THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

September 1930: Nazis win 18% of national vote, and SPD resolves to “tolerate” Heinrich Brüning

Oct. 1931: Alfred Hugenberg organizes “Harzburg Front” of the “National Opposition”

March-April 1932: Brüning secures the reelection of Hindenburg with support from SPD and then bans SA

June 1932: Hindenburg appoints Franz von Papen Chancellor, who lifts SA ban and holds new elections

July 1932: Papen forcibly deposes SPD-led Prussian state government; Nazis win 37% of national vote.

December 1932: Defense Minister Kurt von Schleicher topples Papen but fails to win any support…

Hitler, practicing his oratorical gestures in 1926

Dr. Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), appointedGauleiter of Berlin in

1926

Gregor Strasser (1892-1934), pharmacist & Reich Organization Leader of the

NSDAP

HITLER ADDRESSES NAZI LEADERS, AUGUST 1928:

Analyzing their election defeat, they notedsome success in rural areas….

The Nazis ran a very disciplined campaign in 1930, based on the slogan, “For or Against the

Young Plan?”

“Freedom and Bread”They astonished everyone in September 1930 by winning

18% of the vote & 107 Reichstag seats

The Center Party campaigned against

the extremism of Left and Right but sometimes lumped the SPD with the

KPD

The SPD also campaigned against the extremism but sometimes took shots at the

Center Party

The KPD thought only of its feud with the SPD, and the DNVP sought to replace parliamentary with “Presidential”

government.

“Betrayed by the SPD!” “More Power to the President!”

“Red Warfare” (1930):

“Man or machine?”“God or devil”

“Blood or gold?”“Race or half-

breed?”“Folksong or jazz?”“National Socialism

or Bolshevism?”

THE SPD RESOLVED TO “TOLERATE” GOVERNMENT BY EMERGENCY DECREE AFTER

SEPTEMBER 1930

Alarmed by the rise of the Nazis, the SPD offered to accept Brüning’s emergency decrees, if he agreed not to give power to the Nazis and to cooperate with the SPD-led Braun-Severing government in PrussiaThus Brüning gained the power in 1931 to decree cuts in wages bound by collective labor contracts, cartel prices, government salaries, and welfare benefits, to balance the budget and lower production costs.He also pursued the abolition of reparations through diplomatic talks in Paris, London, Berlin, and Rome.

Alfred Hugenberg APPEARED to forge a united front of all rightist organizations at Bad Harzburg in October

1931

Hugenberg told Hindenburg that only Brüning stood in the way of a grand alliance of Catholics, nationalists, and Nazis

But Hitler reviewed his Stormtroopers alone at Harzburg

Thousands of Stormtroopers

march the streets of

Brunswick in October 1931

Hitler reviews the SA

columns, Brunswick,

October 1931

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%.But the autonomous Reichsbank rejected Brüning’s demand to lower the discount rate to 6%; the military rejected any budget cuts; and the cabinet decided that it could not launch a public works program until after reparations were abolished.

Brüning united a broad front from the

SPD to moderate conservatives to

secure Hindenburg’s reelection against

Hitler in March-April 1932

Hitler was not even a German citizen when he chose to run for President but claimed that right as a

combat veteran

“Workers of the Head and of the Fist:

Vote for the Combat Veteran, HITLER!”

(March, 1932).

“We choose Hindenburg! --

We choose Hitler!Look at these faces, and you will known where you belong!”

(Hitler won the endorsement of many

monarchists, including Crown Prince William of Hohenzollern.)

THE FALL OF BRÜNING, MAY 1932

Hindenburg had long desired a rightist majority cabinet stretching from the Center to the NSDAP; Brüning sought to demonstrate that this was not feasible.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.

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

regarded the new chancellor as the puppet of Defense Minister 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 building, July 20, 1932

A SAALSCHLACHT:Nazi rally in

Bavaria, April-May 1932

After political opponents

stormed the podium, the

police dissolved the meeting as a threat to public

order

Campaign posters flooded urban space in 1932

“We workers are now awake.

We vote National Socialist” (July 1932):

The Communist bum exalts the

Soviet Union and class warfare; the SPD labor boss,

“agitation and mass rallies.”

“The Final Blow!”(1932)

Ernst Thälmann at a Communist rally in Berlin in 1932

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS WERE PREPARED TO

FIGHT TO DEFEND THEIR RALLIES

March by the Republican Reichsbanner, founded in

1925

Carl Severing addressed SPD

rally in July 1932

“The People Will Die from this System!”(SPD, July 1932)

“The Worker in the Realm of the Swastika!”

(SPD, July 1932)

Heinrich Brüning at a rally of the “People’s Front”(Berlin, July 1932):

Catholic youth and Christian trade unionists guarded the hall

“What have you promised, and what have

you brought us, you Papens and Hitlers?

We trust Brüning!”(Center Party, 1932)

„Brüning: The last Bastion of

Freedom and Order“ (Center Party, July

1932)

“German People’s Party:

Against Civil War and Inflation!!”

(DVP campaign poster, July1932)

Hitler with young

Stormtroopers in the Munich Party

Headquarters, 1932:

Tomorrow belongs to

us!

SA “Storm Center” [Sturmlokal], Berlin, 1932. “Hot lunches” are offered beneath the banner, “Death to

the Reactionaries!”

THE POLARIZATION OF THE GERMAN ELECTORATE IN THE GREAT

DEPRESSION:In the election campaign of July 1932,

many felt that Germany was on the brink of civil war.

0%5%

10%

15%20%25%30%35%40%

45%

1919 1928 1930 Jul-32 Nov-32

CommunistSocial DemocratModerate (Libs + RC)Con./ NationalistNazi

“Bravo Herr von Papen! Just

continue with your emergency decrees:

You are giving us Communists our

best chance!”(Nazi campaign

poster, 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

THE NAZI LEADERSHIP IN THE HOUR OF VICTORY

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

November 1940

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

“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

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 campat Oranienburg, 1933

THREE POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WEIMAR

REPUBLIC

1. Blunders by Heinrich Brüning, mainly his failure to organize any public works program that would spur economic recovery and offer hope for the future.

2. Hostility toward democracy among Germany’s conservative elites – army officers, civil servants, industrialists, and big landowners – who did not believe that the policies necessary to “save” Germany would ever gain support from an electoral majority.

3. Political immaturity among the voters at large, most notably displayed in July 1932, when 37% voted Nazi and another 15%, Communist.