 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about the Great Depression in Germany. My name is Barbara and in this video we'll examine the consequences of the 1929 Great Depression which had originated from the US but of course it spread in terms of its repercussions to Europe and further abroad. And of course one of the countries that was massively impacted by this is Germany and we can argue that the Great Depression is really what tipped the balance for Germany and led to the rise of Hitler. So let's get started. Now let's begin with a timeline in terms of the most important elements that led to the Great Depression but also how this impacted Germany. So as I mentioned before in the US there was a great period particularly after the First World War so during the interwar years of great economic success and by 1927 to 1928 USA experienced a gold rush particularly on Wall Street. This is where a lot of huge companies are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. As a result of this gold rush and as a result of these good times there were many American people who bought lots of shares in Wall Street and in these companies that were doing really really well. However there was a massive turn of events in August 1929. Now in August 1929 as a result of these boom years the young plan was signed by the USA and Germany which replaced the Dawes Plan in other words. The USA which had essentially bankrolled Germany's economic recovery and its development during its golden years and this is 1924 to 1929 essentially guaranteed that there would continue bankrolling Germany and also help Germany towards its reparation payments but also the young plan had kept the reparation payments for Germany to a rate that was seen as affordable. That being said this was happening as things in America from an economic perspective were shifting for the worse. Now the first major event was October the 3rd 1929. Gustav Streismann died. Now if you recall from our previous videos and do check out our other videos which talk about the golden years of Germany as well as the Weimar Republic on our channel. Gustav Streismann played an integral role in turning Germany's economic and political position around. He united the left and right wing parties in Germany and not only did he negotiate a lot of these debts and a lot of these payments that came from America to help Germany recover but he also was a really important uniting force for politics in Germany. Now when he did pass away without him the coalition government of Weimar Republic started to do really really badly. On America's side October 24th 1929 the same year was really a defining moment because this is when Black Thursday happened. Effectively share prices on the New York Stock Exchange dropped. In other words share prices mean the cost of owning a piece of a company. Therefore if this cost drops that therefore means that company is reducing in value and what this happened or rather what this resulted in is people who started panic selling. So do you remember for example in 1928 there were lots of Americans who engaged in this gold rush and bought lots of shares. Now these same Americans started panicking in 1929 and they started selling causing companies to lose value even faster. And this consequently led in the period between October to December 1929. Lots of US companies losing value and ultimately going out of business. These companies employed lots of people and therefore as a result when they went out of business there was mass unemployment in the USA. There were hundreds of banks that closed and many people lost their savings. And in fact there were a lot of people who also committed suicide as a result of this. Now this had a reverberating impact not only on America but on Germany because as we've mentioned Germany was essentially bankrolled in terms of its recovery by America. Now in March 1930 the Weimar coalition government collapsed. Of course also remember that politically the main unifying factor Gustav Traceman had died. And this of course had an impact. Now the center party's Heinrich Bruning was then appointed as chancellor of a minority government. In other words he led a government that his political party had a minority in terms of seats. In July 1930 President Hindenburg then dissolved the Reichstag and ruled by decree. In other words he ruled as a dictator because he suspended Article 48 and he suspended the constitution under this article meaning that he could rule by decree. This is because there was a lot of chaos on the political side but of course Germany started seeing the impact, the economic impact of America's Wall Street collapsing. In September 1930 in the Reichstag the re-elections which resulted in more support for the Nazis and KPD. Do remember that the Nazis are extreme right and the KPD are extreme left. In other words lots of Germans started voting more for extreme parties rather than center parties which are far more liberal. In May 1931 unemployment in Germany reached 4 million people and Austria's largest bank called Quedens Stolt collapsed leading to a huge crisis in Germany. In June 1931 there was what we call the Hoover Moratorium. Named after US President Hoover he essentially cancelled much of the cash that was promised to Germany under the young plan for one year and this was terrible. Of course this is because America was going through an economic disaster hence they could no longer afford to give loans. Worse still a lot of American banks started wanting