Hitler's Rise To Power

11 Pages 2824 Words

oportional representation in the Reichstag. Proportional representation made the Republic weak in that parties were very uncooperative. No party could get a majority, so the government had to be run by coalitions. There could never be a strong government. The president had too much power over the government and could turn himself into a dictator. This was made possible by Article forty-eight in the constitution which stated that in an emergency, the president could make laws without going first to the Reichstag.

The Social Democratic Party, or SPD, was the largest party in the Reichstag in the early years of German democracy. It was the only party, which held strong support for the Weimar Republic. Extremist groups like the German Communist Party, or KPD and the Nazi party blamed a lot of the disasters that happened in the early stages of the republic on the SPD. This was how the Nazi Party gained support from the German people. And there were plenty of things to complain about.

The Versailles Treaty, drawn up by leaders of Allied parties after the first World War was very hard on the Germans. They faced territorial losses; Allied countries took more than thirteen percent of Germany. Also, allies occupied the most productive industrial territory, the Rhineland. Overseas colonies were taken too. Germany was forced to pay reparations for damage caused by the war. The term for peace that the Germans most resented was article two hundred and thirty-one which blamed Germany for the war. The German people were angry and bitter, looking for someone to blame.

The Nazis gave them the new government to blame. During this time there were attempted uprisings from both the extreme left and right of the political spectrum. A society that had been famous for their unity was now in conflict. The year 1923 brought with it significant disasters. French and Belgian troops invaded the Ruhr, Germany’s most important industrial region. The Germ...