記‧憶

歷史課的前三個禮拜，每週要交一篇報告，

之後，每週需交兩篇1000多字的報告。

懷玉動作很快，是全班最快交作業的同學：

星期四上完課，星期五、日各寫一篇，星期一就交。

老師看完，很快就發回來，

每篇都有分數和簡短的評語。

12.06這篇，是最高分的一篇歷史作業。

A, 45/50  Excellent essay. Well written + thorough.

How important were the Elites and Political Intrigue in Hitler's rise to power?                                  

                              Chen Huai-Yu

In January 1933, Hitler was finally appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg, but actually, there were many reasons that led to Hitler’s rise to power. It included the Great Depression, the benefits of Nazi ideology, Hitler himself, and the political problems faced by the Weimar Republic. Among all, the political problems could be the most important one, because it directly linked to the crash of the Republic and Hitler’s appointment of Chancellor.

    At first, the Republic was led by Muller’s Grand Coalition, which meant that there were many political parties in the Reichstag. When the Great Depression hit Germany, the serious economic issues led to the trouble in Reichstag, because they couldn’t agree on how to deal with the Great Depression and refused to cooperate with others. Because of the living conditions worsened, people turned to support extreme parties like Nazis and Communists, and they became more active and violent on the streets. There were already too many problems, and Muller couldn’t muster any support in the Reichstag to pass laws. Plus, Hindenburg rejected Muller’s acquirement to use Article 48 to rule by decree, which only made it worse and led to Muller’s resignation in 1930.

    In March 1930, Bruning was appointed Chancellor, and a new cabinet was formed excluded SPD. Bruning couldn’t get enough support in Reichstag to pass laws, but his time Hindenburg agreed with him to use Article 48. After that, he went too over and became very unpopular in the Reichstag. He dissolved the Reichstag and called another election, which he still failed to gain major support from his party. Instead, Nazis and Communists gained a total of 184 seats but others were not willing to cooperate with them. The political condition was still very unstable and Bruning kept relying on Article 48. The democracy of the Weimar Republic was questioned by German people, which weakened the popularity of the Republic.

    Hitler once challenged for the seat of President with Hindenburg, because he thought that Hindenburg was too old and he was associated with the “November Criminal” and signing the Treaty of Versailles. Furthermore, he thought that his Nazi policies, anti-Semitism and to end unemployment, appealed to people. However, he still lost on second vote.

    Von Papen became the next Chancellor after Bruning because the high rate of unemployment still could not be solved. He invited Hitler to be the Vice Chancellor, but Hitler would not accept any position apart from Chancellor. Von Papen was soon replaced by Von Schleicher later when he failed to gain support from the Centre Party. Still, the same problem was faced by every Chancellor from Muller, they couldn’t get enough support to pass law, but the only difference was the use of Article 48. Von Schleicher was angry and resigned because Hindenburg refused to grant him the acquirement of using Article 48 and, this made Von Papen see his chance to revenge himself on Von Schleicher.

    Von Papen drew an agreement with Hitler that if Hitler was the Chancellor, he would be the Vice Chancellor. Hindenburg although disliked Hitler, he feared Hitler and his strong SA, and he feared the frequent street fights between the SA and the Communists as well. Besides, the elites and Von Papen convinced Hindenburg that they could control Hitler well. This was a miscalculation of the President and the Reichstag, because they never thought that Hitler was that hard to deal with. Hitler went far wild and was absolutely beyond their control after being appointed Chancellor.

Along with the worsen conditions under the Great Depression, Hitler’s appealing policies, and his own leadership and characters, he successfully occupied the whole dictatorship and brought the whole Germany back to the similar Kaiser system. People liked it because they already knew that democracy under the Republic was a fake and even there was a true democracy, it wouldn’t work in this new-born country just transformed from a long-time dictatorship under the Kaiser. 

In conclusion, the government under the Republic did nothing for the Great Depression but just fought against each other in the Reichstag in order to gain the position of Chancellor. They didn’t really worry about how people were doing and what kind of circumstances their people were under. This made the Republic very unpopular and led to resentment of German people.

Besides, the German people associated them to betray the country by signing the Treaty of Versailles and the Armistice, and also, the Plans and Pacts, with other countries, because they again surrendered to their enemy, the Allies. The decisions made by the Republic and their constitution, the PR system and Article 48, heavily undermined themselves. Adding other factors to concern, Hitler’s anti-Semitism and the end of unemployment just met German people’s needs, because they believed that Jews should take the blame, and people wanted to get jobs and money during the emergency of the Great Depression.

It’s hard to say that the political problems brought down the whole Republic, because there were too many other factors. Putting all the issues together, the reasons mentioned above, the impact of the World War One and the issues that already existed before the Great Depression like agriculture depression, which already weakened the social and economic situations, the attitudes of the elites towards Hitler and the political intrigue were just like the last straw that broke the camel’s back, which also made Hitler succeed on his way to seize the dictatorial power in 1933.