What Was the Impact of the Treaty of Versailles on Hitler’s Rise to Power?
What was the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on Hitler’s rise to power?
The signing of The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 marked a dark day in German politics. The treaty left the country crippled and powerless, which in turn led to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Reparations and the great depression were contributing factors to Hitler’s rise to power, however one must also consider his warming charisma and Germany’s desire for a strong leader as important reasons.
One clause of the treaty of Versailles which had one of the biggest impacts on Hitler’s rise to power was the £6.6 billion of reparations which Germany had to pay in response to taking the responsibility of the war. A quote from John Maynard Keynes’ ‘the Economic Consequences of the Peace’ reads “£2 billion is a safe maximum figure of Germany’s capacity to pay.” From this quote one can learn that Germany will physically not be able to pay for the ridiculous amount of reparations. This is evident from the spiral of economic disasters in which Germany faced, this includes: hyperinflation, invasion of the Ruhr and the great depression which all left Germany in a rut. The importance of the reparations, which caused these events, is the effect it had on Germany. The most obvious one is that its economy was broken and unable to recover, however the treaty’s effects did not just lie economically but politically and socially. The people of Germany had lost a lot of money- mostly middle class- and felt embarrassed that the current Weimar government allowed this to happen to their once beautiful country. Therefore due to a constant decline in popularity from the German people towards the Weimar government, Hitler managed to obtain a foothold in exploiting the situation. Furthermore he would appeal to the German people and gain popularity at Germany’s most vulnerable state. Consequently, due to the quick actions of Hitler to exploit the disastrous state in which Germany was in and the vulnerability of the Weimar
The signing of The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 marked a dark day in German politics. The treaty left the country crippled and powerless, which in turn led to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Reparations and the great depression were contributing factors to Hitler’s rise to power, however one must also consider his warming charisma and Germany’s desire for a strong leader as important reasons.
One clause of the treaty of Versailles which had one of the biggest impacts on Hitler’s rise to power was the £6.6 billion of reparations which Germany had to pay in response to taking the responsibility of the war. A quote from John Maynard Keynes’ ‘the Economic Consequences of the Peace’ reads “£2 billion is a safe maximum figure of Germany’s capacity to pay.” From this quote one can learn that Germany will physically not be able to pay for the ridiculous amount of reparations. This is evident from the spiral of economic disasters in which Germany faced, this includes: hyperinflation, invasion of the Ruhr and the great depression which all left Germany in a rut. The importance of the reparations, which caused these events, is the effect it had on Germany. The most obvious one is that its economy was broken and unable to recover, however the treaty’s effects did not just lie economically but politically and socially. The people of Germany had lost a lot of money- mostly middle class- and felt embarrassed that the current Weimar government allowed this to happen to their once beautiful country. Therefore due to a constant decline in popularity from the German people towards the Weimar government, Hitler managed to obtain a foothold in exploiting the situation. Furthermore he would appeal to the German people and gain popularity at Germany’s most vulnerable state. Consequently, due to the quick actions of Hitler to exploit the disastrous state in which Germany was in and the vulnerability of the Weimar