One major reason that caused the Nazi party to become weak was that during the time of Stresemann, everyone was kept happy and many did not complain much.
Stresemann had brought a whole new currency, the Rentenmark allowed the economy to strive. Political and economic recovery was achieved because, under Stresemann’s policies in 1924, the Dawes plan enabled Germany to extend the payment dates and arrange a longer time period for the reparations. Also, the loans from Wall Street helped Germany pay and to end inflation there were more jobs available. The country was happy that Stresemann ‘saved Germany’ because the public were better off, however this didn’t really help the Nazi party to move forward, as Hitler had seen the hyper-inflation crisis as an opportunity to gain the support of the desperate middle class. When Stresemann’s actions gave people hope and confidence, they had less reasons to vote for and stand by extremist or alternative parties-like the Nazis. In addition to this, the Locarno treaties meant that Germany had a greater sense of security because the borders were agreed on and the French occupation in the Ruhr was ended.
The people grew even more assured and hopeful when Germany achieved full freedom after they were admitted into the League of Nations in 1926. This is all meant that Germany was able to make reparation payments, keep out of war and further improve relations with other countries. People referred to these times as the ‘The Golden Days’ because there were many developments and people were glad that there wouldn’t be another war. The moderate SPD won 305 of the general election that May. This didn’t suit Hitler, at all. Although they were growing in size, the Nazi party was losing votes from lower class voters, gaining only 2.6% of the national vote of 1928. They had 12 seats that year, whereas in 1924 the Nazis had gained 32 seats.
This was a major decrease and Hitler was not happy about it and did everything he could in order to have more control after Stresemann was no longer alive to keep Germany’s state stable. In 1929 when the Great Depression was taking place in America, Hitler seemed like the perfect leader because now people were extremely desperate and worried about their future. During Stresemann’s time, everything he did really seemed to benefit the growth of Germany. However people had only turned to Hitler because it didn’t seem like there was much of a choice.
