The German Papiermark was printed in excess by the Weimar Republic, during the end of 1923 the Government were printing 100 Trillion mark notes, the Papiermark lost so much value that it was practically worthless, it was so worthless in fact that the basics, for instance a loaf of bread would cost many trillion marks, there would be no return for the Papiermark, so in 1924 it was replaced by the Rentenmark, 1 trillion Papiermarks for 1 Renten. This step did help stabilise the economy to some degree but even though the Rentenmark was helping things in Germany it did not solve all of her problems, she still had the fact that many extreme parties had a lot of votes in the Reichstag, people were not happy with the way the Weimar Government was running the country, just under half of all German voters were also not happy with Hindenburg, 36% wanted Hitler as prime minister and 11% went to a Communist leader. The fact that the country did not agree with the Chancellors ultimately led to more and more people believing he only way out of the rut Germany was in would be to vote for an extreme party.

Chancellors and Hindenburg between 1929 and 1933 were as equally responsible for the downfall of democracy in German society as the Wall Street Crash and unemployment was. Out of the 4 chancellors, Herman Muller, Heinrich Bruning, Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher the two that were in my views most responsible were Bruning and von Papen. Whilst Herman Muller was chancellor many devastating world events occurred, however he could not have changed the fate of German under his chancellorship, the Wall Street Crash was inevitable, he introduced the Young Plan, which allowed German people to pay reparations slower so she had time to recover. Many people in Germany were happy with this plan, however the Nazi party were not, they believed that reparations should not have been paid from the very beginning and paying them was an injustice to the German people. The campaign the Nazi’s held against it, organised by a Nationalist (Alfred Hugenburg) gave national exposure to the Nazi party and other right-wing political parties. The extra exposure may have led to the Nazi party gaining a place in the State Government. The Nazi party was now supported by some industrialists who injected money to fuel the machine. Bruning, to my mind was the beginning of the end of Democracy. Chancellors had to be voted in, just as Prime Ministers are, Bruning was appointed by Hindenburg and not voted due to no party having a majority, Hindenburg himself was a conservative, we can tell this by Muller who resigned due to no change in state welfare, which is a right-wing idea. The Reichstag was in chaos, no one had majority so Article 48 was used to pass laws, by 1932 the Reichstag met for 13 days and had only passed 5 laws, Hindenburg alone had passed 60 laws. People living in Germany would have seen the state that their country was in and how Hindenburg was, by this time already acting like a dictator himself.

The SA were a strong tool to gaining support for the Nazi party, they fought the Red Menace, which gained mixed reviews with people, Communist supporters were, obviously, not happy with this, but democratic voters and right wing voters were, the Nazi party always had more support than the Communist party, people were fearful of what they did not fully understand or what they had been told, the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 was still fresh in many peoples mind, and the Germans never were much more than at a political stalemate with each other. Most German people did not want to be associated with the Russians. However Mussolini’s Italy was prospering, her people were fed, riots were practically and they were amongst the fastest recovering nations after October 1929. People admired this; they saw unemployment figures well below that of their motherland. What the Nazi party stood for gave people what they wanted, however the Nazi party although were the biggest party in the Reichstag they never managed to gain a majority, in 1933 they had just over 1/3 of the seats in Parliament. Hindenburg had doubts about the genuineness of Adolf Hitler himself, and it was not until late in 1933 that he agreed to allow Hitler to become Chancellor.

Joseph Goebbels, leader of propaganda used many new techniques the world had never seen before to spread the word about the Nazi party, with Hitler becoming leader of the Nazi party in 1921 meeting Goebbels only 2 years later, he arranged massive rallies to show the power of the Nazi party to every state. Hitler travelled by plane and could deliver a speech in Nuremburg and then fly on to Munich or deeper into Bavaria on the same day, this gave many people exposure to the Nazi party and their beliefs. Goebbels himself was known for his anti-Semitic views and became very close to Hitler from the years 1923 to 33. Without Goebbels spreading the word I don’t think enough people would have known about the Nazi party, the Munich Beer hall Putch is a classic example of this, with as many as 3 people being sentenced to death, and Hitler only getting a 5 year sentence in Landsburg prison, in this time he wrote his book Mein Kampf, which was further propaganda. The Nazis really relied on Proppaganda and violence against communists to achieve the stature that 3 million people in Germany voted for them. Hitler was either incredibly lucky or just in the right place at the right time. With the world economy declining rapidly people turned to him to sort the mess of their country out, coupled with von Papen’s secret deals with Hitler and Hindenburg.

