Lesson video

Hello everybody, and welcome back to your History lesson at Oak National Academy with me, Miss Porter.

Today's lesson is the third lesson of our enquiry, looking at why the fascists gained support during the 1920s and 1930s.

For today's lesson, please make sure you have a pen or a pencil to write with, and some paper to write on, and just to make sure that you've moved yourself away from any distractions so that you can focus on today's lesson.

Once you've done that, you'll be ready to get started and you can do so by writing down today's title, which is, The Great Depression.

In October, 1929, the USA's economy suddenly lost lots of its wealth.

This event is known as the Wall Street Crash.

As the Wall Street Crash caused the banking crisis, people rushed to the banks to withdraw their savings as they feared that they would be lost.

In this photo, you can see people in New York, queuing outside the American Union Bank.

The crash had a large impact on economies around the world.

In Germany, the Wall Street Crash caused a banking crisis and people feared they wouldn't have access to the money in their own bank accounts.

As German people rushed to get their money out, some banks in Germany, like the one pictured, ran out of cash and had to close.

This caused a general economic collapse in Germany.

Industries and farms cut back production and jobs and wages were cut.

The lack of jobs caused unemployment to rise, and by 1933, 6 million people were unemployed in Germany.

This caused an increase in homelessness as people could no longer afford to pay their rent.

This period, following the Wall Street Crash is referred to as the Great Depression.

The depression had a large impact on people's lives.

And as governments struggled to overcome the problems caused by the Wall Street Crash, people began to look to extremist fascist parties, such as the Nazi party for help.

When a member of the Nazi party was asked to recall the Great Depression in Germany, they said, "for five years, I remained unemployed and I was broken both in body and spirit and I learned how stupid were all my dreams. I was not wanted by Germany.

Then I was introduced to Hitler.

Life for me took on a tremendous new significance.

I committed myself body, soul, and spirit to the movement." This individual explains that they felt unwanted by Germany as they were not given the support or a job.

However, they explained that Hitler and the Nazi party offered a solution.

In today's lesson, we're going to find out how the Great Depression caused support for fascism to grow in Germany.

And as you can see from our timeline, fascism had already started to gain support in Italy during the 1920s.

However, the Wall Street Crash caused support to grow in other countries in the 1930s and during the period before the start of world war II.

In Italy, Mussolini had been in power since 1922 and was actually one of the few European leaders who maintained power during the great depression through his strong leadership and control over the Italian nation.

Having previously looked at Italy, we will be focusing this lesson on the rise of fascism in Germany.

Now, as life became more difficult during the 1930s, moderate parties failed to solve the economic problems people were facing in Germany.

Therefore some people began to look to extremist parties to overcome their problems. Remember that extremist parties do not support democracy.

After a long campaign for democracy in Europe, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and throughout world war one, people were now turning their backs on democratic parties in support of more extreme, anti-democracy parties as they offered solutions to the economic problems they were facing.

This led to increase support for both the communists and the fascists.

To help us understand the rise in support for extremist parties, We can refer back to the political spectrum we looked at in your previous two lessons.

Remember that in the middle of the spectrum, are parties with more moderate or less extreme beliefs.

Generally speaking, those on the left side of the spectrum, strive for a much more equal society and believe that the government should play a large part in people's lives to achieve this.

On the extreme left, you can see communism.

This is the belief that everybody should be equal.

During the Great Depression, workers were hit hardest by growing unemployment and falling wages.

As a result, workers were more likely to support the communists as the communist promised to share wealth and make everyone equal.

Therefore, between 1928 and 1932, the German communist party gained an additional 1 million voters.

And many of these voters were working class.

Generally speaking, those on the right wing of the political spectrum, believed that a certain level of social inequality is unavoidable and that the government should play a limited or lesser role in people's lives.

On extreme right, you can see fascism.

And this is a more extreme belief as fascist we're anti-democracy, but also anti-communism.

During the 1930s, the German communist party campaigned to gain additional votes.

The image on the right is an election poster from 1932, and the wording can be translated to say, "away with the system." I'd like you to pause the video here and think about the answers to the following questions.

