The Great Depression: What Caused It and How it Ended

4. The U.S. Depression's Effect on Germany in the 1930s

Many historians point to the Great Depression and the dramatic impact it had on Germany's economy as paving the way for Adolph Hitler to take power by the mid-1930s. Already a polarizing figure in German politics, Hitler decried the 30 percent unemployment rate in Germany and blamed it on the existing Social Democratic Party. Although Hitler lost the presidential election in 1932, he developed a Reichstag majority of followers quickly following the election. He officially became dictator of Germany in 1935.

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