Throughout the late 1920’s, politics in Germany were dominated by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which operated on a platform of democratic socialism which should be pretty fricking obvious given the name, and a coalition of centrist and conservative parties. Now given that neither of these groups really saw eye to eye, and neither was able to gain or maintain power consistently over the other, the German government really didn’t do all that much during this period. However, nobody really seemed to care all that much because the economy was booming, and though the rich were definitely taking more than their fair share, overall everyone was doing better than they had previously. Of course, that all ended with the start of the Great Depression in 1929, when people suddenly got real tired real quick of their government not doing shit. This proved quite beneficial to what had previously been considered more fringe parties, most notably the German Communist Party and a little known group called the National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as the Nazis.
Now at the time, Germany operated under a rather complicated system of government with all sorts of fun names which we are going to completely ignore because fuck that noise. The basics of it was there was a parliament led by a Chancellor who did most of the legislating, and a President whose main role was to command the military, issue edicts as needed in times of emergency, and order a new parliamentary election when parliament proved itself unable to do shit. Germany’s president was a corpulent old conservative general by the name of Paul von Hindenburg, who was less than pleased when the economy began to spiral downward out of control and parliament collapsed into a bunch of squabbling nitwits who refused to compromise in any way to solve the very real issues facing the country. Not having many tools at his disposal, Hindenburg solved this little problem by forcing the old SPD Chancellor to resign, replacing him with a conservative chap named Heinrich Bruning. This move was right up Hindenburg’s alley given that he dreamed of someday restoring the monarchy and the SPD was the main group involved in its overthrow back in 1918. However, this move was less than popular given that parliament usually elected its own Chancellor, but given it was an emergency and all, Hindenburg could do pretty much whatever the hell he wanted according to the German constitution. Unfortunately, Bruning had no more luck than his predecessor getting parliament to do shit, and as a result, he eventually requested Hindenburg dissolve parliament so there could be new elections, which Hindenburg promptly did in 1930. That’s when the shit really started to hit the fan.
At this point in time, Germany had only been a functioning democracy for thirteen years, having been ruled by various monarchs prior to the end of World War I. While the majority of parliament was run by pro-democracy parties, there were several prominent parties who supported a return to the monarchy. Communism was also seen as a viable alternative at the time, with the German Communist party regularly getting over 10 percent of the vote despite its entire platform being dismantle the government in favor of a socialist dictatorship. Given this, it should come as less of a surprise that the Nazis managed to rise to prominence.
By 1931, the Nazi party had existed for eleven years. However, most of its early days were as a paramilitary organization which infamously failed in an attempted coup, resulting in its leader, Adolf Hitler, being sent to prison for a year or two. Surprisingly, such shenanigans didn’t spell the end of the Nazis. However, it is worth noting that the Communist party had at one point also tried to overthrow the government, and they continued to be a political party as well, so all in all Germans seemed okay with such things. Anyways, after getting out of prison, Hitler set to work throughout the late 1920’s converting his band of racist thugs into a viable political party. As far as political parties went, they had a bit of something for everyone. While they were most certainly traditionalist, racist, autocratic, and militaristic, they were also anti-big business and supporters of enhanced social programs. Similar to the Communist party, the Nazis wanted a socialist dictatorship, with the added twist of saying fuck off to anyone who wasn’t German. This combination of conservative and liberal platforms proved surprisingly popular with the German people, especially amongst the lower middle class, small business owners, public servants, and teachers. However, despite this growing popularity, the Nazis got less than 3 percent of the vote in the 1928 election.
The Great Depression is what really turned the Nazi party from being a random bunch of asshats into a competitive political party. Widespread unemployment and business failures, and the inability of the government to do jack shit, led to many people looking for alternatives. Unfortunately, many people landed on the Nazis. Hitler largely utilized rhetoric focused on making Germany great again, and blaming outsiders for Germany’s problems, especially the Jewish people. Antisemitism wasn’t a new thing in Germany, but the Nazis made it a focus of everything wrong in the country. Though Jews made up less than 1 percent of the population, they had an out sized role in large businesses and at universities. This made them a target for people who needed someone to blame for the economic downturn. As a result, the Nazis became the second largest political party in the country after the 1930 election.