Emergence of Anti-Semitism in Germany Toward the End of the Weimar Republic

At the end of WWI in 1918, Germany’s economy was in ruins. There were very few jobs, and bitterness began to take over the country. According to the text, “Hitler, a rising politician, offered Germany a scapegoat: Jewish people. Hitler said that Jewish people were to blame for Germany’s problems. He believed that Jews did not deserve to live.” (7) This was the birth of Antisemitism--prejudice against Jewish people. Europe’s Jewish people have always been persecuted due to their “different customs and beliefs that many viewed with suspicion.”(7) Hitler simply reignited the flames, and a violent hatred was born.

Before the Great Depression in Germany, the Nazis were not a popular party, nor were they widely known. In the Reichstag (similar to parliament) elections of 1928, the Nazi Party received 2.6% of the vote. In 1930, the worldwide economic depression hit Germany hard. Life in Germany was bleak, many people were jobless, and the overall quality of life was poor. It also didn’t help that many people linked the depression, with Germany’s “embarrassing” defeat during World War I. Germans believed their government to be weak, and unable to help with the depression (“The Nazis Rise To Power”).

In 1933, Hitler’s Nazi regime took power in Germany at a time where the people lacked patriotism and were upset with their government. After losing World War I, Hitler’s anti-Semitism mindset was based on his ideals

The new information shared about the Great Depression, emphasized facts that supported and helped me to further understand the reasons which lead the Germans to detest the Jews. Following Germany’s World War One defeat for which Jews were blamed, in 1932, Germany was significantly affected by the Great Depression which resulted in the high unemployment rate of 30%. Given the vulnerability of the unemployed, Hitler was looking for a ‘scapegoat’ for the financial crisis they were facing. Jews in Germany were dominating the stock market, press and the banks,

Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano.” But USA withdrawing their loan wasn’t an inevitability. The direness of the impact seemed to be the combination of events as Germany had just managed to recover before Stresemann died just 26 days before the Wall street crash, leaving Germany without an experienced leaders fortitude, meaning a significantly more powerful impact from the Depression for Germany politically as Brunings centre spectrum government couldn’t hold its own in November 1932 before being toppled by its polar opposites of extreme left(100 seats) and right wing Nazis who had 196 with the centre party holding only 90 seats. Economically as the key difference being the Depressions incredibly high unemployment rate, 6 million by 1933, created a ‘before and after’ psychological effect, which holds significance in the solidifying of the publics dismal mind set, therefore significant in altering Germanys ethos. Germany went from innovative and modern to economically crippled and chaotic, for many this repeated the feelings from the Treaty of Versailles which produced a similar ‘before and after’ effect, of which was Weimar's inception therefor its root association, leading the public to believe that there was a clear pattern of flaw in how Germany was run, thus turned to

This was the longest and most severe slump ever to hit the industrialized world, which lasted through most of the 1930s. The Great Depression caused mass unemployment, wide spread poverty and despair. The German economy was especially vulnerable since it was built out of foreign capital, owing mostly to debts to the United States and was very dependent on foreign trade. Adolf Hitler knew his opportunity had arrived to strengthen extreme political movements that promised to end the economic problems.

Late 19th Century Germany was a time seemingly stuck between two worlds – the past and the future – and this period’s amount of rapid growth and change ultimately resulted in the decimation of German society as was known. This collapse allowed a river of hatred to flow in its place, known as Anti-Semitism. Based on the primary and secondary sources discussed in and out of class, I believe there are three main reasons why such a horrendous belief system infiltrated 19th Century German society: conflict between urban and rural populations, rapid freedoms granted to the media, and the ignorance of German politicians who unknowingly or not, pushed political extremists’ agendas.

Due to the failure of the Weimar Republic and general public dissatisfaction arising from poor economic conditions exacerbated by the Treaty of Versailles, coupled with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, German citizens were understandably desperate for change. Until this point in time the Nazi party, and Hitler, had been essentially unpopular. However, the economic situation ensured Hitler’s increasing popularity as the people looked toward more extreme but non-communist ideals. The initial consolidation of Nazi power in 1933 arose from key events such as the support of the Nationalist Party with the Nazis to form a coalition government, implementation of the Enabling

Prior to the Great Depression, Germany was already in a poor economic and political state. More than 6 million Germans were out of work. Germany also had to pay massive reparations for supposedly being solely responsible for all the destruction that WWI caused, and the government was unstable, with several parties vying for power. The current government, the Weimar Republic, was losing support and there was no clear successor to be the new government of Germany. How did the Great Depression affect an already gloomy Germany? How did Hitler and the Nazis take advantage of the economic crisis?

The depression throughout the nation and the world was a result of protectionism, the rise of tariffs which had slowed down the world trade market. Reparations, Germany had a terrible economy after WW1 and couldn't make payments to France and Great Britain for their war damages. Wheat and other goods were being over produced and the manufactures had stockpiled the goods thinking that the Depression wouldn't last long. They were wrong and they had to stop production, lower prices on their goods, people had lost their jobs and they eventually went out of

In Germany the economy was especially vulnerable since it was built out of foreign capital, mostly loans from America and was very dependent on foreign trade. When those loans suddenly came due and when the world market for German exports dried up, the well-oiled German industrial machine quickly ground to a halt. As production levels fell, German workers were laid off. Along with this, banks failed throughout Germany. Savings accounts, the result of years of hard work, were instantly wiped out. Inflation soon followed making it hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with devalued money. Overnight, the middle class standard of living so many German families enjoyed was ruined by events outside of Germany, beyond their control. The Great Depression began and they were cast into poverty and deep misery and began looking for a solution, any solution. By mid-1930, amid the economic pressures of the Great Depression, the German democratic government was beginning to unravel. The crisis of the Great Depression

In Germany, like most countries of Europe, the Anti-Semitism acquired more followers during the late 1880’s the first anti-Semite was elected for the parliament. The 1890’s was a time of social and economic problems in Germany; the most affected was the lower middle class. Many people used the nationalism and anti-Semitism as the answer to most of the problems in Germany.

There were many economic consequences of Hitler to becoming Chancellor of Germany. The primary concern of the Nazis involving the economy was the high percentage of unemployment in Germany. The total of unemployed people was 5.7 million in January 1933, and the Nazis had no plan whatsoever. The Nazis were anti-communist as well as anti-capitalist to attract as much support as possible. This meant the could not use communist or capitalist systems to fix the economy. This left only one option; for the Nazis to control the

Germany was ready to do everything they could in their power to make the Jewish population hated. They filled televised shows with hateful non-humanlike cartoons, put up disgusting paintings all over, and talked bad about the Jew’s on the radio. They also started teaching young children along with teenagers in Germany that Jewish people were not to be trusted stating that they were disgusting people so that the younger German’s would grow up with hatred for the Jew’s. Germany was willing to do everything they possibly could for all Germans to have hate along with despise for the Jew’s. The propaganda campaign was started and became very successful, it encouraged passivity and hate for the Jewish population.

The Great Depression played a big role in helping the Nazi Party capture power. Many nations were suffering from the Great Depression in 1930, including Germany who had to pay for the war reparations. During this period of economic and politic crisis, the country had been easily influenced by the politics parties. They wanted someone who is capable and had what it takes to be their leader to lead them through the huge crisis that they were facing. Most Germans who are in desperate state as they wanted Germany to be like once, able to be proud of and not in such a state where they had to struggle to fulfill the almost impossible terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They considered that period as a disgraceful decade in their history. Due to