A couple of years ago, the stock market had crushed. While its impacts were felt throughout the world, and are still felt today, it wasn’t as serious as previous stock crashes that had occurred. The most devastating stock crash was right after World War 1 when the stock market in America collapsed. The affects were felt throughout the entire world and this age was appropriately named The Great Depression.
The Great Depression was a widespread economic depression in between the two world wars. Germany was hit by the depression the hardest, and the German mark would cost more to print, than it was actually worth. This is widely considered Germany’s darkest days in modern history in terms of politics, economy and lifestyle and this also led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, which in conjunction with the revenge felt throughout Germany during this depression and Hitler’s assets as a leader, led to WW2.
As a result of Germany losing World War 1, Germany was already a mess. They were aimlessly trying to rebuild their economy, with the Allies demanding Germany to pay their members billions of dollars as a form of reparation. By doing this, in conjunction with the feeling of revenge, the League led to WW1 more than interrupt it. To be able to do both simultaneously, Germany had to get loans from the United States and pay the allies. This caused even more problems since Germany was getting in more debt, while they still had no money to pay. As a result the value of the Mark decreased rapidly and prices were also constantly increasing. Germany entered a state of hyperinflation and that resulted to the money being used as burning material rather than an actual currency.
Due to this Hyperinflation, there was a high unemployment rate and people were starving on the streets. Estimates say that there were six million unemployed in Germany alone. As, a result they started to question their governments as they couldn’t enforce democracy nor create jobs. This is the lowest point of living standard in modern German history and the people were willing to hear anybody to get them out of this nightmare. This is when Hitler found the chance to easily manipulate these starved people by promising them the world.
The Weimer republic was very popular before The Great Depression and the civilians loved it. The Great Depression swept thought the Weimar republic and people weren’t satisfied with their government’s decisions and most turned to the extreme’s. Before The Great Depression, the extreme parties, like the communist and nationalist parties, were not very popular but because of that economic downfall people began to turn their head’s to these two parties. The nationalist party beat the communist party because of a strong leader who had the gift of motivating his listeners.
The Nazi Party rose to power on August 1st, were just a few hours after the winning results of the elections had been announced; The Nazis introduced their reign of terror. They began stoning shops, burning gas stations and at the same time killing socialists and communists. It was obvious that this isn’t a protest about the inflation of civilians but rather an uprising fuelled by nationalism and hatred.
Economically Germany was destroyed. The German mark was worth nothing and it cost more to print ink on paper than an actual note. The people were protesting in the streets for this inflation and after years of hardship, they finally turned to the extreme leader who promised them a better life, which then led to his raise to power and the Second World War.
