PDF file: History - Advanced Higher - Germany - Education Scotland

THEME 3: THE COLLAPSE OF WEIMAR
The third area of the course requires the study of:
• Economic depression and mass unemployment
• The weakening of democracy; Bruning to Schleicher
• The rise of Nazism
• Hitler and the Nazi take over of power.
Between 1930 and 1933 the Weimar Republic was hit by the economic depression
that had a severed impact on many countries of the world. This section of the course
deals with the Republican Governments’ attempts to deal with the crisis and with the
political consequences of the events of the period. By spring of 1933, parliamentary
government had effectively ended, swept aside by the country’s recently appointed
Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist Party. Nazi beliefs
differed sharply from those of the parliamentary parties; Nazi strategies fed down
from the authority of their leader.
In this section of the course; therefore, the three key concepts are all central to
understanding i.e.
• Ideology
• Authority
• Revolution.
Issues to consider / investigate / discuss
A great deal is concentrated in this short period including:
• Could the Weimar Republic have avoided the collapse of
parliamentary government?
• What made it possible for Hitler to rise so rapidly to the post of
chancellor?
• Who supported the Nazi Party?
• Was it primarily the economic crisis that destroyed the Weimar
Republic?
• What was the role of the Army in the events of these years?
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 27