Another factor that helped Germany become the largest political party is the direct failure of most other political parties. With the Depression and increasing pressure of the Treaty of Versailles the political motivation and the stability of the Reichstag inevitably started to fall apart. As the gears of parliament slowed down with more difficult and pressing matters, Germany started to move away from parliamentary government to presidential government. For example in 1923 the Reichstag passed five laws in total while the President passed 66 using article 48, a bill that allowed the president to take direct powers...
Another factor that helped Germany become the largest political party is the direct failure of most other political parties. With the Depression and increasing pressure of the Treaty of Versailles the political motivation and the stability of the Reichstag inevitably started to fall apart. As the gears of parliament slowed down with more difficult and pressing matters, Germany started to move away from parliamentary government to presidential government. For example in 1923 the Reichstag passed five laws in total while the President passed 66 using article 48, a bill that allowed the president to take direct powers to get laws passed. This also caused the public to lose hope in democracy as they struggled under the depression, many looked towards more extremist movements such as the Nazi’s or communists, and in both July and November 1932 the two extremist parties who were hostile towards democracy gained the majority of the vote. Due to this member of Germany’s elite looked for alternatives to the Weimar Democracy. They are increasing realized they might have to use the mass support behind Hitler, due to his propaganda campaign that was garnering many followers to his cause, to establish a more authoritarian regime. It was simple, he needed them to get appointed and they needed his popular support to achieve their aims. The Chancellor at the time was also a particular weak opposition to the Nazis. Chancellor Bruning failed to connect with the public and had little to no contact with the press. “Even BT Editor Theodore Wolff, who had far more access to the chancellor than most journalists, spoke of Bruning’s ‘hermit-like isolation’ and encouraged him to make more effort to sell himself to the public” – Page 19, Republicans, Radicals, and the battle of images.
