You cant attribute one reason for Hitler gaining power, especially one that is not even true. Hitler was elected to power, but not because of the problems due to Raymond Poin Carie's invasion of the Ruhr. What you must remember is that Stresseman helped to recover Germany's economy during the Ruhr period by introducing the Rentenmark and by signing the Dawes Plan etc. That is why the 'Golden Twenties' followed that. Germany had solved its problems, it was recovering.Hitler got elected because France hold the Ruhrgebied after the First world war. People were starving because of payments they had to give to France and England.
But that all changed on one terrible day in 1929. Im talking about the Wall Street Crash. That changed everything. Stresseman had died, and the economy crashed. Elections came and the people were looking towards someone with extreme measures and big promises. That person was Hitler. That is the main reason why he got elected to power. Of course, there were many other reasons, and Hitler did not immediately gain power. But he did not gain power because of the Ruhr. The main impact of the Ruhr and reparations and the whole Treaty of Versailles was that it made a lot of Germans hate the French, British, Americans even more. In terms of crippling Germany, it failed.
Thats not true. Even before he was waging war his people were saying how greatly the economy had improved under him. They would say phrases such as 'Hitler has taken away our freedom. Our freedom to starve.'There was no decent bone in that man's body, he, the same as Stalin, used the SS to oppress the people into voting for him.
He got into office by manipulation, and stayed there by indoctrination and oppression. He basically build a country that can only survive on warfare, how would that make a stable economy when you dont assault another nation?
Wilson wasnt that great either. He was far too idealistic, and his solutions were often impractical. If Clemencau or Lloyd George had tried to help the Germans in such a way, their people at home would have launched huge protests and kicked them out of office. The only way the people could get elected was by saying stuff like 'We shall squeeze the Germans till the pips squeek, and then squeeze again!' The again, Lloyd George was more reasonable than Clemencau. Clemencau ideally wanted Germany divided into lots of little states, with no armies!They rejected most of Wilson's 14 Points, which should surely have led to a more stable Europe, and kept trying to drive the nail in, when there were already several in place.
Anyway, in summary, people often present a simplified account of the events leading up to World War II. There were in fact two periods of economic problems. There was hyper inflation during the invasion of the Ruhr and then there was recovery. Then there was the Great Depression (due to the Wall St Crash) and that is when Hitler came to power.
Of course, I havent mentioned stuff like the Kapp Putsch or the Spartacist Uprising that happened before 1920. I should however mention the Beer Hall Putsch aka The Munich Putsch. Hitler got put in prison for it during 1924. So 1923 was the year of the occupation of the Ruhr. The hyper inflation happened during that 1923-24 period. Hitler tried to sieze power then, but failed and was imprisoned. So for those of you who thought that was what lead to Hitler coming to power, you are wrong. Hitler obviously couldnt have been elected then - he was in prison. It was only in 1933 that he was able to sieze power, after the Great Depression.
You may be wondering why it took so long for him to gain power. After all, the depression was in 1929. That is because his ascent to power wasnt simple. There were a whole series of elections and problems. Von Papen, Schleicher, Bruning were all involved. Eventually Hitler got it. But he only acheived true power when Hindenburg died. He then proclaimed himself as Fuhrer.




Reply With Quote