Why was Hitler able to dominate Germany by 1934? The Nazi regime: How effectively did the Nazis control Germany, 1933-45? The Nazi regime: What was it like to live in Nazi Germany?

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Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start?

-- How did Germany emerge from defeat at the end of the First World War?

Germany lost the First World War. People felt let down, and the army and navy were tired of fighting. There was a shortage of food, and in addition, the Kaiser soon abdicated, and fled to Holland.

When the country was in the depths of despair, the largest political party called the Social Democrats stood up. Few leaders led the party. Among them, Philipp Scheidmann, who proclaimed that Germany was now a democratic republic. Germany no longer had a Kaiser, but instead a chancellor who was to be elected. The voting system used proportional representation, which counted the number of seats each party had, depending on the number of votes.

--What was the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on the Republic?

The Treaty of Versailles was an agreement stating that Germany was responsible for the damages of WWI, and had to pay the reparation (costs of war).

In 1921, Germany had to pay £6,600 million. Since Germany had little money, the government had to raise the prices of goods, causing hyperinflation.

The hyper inflation caused prices to become very high. People could no longer buy products, and the country could not make money. In 1921, the French invaded the Ruhr (part of Rhineland) to collect the reparations since Germany was unable to pay its dues. The currency collapsed, and caused money to become worthless. Eventually, many people lost their jobs.

The government became more and more unpopular, and appeared to be very weak, because it was unable to deal with the nation's problems. Using this unpopularity of the government, the right-wing made the Kapp Putsch (1920) and the Munich Putsch (1923) in order to change Germany and...