The Depression Helps the Nazis Rise in Germany
Mass unemployment turns a fringe party into the largest in the Reichstag
Quick facts
- German unemployed, 1932
- 6 million of about 60 million people
- Nazi vote, September 1930
- 18 percent, second-largest party
- Nazi vote, July 1932
- 37 percent, largest party
- Consequence
- Hitler appointed chancellor, January 1933
What happened
The worldwide depression that began in October 1929 hit Germany almost at once, as American loans that had propped up the Weimar economy were called in. By 1932, 6 million Germans were unemployed in a nation of about 60 million. The Nazi party, an unpopular fringe movement in the 1928 election, exploited the crisis: in September 1930 it won 18 percent of the vote to become the second-largest party in parliament, and on July 31, 1932, with unemployment far higher, it won 37 percent to become the largest party. Chancellor Heinrich Bruning had by then taken to ruling by emergency decree, and the Weimar Republic's parliamentary system was breaking down.
Why it matters
The German case is the sharpest example of the Depression's political cost. Economic collapse and mass unemployment drained support from the moderate parties and drove voters toward the extremes, and it was against that background that Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933. The link between the economic crisis and the fall of German democracy is one of the reasons the Depression is treated as a cause of the Second World War.
How we know
The German unemployment figures are documented by Facing History and Ourselves, and the Nazi party's electoral rise from 18 percent in 1930 to 37 percent in July 1932 is documented by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia.
Sources
- Facing History and Ourselves. A New Economic Crisis · General sourcefacinghistory.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match).
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Rise to Power, 1918-1933 · Reputable sourceencyclopedia.ushmm.org · The domain "encyclopedia.ushmm.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- History of Germany → · The Depression's role in the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi seizure of power is traced in full in the History of Germany timeline.