In conclusion I believe the massive spike in support for the Nazi party would have been short lived if Hitler had not become Chancellor and rapidly improved things in Germany, even if he did it in an illegitimate way. The Wall Street Crash, although inevitable was the perfect opportunity for the Nazi party to gain as much support as they could, people always turn to extreme parties when things are not going right and tend not to choose these parties when everything is okay. The German bitterness towards the Treaty of Versailles also played a part in the rapid expansion in support for the Nazi party, with the promises the Nazi party put forth they believed that they could sort out the mess the ‘November Criminals’ had got their country in, to some extents they were correct. Hindenburg and von Papen were also to blame for the support rise in German politics, Hindenburg himself almost lost his place as President. They allowed exposure to the Nazi party and did nothing to stop it, and even lifted curfews on the SA  allowing more people to join and more people to take notice. But ultimately I believe that unemployment due to the Wall Street crash was to blame, if things had remained and Germany was still becoming more economically stable then people would have had no reason whatsoever to vote for the far-right party. People were tired of having no money, and state welfare could not provide for them, what the Nazi’s were offering to many people seemed too good to be true, ‘A chicken in every pot and a Car on every drive’ as Goebbels once stated. The agenda of the Nazi party was vastly appealing and appealed almost everyone. The rich could keep their riches; the poor would no longer be poor.

Franklin D. Roosevelt began his presidency in 1932. Immediately he began working on what would become the “New Deal”.  Roosevelt’s New Deal was the beginning of effective programs such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Civil Works Administration (CWA), Public Works Association (PWA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and Social Security Act. These programs helped with job creation, job training, wage control, financial assistance and housing. Other programs created within the New Deal such as the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of June 1933 and Agriculture Adjustment Administration (AAA) did not work quite as well as thought to have and were declared as being unconstitutional (Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center, Inc., 2007). It wasn’t until the late 1930’s that the Depression’s hold on America began to weaken. With the start of WWII, fighting countries looked to America to build military supplies and that provided the much needed boost to the economy.

The Stock Market Crash of 1929

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred on black Tuesday October 29,1929. The cause of stock market crash of 1929 is debatable – mostly attributed to speculation and overpricing of stocks.  The effects of the stock market crash of 1929 was most people lost all their earnings overnight.  Banks which have invested in the shares were also in trouble.  Effects of stock market crash of 1929 banks started recovery from its borrowers who were not able to pay. Since banks had paper securities worth nothing depositors started withdrawing from banks.  

This Stock market crash of 1929 is also called as Wall Street crash 1929 or October Market crash.  Wall Street 1929 saw a panic among stock holders who were selling in panic causing stock market depression.   The reasons for stock market crash of 1929 though mentioned as speculation the stock market in the 1920s was growing steadily such that none could anticipate the crash of the stock market in 1929.   Stock market crash of 1929 black Tuesday was preceded by Black Thursday on which day also stock index dropped more. 

Stock market crash history is not complete without the mention of stock mart crash of 1929 great depression.   Stock market crash history also has mention about the loss the business and industry suffered. The great stock market crash of 1929 resulted in lay off of many workers.  Stock crash 1929 also affected the small farmers.    Market crash 1929 also followed by drought and horrendous dust storms affected farmers.   Great Stock market crash resulted in young men and women had to go from one place to another to find job was the causes of crash of 1929.  Reasons for the stock market crash of 1929 are not understood properly is evidenced by further stock market crash of 1987.

Stock crash 1929 was followed by further drop in share prices and in 1932-33 saw the bottom level down about 80% of their level in 1920s.   1929 stock market crash brought Great Depression resulting in untold sufferings to all levels of people.  Causes of the crash 1929 can also be attributed to great expansion of investment trusts, public utility companies, margin buying resulting in pushing their prices to artificial heights.

                                    **********************************

Many bank failures,together with low incomes among farmers,and factory workers helped to set the stage.Uneven distribution of income among workers also contributed to the slump.Most economists agreed that the stock market crash of 1929 is what started it all.Stock values fell for the next three years.Business failures increased rapidly,as unemployment continued to soar.Millions lost their jobs,savings,and homes.What they did manage to purchase was on credit with no way to pay it back.But the banks were unable to lend any more,and hundreds continued to fail.

Human suffering became a reality for millions of Americans as the depression continued.Many died of disease resulting from malnutrition.Thousands lost their home because they could not pay the mortgage. In 1932,at least 25,000 families,and more than 200,000 young people wandered through the country seeking food,clothing,shelter,and a job.

Many of the young people traveled in freight trains,and lived near train yards called hobo jungles.The homeless,jobless travelers obtained food from welfare agencies,or religious missions in town along the way.Most of their meals consisted of soup,beans,or stew and had very little nourishment.The travelers begged for food,or stole it if they could not get something to eat.They even ate scraps of food from garbage cans.

The ragged travelers found clothing even harder to obtain than food.Missions gave most of the clothing they had to the needy local people.Many of the travelers became very ill because they did not have food,or proper clothing.Even the sick wanders had trouble getting help because the hospitals aided local residents first.

Many people who lost their homes remained in the community.Some crowded into the home of a relative,others moved to a shabby section of town and built shacks from tin cans and old crates.Entire families would live in old rusted out car bodies,or what ever they could find.

The Great Depression ended after nations increased their production of war materials at the start of the war.This increased production provided jobs,and put large sums o money back into circulation.The depression had lasting effects on the United States government,and on many Americans.