To what extent did economic hardship contribute to the rise to power of a dictator?
A dictator is someone who has absolute power or who at least behaves as if they do by bossing others around. In government, a dictator is a ruler who has total control over the country, with no checks or balances to prevent abuse of power. When Hitler was appointed the chancellor, Germany was under the influence of a dictatorship. The death of President Hindenburg in August 1934 allowed him to combine both chancellor and president’s positions into one. During 1920s worldwide depression happened, this allowed Hitler to gain support. Germany fell into some great economic hardships after the great war, combined with the worldwide depression. The economic instability was created by the great depression, treaty of Versailles and the hyperinflation that fell upon Germany after the Great War. The large reparations that were imposed upon Germany by the Treaty of Versailles meant that the economy of Germany could not handle it, and it went into hyperinflation. Germany became concerned with one thing which was their survival. Since the current government that time couldn’t handle it, the ideas of Hitler becoming chancellor was appealing to a lot of the people. The economic hardship was devastating, which lead to the rise of a dictator (Hitler).
During the 1920s Germany was in a political and economic crisis. The great depression was a worldwide economic downfall, that began as an American crisis. The United States stock market crashed which marks the beginning of an economic crisis which leads to be a great depression. On October 29, 1929, is known as black Tuesday because it is associated with the stock market crash. The depression had a devasting effect in Germany because international trades were declined as well as personal incomes, tax revenues, prices, and profits. The great depression contributes to the rise of Hitler because food prices drop and that meant that a lot couldn’t make their payments to banks and lenders, causing them to flood cities for work because they lost of farms. People were tired of the downfall of the country and they saw that the country wasn’t moving forward. The country was going through chaos after the great war. The Great Depression played a role in Hitler and the Nazi rise to power. Before the great depression hit the Nazi party only held 12 seats in the parliament, by 1932 they had 230 in the Reichstag.
The treaty of Versailles was important to Hitler’s rise to power because it was the cause of Germany’s downfall. Hitler felt very strongly about the Treaty of Versailles and thought the terms were unfair towards Germany. The Treaty of Versailles treated Germany harshly. It took away much of their territory including all overseas colonies. It forbade them to have a full-scale military. It was required for them to pay reparations to countries that had defeated them. The German economy failed...
