EXTREMES OF THE DEPRESSION IN DEUTSCHLAND
Many people argue that the rise of Hitler was primarily made possible because of the average desperateness of the people whom were in need of a savior. Hitler appeared strong and gave light to a dark place. The people did not realize the evil that is what fueled the light, but the spark definitely came from the depression. Financial problems arrived immediately after the war when Germany was forced to pay for all the war reparations and the government handled it extremely poorly. German officials decided that in order to get out of this financial drought they needed to just print more money which caused new levels of inflation. Between 1918 and 1923 the amount of gold that one German mark could buy would now cost one trillion marks. This caused Germany to get help from America in order to re-institute successful industry in their nation. After America stopped loaning Germany money after the Lausanne Conference of 1932, they could no longer pay the allies back and the whole nation was engulfed in poverty. In addition the United States put a large tariff block on German goods in order to protect their own companies which let in even less capital to Germany. There was also a run on banks in 1931 similar to in the United States which caused many banks in Germany and Austria to declare bankruptcy.
Unemployment soared to over 30% and a myriad of other aspects caused the only two successful political groups to be the most extreme. On one side of the spectrum were the communists and their arch-rivals on the other side, the Fascist Nazi Party. During this time the national government of Germany was a weak Weimer Republic that seemed to be diminishing with time and despair. The industrial market had decreased by 50% and the demand for products when people were so focused on surviving became even less. The German workers whether in upper, middle, or lower class became increasingly likely to become unemployed. Yet the group affected most heavily were the children who needed nutrition they just could not obtain and thousands died. It is thought that Germany took the hardest hit from the Great Depression out of any other nation in the world.
It is shocking to know that America's original mistake effected other countries around the world. In this car, you are talking about Germany and that they suffered a lost more than the United States did during the depression. And this is a very arguable stance, because like you mentioned, Germany was in fear of falling back economically, so they printed more and more money just because they could. When this happened, the money circulation within the country increased by so much in so little time that no one really had time to adjust with this, and the country itself could not keep up. This is what made Germany sink even deeper into the depression, hyper- inflation.
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Nice post Ian. I like that your discussion of the role of the Great Depression in Hitler's rise to power sheds light on aspects of the economic atmosphere that brought him to power. Most people don't know much about Hitler besides his involvement in the Holocaust; your article adds more information on the extreme economic conditions that allowed Hitler to take control.
ReplyDeleteYour article does a good job summarizing the problems and deficiencies in the German government that lead to the rise of Hitler, but it would be better if your article was written more clear.
ReplyDeletehttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/German_Hyperinflation.jpg
ReplyDeleteHere's a visual of German hyperinflation.
I think it is interesting to note that Germany suffered the worst inflation of the global depression, but was among the first to recover thanks to Hitler's economic polices and public works and manufacturing jobs.
Hey Ian, I did a similar post about the rise of Hitler. You and I each covered the same basic things, but I liked how you gave the stats of one trillion marks, and also the percents in the second paragraph. It gives a sense of proportion to the desperation of the people. Unfortunately, when the United States cut Germany off, it indirectly put Hitler in a position of power. Do you guys suppose there's anything that could have been done to prevent that?
ReplyDeleteGreat post, and great points. It's always interesting to note how the Treaty of Versailles was ultimately one of the greatest reasons WWII began. However, printing out more money was not Germany's first response to the problem. Their first response was very similar to Roosevelt's - create more jobs. In fact, this strategy might have worked but for the large protective tariffs foreign countries placed on German goods. With no other path, they walked the perhaps foolish one, and printed more money.
ReplyDeleteSource: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/1920s/Econ20s.htm
It's cool to see the effects of American action on other countries at the time. I remember writing about Hitler's taking advantage of Germany's economic ruin and it's citizen's distress on the AP European History test's FRQ.
ReplyDeleteInflation became a huge problem in Germany as it tried to print out tons of money in order to pay off war reparations to the Allies. That must have disrupted the Allie-German-American international debt triangle that Mr. Stewart showed us in class.
It's interesting to see the type of leaders that come out of Great Depressions. Looking at Germany's history, you see Adolf Hitler take lead and take on a dictator leadership. To an extent, Franklin Roosevelt takes a similar stance in order to create recovery in the economy. A lot of this reminds me of MEHAP's topics of Machiavelli and how sometimes you have to be tough to get the result. Hitler may be an extreme example, but it exemplifies the idea of having to take control.
ReplyDeleteThe collapse of the German mark and inflation really hurt the nation and empowered the Nazis. It is interesting to compare this to Italy, where there was already an established dictator, Mussolini. Italy was less industrialized than Germany, so it had less industries, and therefore suffered less from the Great Depression.
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