Figure 1.--Unemployment resulting from the Deoression caused massive deprivation in Germany. Many middle-class families had savings to fall back on, but this was less true of working-class families. Here unemployed German workers and their famikies are scavanging for usable coal in a slag heap.

The Depression played an important role in the NAZI sizure of power and in the image that Hitler built in Germany once he seized power. Tragically for Germany, the most serious period of the depression followed the New York Stock Market crash (1929) through Hitler's seizure of power (1933). The impact on Germany was especially severe because the German financial situation was still fragile and depended to a great extent on the United States. Germany had an important export sector. Thus when the American and other European countries experienced an economic decline, export orders dried up. German companies began laying off workers. There were 0.7 million unemployed before the Wall Street crash (September 1928). This increased to 1.3 million (September 1929) and 3.0 million (September 1930). Most, though not all, of the unemployed were male as most married women did not work outside the home, were homemakers. These men were family men who now had no way of supporting their families. And they desperately needed money for food, coal to heat the home, clothes, and other essentials. Families were unable to pay for the bare essentials. Many middle-class families had savings to fall back on, but this was less true of working-class families. They might be able to make do for a few months, but when the Depression extended more than year and only got worse caused real desperation.

Created: 7:21 AM 7/3/2011
Last updated: 7:21 AM 7/3/2011