Fall of the Weimar Republic and Rise of Nazi Germany in 1933
This paper examines the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany between 1930 and 1933. Beginning with the political instability following the appointment of Heinrich Brüning as Chancellor, it traces the cumulative effects of the Great Depression, parliamentary deadlock, and successive emergency-decree governments under Papen and Schleicher. The paper analyzes the secret negotiations that led to Hitler's appointment as Reichskanzler on January 30, 1933, and situates the collapse within a broader historical context — including Bismarckian militarism, German imperial ambitions, and the structural vulnerabilities that made the Weimar Republic susceptible to authoritarian takeover.
- Political Instability in the Final Years of the Weimar Republic: Brüning's appointment, Article 48 emergency decrees, Reichstag dissolution
- Electoral Shifts and the Rise of the NSDAP: NSDAP's surge in 1930 elections, collapse of moderate majority
- Succession of Chancellors and Hitler's Path to Power: Papen, Schleicher, and failed coalition attempts 1932–1933
- The Nazi-Conservative Coalition and the Seizure of Power: Secret Hitler-Papen deal and Hindenburg's January 1933 appointment
- Bismarckian Militarism and Its Legacy: Militarism as tool of conservative modernization under Bismarck
- German Imperial Ambitions and European Alliance Politics: Naval expansion drives Britain into Franco-Russian alliance
- Structural Conditions That Enabled Nazism: Wilhelm II's militarism and Weimar's unstable democratic foundation
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What makes this paper effective
- It connects short-term political events (chancellorships, elections, backroom deals) to long-term structural causes (Bismarckian militarism, imperial foreign policy), giving the argument both narrative momentum and analytical depth.
- It uses specific electoral data — the NSDAP's jump from roughly 3% in 1928 to 18.3% in 1930, and the 37.2% result in July 1932 — to anchor abstract claims about political instability in concrete evidence.
- The paper appropriately qualifies contested historiographical questions, noting that scholars "greatly disagree" about Brüning's policy, which demonstrates awareness of the secondary literature.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective causal chaining: each political failure (Brüning's austerity, Papen's failed coalition-building, Schleicher's collapse) is shown to create the conditions for the next crisis. Rather than treating Hitler's appointment as inevitable, the paper presents it as the product of a sequence of contingent decisions — particularly elite miscalculation by Hindenburg and Papen — a technique characteristic of strong political history writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with Brüning's chancellorship and the initial electoral shock of 1930, then moves chronologically through the successive governments of Papen and Schleicher to Hitler's appointment in January 1933. A second analytical layer then widens the frame to examine Bismarckian conservatism, German imperial competition, and European alliance formation as deeper structural preconditions for the democratic breakdown the opening sections describe.
Political Instability in the Final Years of the Weimar Republic
The last years of the Weimar Republic were marked by even greater political instability than in previous years. On March 29, 1930, finance expert Heinrich Brüning had been appointed the successor of Chancellor Müller by Paul von Hindenburg, following months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political shift toward conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the Reichspräsident by the constitution, since it had no majority support in the Reichstag. After an unpopular bill to help the Reich's finances failed to secure Reichstag support, Hindenburg established the bill as an emergency decree based on Article 48 of the constitution. On July 18, 1930, the bill was again invalidated by a slim majority in the Reichstag, with the support of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD), the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD), the — then small — Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), and the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP). Immediately afterward, Brüning submitted to the Reichstag the president's decree dissolving it.
From 1930 to 1932, Brüning attempted to save the devastated state without a parliamentary majority, governing with the help of the president's emergency decrees. During that time, the Great Depression reached its peak. In line with liberal economic theory that reduced public spending would spur economic growth, Brüning drastically cut state expenditures, including in the social sector. He expected and accepted that the economic crisis would worsen for a time before conditions improved. Among other measures, the Reich completely halted all public grants to the obligatory unemployment insurance — which had been introduced only in 1927 — resulting in higher contributions from workers and reduced benefits for the unemployed, an unpopular outcome.
The economic downturn lasted until the second half of 1932, when the first indications of a rebound appeared. By this time, however, the Weimar Republic had lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. While scholars greatly disagree about how Brüning's policy should be evaluated, it can safely be said that it contributed to the decline of the Republic. Whether alternatives existed at the time remains the subject of much debate.
Electoral Shifts and the Rise of the NSDAP
The Reichstag general elections on September 14, 1930 produced an enormous political shift: 18.3% of the vote went to the NSDAP, five times its share compared to 1928. This had devastating consequences for the Republic. There was no longer a majority in the Reichstag even for a Great Coalition of moderate parties, and the result encouraged NSDAP supporters to press their claim to power with increasing violence and terror. After 1930, the Republic slid further and further into a state of civil war.
Since most parties opposed the new government under Papen, he had the Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections. The general elections on July 31, 1932 yielded major gains for both the KPD and the NSDAP. The latter won 37.2% of the vote, supplanting the Social Democrats as the largest party in the Reichstag. Hitler now demanded to be appointed Chancellor, a request rejected by Hindenburg on August 13, 1932. With still no working majority in the Reichstag, the chamber was dissolved again and new elections were held in the hope of producing a stable majority. The November 6, 1932 elections returned 33.0% for the NSDAP — a slight decline, though the party remained the dominant force in German politics.
Succession of Chancellors and Hitler's Path to Power
On May 30, 1932, Brüning resigned after losing Hindenburg's support. Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been reelected Reichspräsident with Brüning's active backing, running against Hitler. Hindenburg then appointed Franz von Papen as the new Reichskanzler. Papen unsuccessfully attempted to secure Hitler's backing and, in doing so, lifted the ban on the SA that had been imposed following earlier street riots.
Franz von Papen stepped down after the November elections and was succeeded by General von Schleicher as Reichskanzler on December 3, 1932. Schleicher's audacious plan was to build a Reichstag majority by uniting the trade unionist left wings across various parties, including the NSDAP faction led by Gregor Strasser — but he was unsuccessful.
On January 4, 1933, Hitler met secretly with von Papen at the home of the Cologne banker Kurt von Schroeder. They agreed to form a joint government: besides Hitler, only two other NSDAP members would serve in the Reich cabinet — Wilhelm Frick as Minister of the Interior and Hermann Göring as Commissary for Prussia — while von Papen would serve as Hitler's Vice Chancellor. The new cabinet also included the influential media mogul Alfred Hugenberg, who was chairman of the right-wing DNVP party at the time.
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