Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power (Part III - 1929-1933)

This is the third segment of a three part lecture on Hitler’s Rise to Power. PART ONE: PART TWO: This is the third part of my lecture series on Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, focusing on the effect that the Great Depression had in transforming Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party (NSDAP) from a minor fringe party to a major contender for political power. While the Nazi Party gained popularity in the wake of the Depression, so did the Communist Party. Fear of communism helped Hitler to win over business leaders and leaders of centrist and right wing parties, who feared the possibility of a leftist coalition between the Communists and the Social Democrats. President Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. When the Reichstag caught fire in 1933, Hitler used the incident to blame the Communists for the incident (although even to this day, no o