In the 1900s there were a lot of single party states.

Most of these single party states

came to power when it was a time of crisis. Hitlers Nazi Germany is no different.
Hitler's rise to power can be examined by multiple different factors.
Around the time Hitler came to power, the Weimar republic was in crisis. The
Weimar republic was in crisis. There were three different types of crisis: political,
economic and social. Political crisis in the Weimar republic included the weakness of
the Weimar constitution. The constitution tried to establish a free government. It
allowed everybody over 21 to vote, it also allowed states to establish their own
government and the constitution also allowed proportional representation. All these
ideas look very good in hindsight. However at the time, it was a radical and
unprecedented change for the German people. It not only rattled the German
people but it also gave the enemies of the state a voice. This was a godsend for the
extremist parties as they now had not only the ability to vote but due to
proportional representation had a voice in the Reichstag. There was also crisis in the
economy of Germany. In the treaty of Versailles, the reparations were set at 33
billion US dollars. Germany at the time had no way of paying back this large amount
of money. The response from Germany was to print more money so they could pay
back the hefty amount of reparations. This caused hyperinflation and weakened the
economy. Another part of the Treaty of Versailles that weakened the German
economy was the giving away of the Ruhr to the French. The Ruhr was a piece of
extremely profitable land that the French. The Ruhr was a heavily industrialized area
of Western Germany and it is the centre of Germanys manufacturing industry. So
when France took the Ruhr, the economy took a massive hit and not only that but
many people became jobless which led to even more social unrest which leads us to
the other and last type of crisis, social crisis. By weakening the economy and
increasing the percentage of the unemployed, it made the public become even
more mad at the Weimar republic. This caused social unrest and allowed parties like
the Nazis to gain a foothold in the publics mind by saying they would be able to
create jobs and publicize the fact that they would be able to solve all their
problems. This social crisis contributed to the rise of the Nazi party. All these crisis
contributed to the rise of the Nazi party as throughout all these crises the Nazi
party. However other parties all faced the same crisis yet none of them managed to
capitalize on this crisis either. This could be due to either Hitlers strengths and
ability to adapt to these incoming crisis and also the weakness of the opposing
parties and their inability to change their policies to fit the context of the times.
Another factor that contributed to the rise of power for Hitler. This factor was the
strength of Hitler himself. Even throughout the crisis of the Weimar republic Hitler
managed to adapt to his policies and change his tactics and attitudes to suit
whatever the situation needed. One such example was how after years of not
recognizing the Weimar Republic. Hitler, after being released from prison as the
aftermath of the Munich Putsch, changed all the tactics of the party. They started
contesting elections and gaining the public support via legal methods rather than

trying to take over Germany with an armed rebellion. This shows the strength of
Hitler as he could see the change coming and changed how all of the party tactics
and overhauled their image. Another example of Hitlers strength is how he rose
from obscurity to lead the Nazi party. In his early years Hitler was given no chances
in life and he was somebody with no aims. However just by sheer brute force of
personality he managed to change the whole party around and make them a
prominent force in the Reichstag. This shows his strength as it tells us historians
that of how determined he was once he had latched onto an ideology and grew with
it. Therefore it was Hitlers personal strength that allowed the Nazi party to rise to
power. However, the other parties also slipped when it came to allowing the Nazi
party came to power. It was not just Hitlers strength that allowed the Nazi party
came to power as the other parties had to have seen the trends coming if Hitler saw
it too. The reason that the opposition parties did not see the change coming points
towards the weakness of the other parties leading to the rise of the Nazi party. Yet
there is evidence showing that Hitlers strengths were the real driving force behind
the rise of the Nazi party.
Other parties in the Germany all saw the same things as Hitler and his Nazi party.
Yet nearly all of the parties did not try to stop the rise of the Nazis. For example, in
the Reichstag, the KPD (Communist party of Germany) and the SPD (Social
Democratic party of Germany) could have joined together and formed a majority.
However they did not because of clashes of ideology between their two parties. In
hindsight this may seem trivial, but at the time communism, while it ticked all the
boxes as an extremist party promising to fix all the problems, was still feared by the
society. So the Social Democratic party could be forgiven for not wanting to join
forces with an unpopular party. A stupid decision in hindsight but a decision
nonetheless. Another event that could have stopped the Nazi partys rise was if Von
Papen, the chancellor of Germany at the time, wanted to send in the army to force
the politicians to pass laws. This could have done away with the parties and would
have put a definitive stop on Hitlers rise to power. However, at the time the size of
the army was constrained by Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was not
the only thing holding back Von Papen but he also feared he would accidentally start
a civil war. This was a lose-lose scenario for everybody involved if a civil war broke
out. Therefore, it was mostly the weakness of the opposition that allowed Hitler to
rise to power, with a little help from the Treaty of Versailles. However, while the
Treaty of Versailles played a small role in the thinking of the opposition parties, it
still played a role when the opposition were thinking of ways to combat Hitler. Yet, if
any of the actions listed above did happen then that stops Hitler right in his tracks
and there is no way the Third Reich ever comes to fruition and the genocide and
atrocities never happen. So opposition weakness may have indeed played a part in
Hitlers rise to power.
The rise to power of Hitler was marred with controversy. Intentionalist historians all
argue that it was mainly because of Hitlers qualities that allowed the Nazi party to
come to power. The opposite school of thinking is the structuralists perspective. The

structuralists think that context played the greater part in the Nazis rise to power. I
personally agree with this view as I believe that it was mostly due to the crisis in
Germany that allowed the Nazi party to come to power. The crisis that enveloped
the Weimar republic undoubtedly allowed Hitler to rise to power through the Nazi
party.