What can you see in this poster and what is the message of this poster? You can then resume the video when you're ready.

Okay, welcome back everybody and well done.

So you may have thought that in this image you can see a large figure in red, who looks like a worker.

He is holding up his fist as if to hit it downwards towards a table of people below.

These people look like look wealthy and powerful dressed in suits and top hats.

Well done if you noticed any of those things.

As for the message of this poster, this poster was used by the communists to spread their message that the workers should end the current political system.

The people around the table are meant to represent the German politicians who formed the government.

Therefore this poster was made to encourage workers to support the communist party in Germany, to overcome the current government.

On the other end of the political spectrum, the middle classes and landowners were more likely to support the fascists as they offered to protect wealth and restore the German economy.

The idea of a communist government scared many of the middle and upper classes, as they did not want their money or land to be confiscated.

Therefore, the middle classes and upper classes tended to support the Nazi party, as Hitler promised to overcome Germany's economic problems. Hitler was also a strong leader of a disciplined party.

He promised to restore law and order, following the rise in criminal activity during the Great Depression.

In the picture on the right, you can see members of the SA or brown shirts, the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party.

The SA made the Nazi seem reliable and disciplined, during the turmoil of the early 1930s.

Therefore, some people began to support the Nazi party as they seemed capable of preventing unrest and strengthening Germany.

The image on the right is a Nazi election campaign poster from 1932.

The wording can be translated to saying, "our last hope- Hitler." Again, I'd like you to now pause the video here and think about the answers to the following questions.

What can you see in this poster? And what do you think is the message of this poster? You can then resume the video, when you're ready.

Okay, welcome back and well done.

Hopefully, you may have thought that in this image, there are a range of people.

Some look like workers, one is a woman holding a child.

another looks slightly mobile off.

Some are dressed in a shirt and tie, yet some are wearing hats, and some are in slightly more worn clothing.

Well done if you pointed out any of those things.

As for the message of this poster, this poster was used by the Nazis to spread their appeal to more people within society.

The wording, "Our last hope" suggests that the Nazi party were the only party capable of overcoming Germany's problems. This poster is not aimed at simply the middle and upper class Germans.

Instead, it was made to appeal to ordinary German citizens, in order to gain more votes.

During this period, support for the Nazi party grew faster than support for the communists, as the Nazi party, also targeted workers, farmers, and young people with there campaign posters.

So, why did the fascist gain support during the Great Depression? Well, as you have seen, some German people believed the current government had failed them and had not offered a solution to Germany economic problems. Therefore they began to vote for extremist parties, such as the fascists.

People also look to blame someone for their problems. And the Nazi party often blamed the government, and even the communists for some of the turmoil caused during the Great Depression, causing people to reconsider, whether they would fight for them.

Many people want a strong leadership and a promise of a better future.

Both of which were offered by Hitler and the Nazi party.

And lastly, Some people believed the fascists were better than the alternative parties.

So even though the Nazi party, were anti-democratic, some people felt that they were the best party to support, given their other options.

So, to check your understanding of the lesson so far, I'd like you to answer the following question.

What impact did the Great Depression have on politics in Germany? You can use my sense of style to help you structure your answer if needed.

and so pause the video here, complete the task and resume the video to check your work when you're ready.

Okay, welcome back, everybody.

And well done for completing your answers.

I've written an example, answer for you here.

Remember my work may be a little different to yours, which is absolutely fine.

What you're looking for, is have some of the same examples and some of the key words I've used in your answer.

But don't worry if yours is phrased a little differently.

So, I have written that the Great Depression made it more likely for people to vote for extreme parties in Germany, as they promised to restore the economy.

Workers were more likely to vote for communists, as they wanted to share wealth and make everybody equal.

Whereas the middle class were more likely to vote for fascists, as they promised to protect their wealth and restore Germany.

So if needed, you can pause the video now to check for your answer and make any changes if necessary.

If not, you can continue on with the video and again, very well done for your answers.

So in three years after the Wall Street Crash, the Nazi party, became the largest party in Germany in 1932, with 30% of the votes to the German parliament.

