Hitler's Audacious Plan to Seize Power

In 1927, German manufacturing was at its postwar high: twenty-two percent above what it had been in 1913. In September 1928 Germany had 650,000 unemployed. In the wake of the great fall of prices on the U.S. stockmarket, lenders from the U.S. gave Germany ninety days to start repayment. By September 1930 Germany's unemployment had risen to 3,000,000. By 1930 Germany's manufacturing had fallen seventeen percent from that 1927 level. [note] Bankruptcies were increasing. Farmers were hurting. Some in the middleclass feared sliding into the lower class. And some in the middleclass blamed the economic decline on unemployed people being unwilling to work -- while hunger was widespread.

According to Stalinist dogma, a crisis in capitalism and its attendant suffering was supposed to produce a rise in class consciousness among working people and to advance revolution. The Communist Party in Germany did find a little more support, but, rather than Germany moving to the kind of revolution that Communists yearned for, Hitler and the Fascists, campaigning against Communism, were gaining strength.

In 1930 the parliamentary coalition that governed Germany fell apart, and new elections were held. The biggest winner in these elections was Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party. From twelve seats in parliament they increased their seats to 107, becoming Germany's second largest political party. The largest party was still the Social Democrats, and this party won 143 seats and 24.5 percent of the vote. Communist Party candidates won 13.1 percent of the vote (roughly 50 times better than the U.S. Communist Party did in 1932 elections), and together the Social Democrats and the Communists were large enough to claim the right to make a government. But Communists and the Social Democrats remained hostile toward one another. The Comintern at this time was opposed to Communists working with reformers, and the Communists believed that a collapse of parliamentary government would hasten the revolutionary crisis that would propel them to power.