When Germany was defeated in the First World War (in 1918) it caused a period of chaos which would eventually lead to Hitler. The defeat created a revolutionary situation and forced the Kaiser out of power. A new and very unstable democracy was created- the Weimar Republic. Germany's economy and society had been devastated by the war and this was greatly exacerbated by the peace treaty which it was forced to sign by the victorious allied powers (called the Versailles Treaty). Versailles forced Germany to pay huge reparations to the allied powers and also to give up quite a bit of territory and to limit its army. The treaty was economically damaging and politically humiliating and created huge resentment within Germany. At one point, when Germany could not afford to pay reparations, France even occupied part of the country. The currency totally collapsed and people literally had to take wheelbarrows of money to the shop to buy bread. So the new Weimar republic was always very unstable. There were 3 attempted communist revolutions from 1918-1923 and 2 attempted coups by the far right (one of them led by Hitler).

In the mid 20s the Weimar republic was able to stablize itself, and this created what is called the "golden age" of Weimar Germany (which only lasted a few years). It achieved stability by taking huge loans from the US which it could then use to pay the reparations. But in 1929 the Wall Street Crash happened, and this economic strategy was shattered forcing Germany into an even more terrible economic collapse than after WW1. Germany was the country most affected by the Great Depression. Unemployment was around 25% and the entire economy was collapsing. This situation caused a rise in popularity for both the far left (represented mainly by the Communist Party) and the far right (represented mainly by the Nazi party) which both proposed revolutionary solutions to the situation.

The Nazis were an extreme nationalist, facist party which had grown from being a really tiny party (of about 40 members when Hitler first joined) to a huge political force. In Hitler they had a very charismatic leader and adopted new methods of campaigning and propaganda. They argued for massive government intervention in the economy and promised that they would end unemployment by actively creating work (as Roosevelt would later do in the US). They also appealed to national sentiment. They condemned the Versailles treaty and argued that it was illegitimate and that they would entirely reject it. They openly argued that they wanted to expand Germany, win back the territory taken from it by the treaty and win more space (Lebensraum) in the east which would help build the German economy further. The Germans had only lost the first war, they claimed, because they had been betrayed by Jews and Communists who had undermined the country from within and were still doing so now. These arguments gained mass appeal and the Nazis did very well in elections. In the 1930 election the Nazis rose from about 3% to around 19% of the vote becoming the second party. The Communist Party also did well and got about 13%, they were the third party.

So as a result the traditional ruling parties of Germany lost their majority and were forced into increasingly unstable coalition governments which kept collapsing due to internal differences. None of these governments could find any solution to the economic crisis. Now the way the Weimar political system worked, there was a parliamentary system and the government was headed by a Chancellor (like a prime minister). But there was also a president who was meant to be mostly ceremonial but had powers which could be used in an emergency. The president at this time was a man called Hindenburg, a very old man, a conservative who was popular because he had been the head of the German army in WW1 and was seen as a war hero. Hindenburg now used his authority and appointed chancellors from the traditional parties to head minority governments and gave them emergency powers so they could rule by decree even though they did not have a majority in parliament.

This still did not stop the crisis however and the Nazi party was becoming more and more popular. In May 1932 Hindenburg appointed a conservative Franz Von Pappen to be chancellor who had almost no support in parliament (he did not even have a party) and resigned after only three days prompting new elections. Then in the July 1932 election The Nazis became the largest party almost doubling their support and winning around 38% of the vote. There was another election because parliament was so split in November 32 and the Nazis again became the largest party (although they lost around 4% mainly to the Communists). At this point the Left Wing were still stronger than the Nazis but they were split into two parties who could not collaborate- The Social Democratic Party and The Communist Party. The Nazis were openly committed to building a fascist dictatorship but it now became difficult to imagine any conservative government without their participation. Now Franz Von Pappen developed a plan and tried to convince Hindenburg. He believed that they could appoint Hitler as chancellor, use him to crush the left wing, but control him. He thought that if they gave Hitler some power, the conservatives could make him moderate his demands and bring him under their control. He seriously underestimated Hitler in part because he was an educated, upper class natural leader whereas he saw Hitler as an uneducated impostor. At first, he could not persuade Hindenburg who personally hated Hitler and did not trust him to bring him into the government. But by January 1933 Von Pappen persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor. This was partly motivated by personal motives and Von Pappen's desire for revenge against his former friends who he thought had destroyed his government.

So Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933. At first it was part of a coalition government and the majority were conservatives like Von Pappen (who became Vice Chancellor). But Hitler and the Nazis quickly marginalized them, gaining control of the key institutions (like the police) and pushing through repressive legislation allowing people to arrested without charge. Then in February 1933, only a month after Hitler had been named chancellor, an event happened which helped him greatly in building his dictatorship. A communist militant set fire to the German Parliament. Hitler argued that this was intended as the signal for a Communist revolution and used the public outcry to blame the Communist Party in general (in reality the Communist Party had nothing to do with the fire). He persuaded Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree criminalizing the Communist Party. This allowed the Nazis to destroy their one major competitor (the communists were the third party) and to become, overnight a majority in the German parliament. In March Hitler passed the Enabling Act which granted him emergency powers allowing him to rule by decree, essentially as a dictator. By this point Hitler's power was complete. He used the conservatives to destroy the Left Wing- criminalising the socialists, communists and trade unions. But once the left wing was destroyed there was no opposition and the conservatives themselves could do nothing to stop him.

The last independent source of power in Germany was Hindenburg but in 1934 he died. Hitler then abolished the role of president and appointed himself Reichsfuhrer, which combined the role of Chancellor and President. He now ruled basically unopposed and was free to build the Nazi dictatorship.