Great Depression lead to rise of Hitler

Without the effects of the Great Depression on the nation of Germany, Adolf Hitler

and the Nazi party would not have been able to seize control of the nation. When the stock

market collapsed on Wall Street on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it sent financial markets

worldwide into a tailspin with disastrous effects. The German economy was especially

vulnerable since it was built out of foreign capital, mostly loans from America and was very

dependent on foreign trade. When those loans were suddenly discontinued and the world

market for German exports dried up, the German industry quickly ground to a halt. As

production levels fell, German workers were laid off. Along with this, banks failed throughout

Germany. Savings accounts, the result of years of hard work, were instantly wiped out.

Inflation soon followed making it hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with

devalued money. Overnight, the middle class standard of living so many...