democratic forces in germany (1 Viewer)

[bellea013]

This is our next assessment essay quesiton:

Account for the failure of the democratic forces in Germany to stop the Nazis rise to power.

Im actually really struggling with it - my basic arguement so far is that the democratic forces were weaker than the nazi party, and therefore unable to stop it.

To back this up, im explaining why the democratic forces were weak (no tradition of democracy, opposition from within - judges/army/civil service, result of difficult events like hyperinflation, great depression, how these difficult events turned people away from democracy, how hitler was helped over the last few democratic forces and how everntually the people chose hitler)

I think im going in circles and not answering the question...does anyone have any structuring ideas??

 

[rama_v]

Ok firstly it says account for, so basically its asking for reasons why democratic forces were unable to counter the nazis. There are a number of schools of thought. You could say that the Nazi party was very strong and had the support of the population (which is ok but not completely true IMO -> Nazis only ever had 37% of the vote and their popularity was sliding when Hitler was given power), you could argue that it was the result of Hindenburg and the political maneouvring that occurred, basically sislencing all democratic opposition as Germany was ruled by a few powerful elites (which is what I would say), and the inherent constitutional and economic troubles which limited the power of the democratic forces within Germany. When combined these factors spelt doom to the Weimar government because when trouble emerged they didnt have the support from teh army to quell opposition (look into the role of the generals here and how they undermined the democratic system) and also the system of government didnt allow them to tackle crisis because of proportional representation. As you said also look into the underlying factors such as lack of tradition and the role of the judges/civil service, this tended to breed a dislike of the Weimar republic.

In terms of structuring I would suggest you first look at the democratic forces in germany, then look at how the system undermined their effectiveness, and then look at the support for the extremist parties...

Basically what Im telling you is that yes, your on the right track, dont worry too much