How Did Hitler Become Chancellor?

On January 30th, 1933 Adolf Hitler walked into Hindenburg's office to assume his hard fought role as chancellor and grab hold of the reigns of a 14 year-old German democratic republic. On this day Ludendorff would warn Hindenburg of the future repercussions of his decision; “by appointing Adolf Hitler Chancellor of the Reich, you have handed over our sacred German Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. Future generations will curse you in your grave for this action.” This insight would later prove to ring true and mark the end of Hitler’s “rise” and the beginning of the end for Weimar Germany and German democracy for the next 12 years. In order to understand how this position was obtained, one must examine the economic, political and social implications of the years that preceded the achievement as well as Hitler’s own ideology and personal assets.
AJP Taylor stated, "Only the Great Depression put the wind into Hitler's sails". Indeed, this declaration illustrates a view that is commonly used to explain the drastic increase in popularity of the NSDAP after Stresemann’s death in 1929. In 1930 the Nazi party saw their seats increase from 12 in 1928, to 107 seats in the German federal election. One could argue that these statistics can be explained by examining the effects that the Wall Street Crash of 1929 had on Germany. After the Wall Street Crash, the US called in its loans to Germany, thus leading to an economic collapse and social disorder as rates of unemployment and starvation grew. Numbers of unemployment rapidly and consistently increased from 2 million in 1928 to 2.5 million in 1929, 3 million in 1930, 5 million in 1931 and finally 6 million in 1932 just before Hitler took his place as Chancellor. In 1930 Chancellor Bruning cut government expenditure, wages and unemployment pay in hopes of establishing a means to an end. This legislature, however, was not approved by the Reichstag and thus led to President Hindenburg instituting the use of Article 48 in order to pass the measures by decree. Contrary to creating any solutions, this act put the government in further disorder and created an anarchist movement from the people. As put by historian Tony Howarth, “Hitler's policies were half-baked, racist clap-trap... but among the jumble of hysterical ideas Hitler showed a sure sense of how to appeal to the lowest instincts of frightened masses”. Amidst the chaos, Germans began looking for radical solutions and a source to blame their desperations on and Hitler gave them just that. His sympathetic policies and use of propaganda appealed to the masses. The middle class, after a shocking awakening to the obvious failure of democracy, opted for an extremist government. Nationalists and racists supported Hitler’s view that the Treaty of Versailles and reparations were to blame for Germany’s distraught social and economic situation. Although many of the workers turned to communism, this scared the wealthier classes in to financing Hitler’s campaign. Conclusively, Hitler took advantage of the vulnerable economic state of his country in order to gain support for his radically right winged party.
Despite the obvious correlation between economics and political growth, to blame Hitler’s rise to power solely on The Great Depression and the failure of Democracy in Weimar Germany is a simplistic approach to a much more complicated accomplishment. Hitler’s achievement was due far more to his party’s appeal to German society than it was to the people’s disapproval for the previous government. The NSDAP offered Germany what the other parties could not; a return to a nation built upon a traditional lifestyle of customs and security. Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels who was in charge of propaganda did a thorough job in effectively communicating these ideas and increasing support by targeting the interests of specific groups in society. The Berlin chapter of the Nazi party began printing Der Angriff as a form of propaganda. As Goebbels stressed himself, “the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly- it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”. In the case of the Nazis, these points were mainly anti-Semitism and an obvious criticism of the Weimar Republic. Evidently this tactic appealed to the public as a growing demand caused circulation to increase from 2,000 copies in 1927 to 146,694 by 1936. Furthermore, Hitler’s party took a clear stance against the rational fear of impending Communism on Weimar Germany. Unlike central parties such as the SPD who appeared to be impartial to the movement, the NSDAP put to rest many of the people’s uncertainty by employing the use of the Sturmabteilung
in order to eradicate extremist left-wing opponents. Although the group’s success was made possible through the use of committing acts of violence and terror, this
proved to be a success in its own right because it scared off other potential opponents in addition to the targeted groups. Through a combination of tailored appeal to the population and the suppression of potential opposition, Hitler had made it possible to gain a sufficient lead in the polls.
However, by 1933 when it came time for President Hindenburg to appoint a new Chancellor, conditions in Germany had already begun to improve. Levels of unemployment fell from 5.5 to 4.5 million with starvation rates to match. Surprisingly, in the parliamentary elections of Novemeber 1932 the NSDAP’s votes dropped from 4.2 % to 33.1 % while other, smaller party’s support actually increased. Hitler’s personal qualities had been a crucial aspect in carrying him so far. One of his early followers, Karl Ludecke described him by saying; “He was holding the masses, and me with them, under an hypnotic spell by the sheer force of his beliefs. His words were like a whip. When he spoke of the disgrace of Germany, I felt ready to attack any enemy.” Attributes such as captivating, manipulative speech, self-confidence and determination which gave Hitler his powerful, appealing façade was overlooked by Hindenburg and Papen who offered him the position of Chancellor. With the results of the latest polls, they were under the false perception of Hitler’s true intentions and potential and thus maintained the disillusionment that they would be able to maintain control over him after handing over to him the position.
With hindsight, this conception would prove to be false and more dangerous than anyone could have foreseen. Instead of being controlled, Hitler would use Article 48 to obtain absolute power. After years of gradually gaining support through manipulation of Germany’s vulnerable economic and social status as well as his party’s personal appeal to society, he had obtained his final position as Chancellor before absolute dictatorship.