Germany - 2013 HSC Question PDF

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2013 HSC: To what extent was the Great Depression responsible for the collapse of the Weimar Republic? The collapse of the Weimar Republic in Germany was caused, to a certain extent, by the Great Depression. But while the Great Depression had a large influence on the failure of democracy, other factors from the end of WW1 helped contribute to the collapse of the Weimar Republic. These factors include: the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, the reliance on foreign loans to pay reparations, a majority dislike of the democratic system amongst left/right-wing extremists and the weaknesses of the constitutional/party system. It was these factors that made the Great Depression have a larger impact in Germany. The Great Depression saw the government who had to deal with the humiliation and defeat of Germany at the end of World War I deal with new burdens just a decade later. Germany experienced the full impact of the Great Depression, and this was because of their strong reliance on foreign loans to pay back the war reparations. After America began to slide into economic depression as a result of the collapse of the New York Stock Market, they recalled their short-term loans to Germany, therefore Germany began to experience to full regard of economic collapse. This triggered unemployment, severe social hardship and political instability. It was in these conditions that some extremist parties such as the Nazis and Communists prospered. By 1932 the number of unemployment had soared to over 6 million, living standards had collapsed, and business and industry was at a standstill. The government had very few available options to deal with the crisis. It adopted a deflationary policy in which the government sought to cut its expenditure and balance the budget. This required cuts in welfare spending and increases in taxation. The result of this policy was that the impact of the depression was even greater. The reaction from many countries to the depression was to protect their own domestic industries. This led to major increases in tariffs with the aim of keeping out foreign goods and hopefully keeping home industries afloat. The US introduced high tariffs in 1930, and Britain abandoned free trade. This devastated the German economy that relied on international trade. German businesses across the country collapsed as a result of US investors withdrawing money from Germany. The social and psychological impacts were of the depression were profound. Working-class families became destitute, health levels deteriorated, the middle-class slipped into the working-class and families were broken as men and sons left looking for work. All of these results of the Great Depression pushed the population of Germany to place their faith in new areas of leadership – eg. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was very much dependent on the failures of the Weimar Republic, and this includes the handling of the Great Depression. While the democratic government could not do much to lessen the problems of the depression, the Nazis attacked the weakness and inefficiency of the parliamentary system, the divided political parties, the threat of communism, and the social/economic consequences of the depression. The Nazis tapped into a mood of resentment and frustration at a system that had apparently failed, and they promised a revitalisation of the will and a new beginning. The population of Germany fed off the words of Hitler, and in the numerous elections held in the late 1920s-early 1930s, the Nazi Party slowly increased their percentage of the vote (apart from the November 1932 election, which saw a decline). Hitler’s simple message of recovery had a growing appeal in particular to the disillusioned middle-class, to small business operators, and the increasing number of the rural and farming population who suffered badly in the depression.

According to the determinist historian view, the Great Depression was not responsible for the collapse of the Weimar Republic, but that it was ‘doomed from the start’. Structural weaknesses made the collapse ‘inevitable’, and some of these include:  The authoritarian tradition in Germany  The role of privileged groups (eg. Army) that maintained their influence on the republic  The fact that from the start the republic faced political, economic and international issues which weakened confidence and acceptance. As a consequence, the Weimar Republic was unable to gain legitimate acceptance – it failed because of its lack of friends more than its enemies. British historian Richard Bessel believed that it the seriousness of economic problems in Germany meant that there was little prospect for long-term economic reform. As a consequence, rather than winning political support, the republic continued to alienate important groups in German society. German historian Borchardt believes that Germany was unable to cope with the Great Depression because even in the good years from 1924-29, the country had serious economic problems, including:  High levels of foreign debt  Very high wage levels for German workers  Powerful influence of German trade union  Inability of Germany to substantially increase trade export When the depression came Germany was incapable of putting economic policies into effect that may have reduced the impact of the depression. Once it took hold, there was no hope for the survival of German democracy. The failure of the Weimar Republic of Germany was, to a great extent, influenced by the Great Depression. While other factors helped to be responsible for the collapse of democracy, the Great Depression was the final straw: any chance of democracy surviving in Germany disappeared with the Great Depression....