Germany's Economy Dbq

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During the interwar period, Germany’s economy grew worse and worse, arousing anger among the entire German population. Hitler saw this discontent, and used the failing economy to incite nationalism among his people, propelling him to power and war. Germany’s failed economy is arguably the result of aggressive reparations set on them by the Treaty of Versaille. Following WWI, the Allied forces agreed Germany was responsible “for all the damage done to the civilian population of the Allied and Associated Powers and to their property” [Doc 1]. This responsibility forced Germany into massive debt, as they had to pay large sums of money while their economy was still in ruins from the war. This plight initially led to the weakened economy described …show more content…

Hitler states that the only way for Germans to “be liberated from the danger of...being enslaved in service to others” is to “rally the German people …show more content…

The continued downfall of the once great nation allowed Hitler to further rally his people against his enemies. At this time, Germany was dying; “whole families had piled their goods into baby carriages...they plodded forward in dumb despair” [doc 4]. This immense poverty extended throughout Germany, as Heinrich Hauser described the families as “a whole nation on the march”, emphasizing that all of Germany was in the same position of poverty. Furthermore, this poverty was so horrific people began looting potato fields, pushing Hauser to describe the situation as worse than the starvation during WWI, as “even then people paid for the potatoes” [doc 4]. This new low for Germany allowed Hitler to more aggressively push his hateful rhetoric to the people. As seen in doc 3, in which a Jewish worm eats away at “the German economy”, Hitler began pushing hateful propaganda to fuel anger among the German population. Hitler took advantage of Germany’s economic downfall to provoke hatred towards his enemies, specifically jews, through nationalism. He had identified Jews as being the ones who were causing this death of Germany, and thus made it the German people's national duty to defend their nation and crush the Jews. This desire of the German people to save their nation from poverty, and revive it to its once great state, fueled a wave of nationalism to sweep across