, proud

Germany!”

Hitler and Crown Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern

Hindenburg reviews the Stormtroopers

A DNVP youth group marches through Potsdam

Torchlight procession by the

SA and Stahlhelm, March

21, 1933

Marching on Jerusalem Street, toward Unter den

Linden

Hitler and his cabinet attend

Die Meistersinger

von Nuernberg at the Berlin State Opera

Hitler demands an Enabling Act, March 23, 1933,approved by all parties but the SPD

The occupation of the Berlin headquarters of the Free Trade Unions, May 2, 1933:

By June all parties but the NSDAP had dissolved

“German Students March Against the Ungerman Spirit:”

A book burning on 10 May 1933

Hitler gained credibility among non-Nazis after Göring and

Goebbels persuaded him to order the killing of SA leaders in the “Knight of the Long Knives,”

June 30-July 1, 1934

Ernst Röhm sought to place the SA in charge of rearmament and called for a “Second Revolution”

Heinrich Himmler and the SS carried out the murders and took over the concentration camps from the SA

The Army’s new loyalty oath to Hitler, August 2, 1934

German judges hail Hitler

THE NEW INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

To replace the trade unions, all workers were required to join the German Labor Front; strikes were banned.

The Nazi SS (=Schutzstaffel) merged with Prussia’s Gestapo to form a new secret police.

Elected state governments were replaced by Reich Commissars, and the 40 Gauleiter of the NSDAP jostled to fill 20 posts of Reich provincial commissar.

In a process of Gleichschaltung, every club and interest group had to affiliate with the NSDAP or dissolve.

20% of civil servants & 30% of schoolteachers joined the NSDAP; party membership was frozen at 2.5 million in December 1933.

The Children’s Friend (ca. 1934)

“THE NSDAP PROTECTS THE

NATIONAL COMMUNITY:

Racial Comrades, if you need advice or help, contact your local Pary office

THE NAZI LEADERSHIP IN THE HOUR OF VICTORY

…but the photo had to be retouched in June 1934 and

November 1940

Ernst Röhm, Otto Wagener, and Rudolf Hess featured prominently in the original….