Date of Award
7-1936
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
First Advisor
Ernest Mahan
Keywords
Germany, History, 1918-1933, Politics and government
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine why the liberal government established in Germany under the Weimar Constitution failed, and why the German people again submitted themselves to a government more autocratic and far less inclined to regard individual rights than that established under the Hohenzollerns.
The study has shown that serious weakness in the Constitution and in its administration contributed to the overthrow of the Republic organized under it.
Universal enfranchisement empowered the embittered youth and the emotional women to se their votes to overthrow the very government which granted that franchise.
Proportional representation with its peculiar system of nomination by filling regional and national lists of candidates, and the practice of voting for the party instead of the candidate, prevent all personal contact between the candidate and his constituency and resulted in his having little interest in their wishes.
the multiplicity of parties compelled the formation of coalition ministries which prevented the execution of vigorous party programs.
The study has further shown that the impoverishment of Germany by the War and the Treaty of Versailles, and of its great middle class by the unwise policy of currency inflation, contributed in no small degree to revolt against the Republic; that all these unfortunate conditions were further aggravated by the World Depression; and that while the young Republic was struggling under all these adverse circumstance to uphold the banner of liberal government, the Allies offered no sympathy and no help.
Conditions were propitious for an unscrupulous agitator to work upon the enfranchised masses, poison their minds against the government in existence at the time of their great misery, use the machinery of a free government to climb to supreme power, and on its attainment, destroy that government and boldly proclaim to Germany and the world that henceforth his will is to be the will of Germany.
Recommended Citation
Crawford, James Elmer, "Factors in post-war Germany contributing to Hitler's rise to power" (1936). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 713.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/713