Hitler who had been influenced by Mussolini and Italian fascism became the leader of Germany in 1933, after being made chancellor.

Thus demonstrating how much support, fascist ideas had gained during the great depression.

In a minute or, so you'll complete today's reading to answer these questions here.

So, firstly, when did the Wall Street Crash occur? Second question asks, what impact did the Wall Street Crash have on Germany? The third question asks, why did the communist party gain support during the Great Depression? The fourth question asks, which groups of people supported the Nazi party during the Great Depression? So which social groups were most likely to vote for them, and your challenge question is what fascists beliefs that the Nazi party have.

So what similarities do we see between Nazi beliefs and other fascist beliefs? So you can now pause the video, open a worksheet and complete today's questions.

There is a glossary to provide you with some definitions of the key words, if needed.

And once you're finished, you can return to the video to check through your answers.

Okay, welcome back everybody, and very well done for completing those questions.

So we'll now go through these answers together.

Remember that my answers may different to yours, which is absolutely fine.

You may want to pause the video after each question to tick through your work or to make any changes if necessary.

So the first question asked, when did the Wall Street Crash occur? An acceptable answer is October, 1929, and a good answer will put this into full sentences, such as the Wall Street Crash occurred in October, 1929.

The second question asked, what impact did the Wall Street Crash have on Germany? So you could have put that it caused the economy to collapse.

A good answer could be, the Wall Street Crash caused a banking crisis in Germany, which caused the economy to collapse.

As a result, a period of economic instability followed where many people lost their jobs, wages were cut and homelessness increased.

So the good answers, give in some examples of the impact that it had in Germany.

The third question asked why did the communist party gain support during the Great Depression? So you could have said that workers thought they would protect their jobs.

A good answer, again is going to put this into full sentences, such as, one reason why the communist party gained support during the Great Depression was because they believed in sharing wealth and making everyone more equal.

This appealed to the working class who believed the communists would defend their rights and wages against employers.

The fourth question asks, which groups of people supported the Nazi party during the Great Depression? Now you've got a few acceptable answers you could have here, so you can have the middle classes, landowners, leaders of big business, even students.

A good answer would be that the middle classes, landowners and leaders of big businesses supported the Nazi party during the Great Depression as Hitler promised to protect their wealth and restore the economy.

And your challenge question today asked, what fascist beliefs did the Nazi party have? So a couple of acceptable answers here.

You could have said that they were anti-communist or anti-democracy.

So a good answer again, will put this into full sentences, such as, the Nazi party shared some fascist beliefs.

For example, both the Nazis and the fascists were anti-communist and anti-democracy.

Both groups also believed in nationalism and the strengthening of the nation.

So you may want to spend a few minutes now adding some extra detail to your answers.

If so, you can pause the video here and well done for completing those questions.

We are now going to return to our enquiry question, which is why did fascists gain support? To do this, I'd like you to write a paragraph answering this question.

Why did the Great Depression cause support for the fascist to grow? You can use the table below to help you.

So on the left hand column, you can see some sentence starters, that I've given to help you start your answer.

On the right hand column, I've given you some key words I'd like to see you use in your paragraphs.

I would aim to provide at least two reasons why the Great Depression caused support for the fascist grow, but to challenge yourself, it would be excellent if you could include a third reason.

So pause the video here, complete your paragraphs and resume when you're ready.

Okay, well done everybody for competing your paragraphs and welcome back to the lesson.

To conclude, we're going to quickly look at what you've covered so far in this enquiry.

So for the past three lessons, we have looked at the nature of fascism and why people began to support fascism in the 1920s, and now following the Wall Street Crash in 1929.

In your next and final lesson of this enquiry, you will look at why the fear of communism, caused the fascists to gain support in Spain, Italy, and Germany.

So you've now completed today's lesson.

Thank you all so much for your hard work and really well done for completing both your questions and your paragraphs today.

Please now complete the end of the lesson quiz to check your understanding, and I look forward to teaching you in the final lesson of our enquiry soon.