to recall a lot of this money and America wanted some of the money that it had loaned Germany to be paid back which of course starts creating a vicious economic cycle for Germany as well as America. In July 1931 a banking crisis erupted when Danat Bank which is one of the largest banks in Germany fell to open and people panicked and essentially withdrew all their cash. In April 1932 President von Hindenburg re-elected as German President defeated Adolf Hitler by small margin. Bear in mind that before this happened and during the golden years Adolf Hitler was seen as a marginal figure and the Nazi party was seen as a marginal figure however now he was increasing in terms of his support amongst Germans. In May 1932 unable to govern effectively without support in the Reichstag Chancellor Heinrich Bruning resigned and Bruning's 26 months in office made him essentially the longest serving of all Weimar chancellors showing how weak the Weimar government became. In June 1932 Hindenburg the President then appointed Franz von Pappen as Chancellor and in July 1932 the Lausanne Conference in Switzerland voted for Germany to stop paying reparation payments due to the Great Depression. In July 1932 the Nazis the NSDAP party won 230 of the 608 seats in the Reichstag elections and the Communist KPD also increased its seats from 54 in 1928 to 77 seats in 1930 meaning of course more extremist parties started having much more of a say in government. In December 1932 Franz von Pappen was unable as Chancellor to hold together the coalition government and thus he resigned and Kurt von Schleicher became Chancellor. In January 1933 Kurt von Schleicher resigned as Chancellor and Hindenburg was then pressured to appoint Hitler who was now extremely popular as his successor and as Chancellor and of course bear in mind that later on in that same month Adolf Hitler then became sworn as German Chancellor and effectively the period of democratic freedoms in Weimar Germany came to an end during this year. Now of course it's really important to understand the different consequences and impacts of this Great Depression and the first consequence of course is the economic impact. So the Great Depression had a huge economic effect and even if this depression started in America Germany was really relying on the USA for its economic recovery and thus this depression showed just how the foundation of the Weimar government was built on shaky ground which is essentially American loans. Also although Germany during its golden years which is 1929 to 1924 to 1929 although it had grown rapidly during this time it really wasn't ready for the sudden stop in loans essentially its growth was highly fueled and highly dependent on loans. Banks in Germany really struggled to provide money and credit to businesses. In 1930 the USA which was a huge buyer of German exports essentially stopped buying goods to protect American companies and lots of German people panicked and in 1931 many removed the cash from banks meaning big German and Austrian banks went out of business virtually overnight. Also lots of German businessmen lost access to US markets as a result and they found credit which is essentially money given in advance via bank impossible to obtain because these are those very same banks that went out of business. Also many industrial companies and factories closed or shrank dramatically and by 1929 around 1.5 million Germans were unemployed and by 1932 German industrial production dropped to 40% of its pre 1929 levels. But early 1933 unemployment in Germany was 8.5 million unemployed people and shopkeepers and small retailers lost customers of course these are the customers who had consequently become unemployed therefore their income fell to 50% and this of course was a huge catastrophe. A lot of people suffered and also do bear in mind that it wasn't only working class workers that suffered white collar workers in other words people who were lawyers doctors surgeons essentially professional people in that class and this is the middle classes 800,000 people were unemployed. Also of course there were huge political consequences of the Great Depression. So the Wall Street Crash and the depression essentially destroyed Germany's shop lived democratic period under the Weimar government. Do remember in times of great economic problems economic crises people always look to extreme parties for help. This is because the need escape to escape the misery and this is exactly what happened in Germany meaning many people turned to extreme political parties which did really well as a result. Germany as I mentioned before experienced political polarization in other words people started to vote for extreme parties in contrast to the moderate liberal parties that were really popular during Weimar's golden years. The Nazis above all really exploited the anger that many Germans felt at becoming poor and they put themselves forward as a solution. Of course Hitler himself really exploited this to his advantage and hence why he essentially eventually became Chancellor. This led them to do really well especially among the working classes who faced a lot of poverty and high unemployment. As I mentioned before from a political perspective it was a huge disaster that Gustav Strassmann died in October 1929 just when his country was most need on his strong leadership and political acumen. He also had brought the right and left-wing parties together however without him this is what caused the polarization. Now there was a