| World War I had just ended and the
Versailles Treaty was signed in 1919. The Treaty called for Reparation
by Germany to all the European Allied Countries. Reparation is
compensation paid by a defeated country to the victor for damages or
losses suffered during a war. Germany had been ordered to pay $2 billion
dollars to the Allied Powers. The Allied powers were France, Britain and
Belgium. The United States made loans to Germany for reconstruction
purposes. This was an amount of $2.8 billion dollars. The Germans were
having a very hard time paying back the annual monies owed to the
Allies.
Great Britain and the United States
realized the troubled economy in Germany therefore offering a solution
to the Germans. The Dawes Plan was devised to lower the annual payments
of reparation. This was to enable the Germans to pull out of their
recession. The Germans could make the payments but it through them
deeper into an economical depression. The Allied Powers came together
again to offer another plan named the Young Plan. This lowered the
annual payment a great amount to prevent Germans from rebelling.
Great Britain and the United States had
made large loans to Germany to help with their reconstruction. The two
Allies wanted Germany to be peaceful and not attempt another war. This
gesture to help the Germans was supposed to make the British and
American economies stronger. Instead, it weakened the economy because
Germany could not pay their out-standing debts.
A young Hitler who served in the Bavarian
Army during WWI took full advantage of the economics of Germany. Austria
born Hitler was set against unions existing in the work place. He wanted
to establish his Nazi party but Hitler was afraid of Britain. Hitler had
experienced the British troops in actual combat and stated the complete
fallacy of the wide spread German notion that the British were a nation
of shopkeepers not to be feared on the battlefield caused the loss of
WWI.
The origin of the Nazi party actually
begins with a man named Anton Drexler whom began the German Workers’
Party. The GWP’s motto was to thwart the machinations of
"England, the world-tyrant." Hitler arranged a large meeting
of the German Workers’ Party on 04 February 1920 in Munich. This
meeting brought in 2000 members. The results of such a large meeting
caused the Party’s name to be changed to National Socialist German
Workers’ Party, the permanent name of the Nazi Party.
The German frank had fallen drastically
during the Ruhr occupation. In November of 1923 the frank was 4 trillion
to one dollar. This was the spiraling inflation that promoted the
National Socialist German Workers’ Party into strong existence. The
Party used the HIGH inflation to entice more members. This gave Hitler
the upper hand in German politics. Hitler convinced the Germans’ that
the inflation was due to the Russians and Jews. He called it a mixture
of races.
The high inflation that Germany was
experiencing plus the strong bias feelings of Hitler helped to bring the
Nazi Party into a powerful state. This was clearing the road for Hitler
to seize most of Europe.
Hitler had actually been prevented from
speaking in public from 1925 until 1928. The Nazi Party was barely
existing. The WorldWide Depression hit at the right time for Hitler.
1929 brought reformation to the Nazi Party. Germany claimed a state of
emergency allowing Hitler to become the Chancellor. Hitler went against
the Versailles Treaty by building up his army and mass-producing weapons
of war. The League of Nations made several pacts with Hitler trying to
prevent war.
Hitler was too ambitious and refused to
make the reparation payments to the Allies. The Allies began embargoes
against Germany that provoked Hitler even more. The Germans invade
Poland. |
