Overview Under the peace terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany's first democracy began its fourteen year life facing territorial losses, reparations to the victors of World War I and stringent limitations on its military. Political violence from those on the Right who wanted a return to the monarchy and those on the Left who wanted a soviet-style regime repeatedly threatened the moderate socialist government through 1923. Ongoing issues with the payment of reparations fuelled the hyperinflation of 1923 that impoverished many Germans and left them bitter enemies of the Republic. A period of relative political and economic stability that lasted until the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 was followed by the rapid growth of parties on the extremes – the Communists on the Left and the Nazis on the Right – that left the Reichstag (parliament) all but unable to function. In quick succession, four chancellors tried and failed to govern by decree before President Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler chancellor in 1933. In only a few months he had turned the Republic into a Nazi dictatorship.
Overview Under the peace terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany's first democracy began its fourteen year life facing territorial losses, reparations to the victors of World War I and stringent limitations on its military. Political violence from those on the Right who wanted a return to the monarchy and those on the Left who wanted a soviet-style regime repeatedly threatened the moderate socialist government through 1923. Ongoing issues with the payment of reparations fuelled the hyperinflation of 1923 that impoverished many Germans and left them bitter enemies of the Republic. A period of relative political and economic stability that lasted until the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 was followed by the rapid growth of parties on the extremes – the Communists on the Left and the Nazis on the Right – that left the Reichstag (parliament) all but unable to function. In quick succession four chancellors tried and failed to govern by decree before President Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler chancellor in 1933. In only a few months he had turned the Republic into a Nazi dictatorship.