g of the unions, the endorsement of traditional values and the promise to crush Marxism was at the very centre of Hitlers success.2In addition, very many powerful groups preferred to lend their support to the opposite extreme, namingly, the NSDAP. Moreover, Hitler managed in transmitting his party as having the dual attraction of offering radical solutions to economic problems while upholding patriotic values. He seemingly promised something to everyone and the German people, thus responded to him as he had foreshadowed. Nonetheless, the Nazis still did not succeed in retaining more than thirty seven per cent of the vote. In November 1932 Hitler lost an additional thirty four seats. However, in as much as the acting president (von Hindenburg) allowed himself to be convinced by generals and right-wing politicians that only the Nazi leader could restore order in Germany, in the following year leadership was passed to him nonetheless. Hindenburg, according to his lights, was a good President, at least until extreme old age rendered him helpless in the hands of his advisers.3 Accordingly, Hitler was made Germanys fifteenth post war Chancellor in January 1933. At this stage Germans had scarce knowledge of what the future under the rule of Hitler would mean or eventuate in. However, Hitler lost no time in a founding a harsh totalitarian state known as the third Reich which he enforced within a mere month of his appointment. The results were the destruction of a modern civilized society that turned crisis into catastrophe, bringing the democracy of Weimar to its end; its ultimate conclusion devastating the whole of Europe.7 In conclusion, when assessing the reasons for the failure of the Weimar Republic and the ascent of the NSDAP to power, one has to make various considerations; for these events occurred as a result of a plurality of factors. Perhaps the most important factor was the economic crises which befell the Republic in 1923 and again...