grand coalition of different parties which tried to hold together the Weimar Republic. So it was a DVP, CCP, DDP and SPD who tried to govern between 1928 and 1930 led by Hermann Müller of the SPD. However, Hermann Müller proposed a policy of austerity in other words cutting back by the government which essentially failed to get an agreement from the SPD whose working class supporters would be hit really hard by cuts to welfare. This led him to resign and the coalition collapsed by 1930. In the 1930 elections the Nazis had a huge breakthrough gaining 107 seats which was up from just 12 seats two years ago in 1928 and this made them the second largest party in the Reichstag. The KPD which is a Communist Party also increased its seats from 54 seats in 1928 to 77 in 1930 and Hindenburg decided to use Article 48 to appoint a series of chancellors and he ruled by presidential decrees in other words he became a dictator during the crisis and this made essentially Germany a presidential dictatorship. Also remember another huge outcome and rather a huge disaster was the death of Hindenburg which occurred a little bit later. Also prior to his death he was quite old he was 83 years old and he was really frail and this led the people that surrounded him which is essentially a small group of ex-military officers they influenced most of his decisions and many of these officers including Major General Kurt von Schleicher, Oscar von Hindenburg and Otto Meisner really saw extreme left parties as a threat and hence they felt that if extreme parties were doing well they wanted to support the extreme right as that this would be more in line with protecting their interests. Although do you bear in mind they didn't really like the Nazis this small group that's around at Hindenburg they did want to use Hitler as a pawn to weaken the left and this of course meant that not only was Hitler strengthened and of course they also underestimated Hitler's acumen they thought that he could be manipulated to weaken the left and then when they were done with him they could cast him to the side however Hitler outmaneuvered him. Do you remember that by 1930 democracy was dead and Germany became essentially a dictatorship and by 1933 Hitler became Chancellor ushering in Nazi Germany. Of course there were great and important social outcomes as a result of the Great Depression so remember after the First World War which was in 1914 to 1918 there was a widespread movement in Germany for social change to improve the lives of the poorest in society and as a result the SPD introduced social programs like unemployment insurance the a hour working day collective bargaining rights as well as voting right reforms for instance voting lowering the voting ages increasing voting to women as well as men and helping people move out of poverty and housing. However the Great Depression and the onset in 1999 proved a huge social disaster for these people who had experienced so many gains between the interwar years so many of the achievements of the Weimar Republic in reducing class difference between the very rich and the very poor were essentially undone by this economic crisis and of course the people that suffered the most were the working classes in the middle classes people's salaries were cut and many others were laid off and unemployed the government also reduced its funding of social programs so do remember for instance Herman Muller who proposed the policy of austerity cuts all of these funding programs impacted the working classes so therefore being cut made the working classes even poorer. There were lots of cuts to important social benefits unemployment insurance and this of course was a huge disaster for people who lost their work and the social cohesion that had been building in Germany really began to disintegrate and during the Weimar's golden years the class divisions between the upper classes middle classes and working classes have been reduced given the better standards of working the working class enjoyed however the Great Depression reversed all of this remember many middle class people became poor overnight and the working classes suffered the most as they lost their jobs property and social benefits. As a result workers began to listen to more radical ideas on how to solve the economic crisis therefore the left-wing KPD did really well and the growing influence of the communist KPD party caused many people in the middle classes and upper classes to turn to the extreme right and of course this is what caused Hitler to do so well. Industrialists also became far more willing to fund right-wing politicians like Hitler in order to protect their interests. Hitler also used this skillfully because he blamed the Great Depression on Weimar officials as well as important groups such as the Jews who he labeled as really wealthy and behind the economic problems of many working class people. So that's all with regards to the Great Depression and its consequences on Germany. If you found this video useful we would really appreciate it if you gave it a thumbs up and a like but also do make sure you visit our website www.firstrate tutors.com. There we have lots of essay model questions, practice questions that you can use to improve your knowledge not only on this area but other areas of history and also make sure you visit our website because we offer lots of support material which you can use as part of both your history as well as English and your academic studies. Thank you so much for listening.