Hindenburg could however see that Hitler and the Nazis could prove helpful so he appointed von Papen as Chancellor. Von Papen had no support in the Reichstag but he hoped that he could form a right-wing coalition with the Nazis and other right-wing parties. Hitler said no, and so Hindenburg called another election in which the Nazis lost 34 seats and all was looking dark and gloomy for the Nazis.
But then luck came around as General von Schleicher turned against von Papen and stopped supporting him. Schleicher decided that he should be Chancellor. This triggered of a huge power struggle between von Papen and von Schleichler.
Firstly von Schleicher is appointed Chancellor in December 1932. Then in January 1933 von Papen and Hitler have private talks in which von Papen says that he will make Hitler Chancellor and himself a member of the cabinet. Hitler agrees, but Hindenburg will not give Chancellorship to Hitler. Eventually, after von Schleicher resigns, Hitler is made Chancellor after von Papen persuades Hindenburg. Von Papen thought that as long as there were a limited number of Nazis in the cabinet then Hitler could be controlled. Von Papen was wrong.
Also there was the weakness of the Weimar government, which played its part in the eventual Chancellorship title that Hitler obtained. The Weimar government was failing miserably, what with a failed economy, no power, a great depression, unemployment, a weak presidential rule, and the rise of terrorism and extremism. The Social Democrats were losing their touch. During the Stresemann years of the 1920s the Nazis couldn’t even get into double figures when it came to seats in the Reichstag. Germany, it looked, was on the rise while Stresemann was Chancellor but the Nazis and their appealing polices were al too good for the people of Germany to refuse and so while the votes for the Social Democrats only fluctuated ever so slightly the Nazi votes were rocketing and with every election they grew and grew.
All of the depressed and unemployed felt very strongly against the Social Democrats and so all of their votes were lost. The Nazis, with the only other contender with a fall in the their number ofof seats, had an open road at the end which was majority in the Reichstag.
The Nazis were incredibly good at changing their policies to suit their audiences at rallies. In the late 1920s Hitler moved away from violence and realised that the only way he could receive true power was through the Reichstag. The Nazis increased their membership greatly during the mid-to-late 1920s but they were losing ground were in mattered most, in the Reichstag, where hey had very few seats indeed. The Nazis were able to win over the working and middle classes by using their anti-Jewish propaganda for the working classes, and for the middle classes and farmers the Nazis focussed on their policies on powerless and honourless Germany, making it great again. This greatly appealed to the farmers and middle classes.
Hitler made his party more organised after he was released from prison in December 1925. He realised that violence was getting him nowhere in the Reichstag so he steered his party away from that form of behaviour that was giving them a bad name.
The Nazis were brilliant when it came to propaganda and public rallies and meetings. No other party focussed more on propaganda than the Nazis. The Nazis felt that flyers, leaflets, radio, rallies and meetings were the key to success. If a subject proved popular then they would repeat it. In this way the Nazis developed a very sensitive system of propaganda. Although this system was working and membership was increasing nothing could have set the Nazis on a better path to power than events in 1929.
In October 1929 the Wall Street Crash was the beginning of a worldwide slide into the Great Depression. The effects were catastrophic, especially for Germany. All of the loans from America that Germany’s economy relied on were withdrawn. Thus the Dawes’