The Economic Necessities that Drove the Nazis into Power

The Nazis came to power not out of sheer political will, but as an effect of underlying economic causes. The material we're drawing on suggests that the rise of fascism and the success of fascism as a political entity were driven by the economic history of modern industrial capitalism. The Nazis emerged as a response to the economic crisis brought on by massive unemployment and the disintegration of the trade union movement. They formed a coalition of bankrupt industrialists, small business owners, and middle-class individuals who saw in the Nazis a way to protect their profits and preserve native capitalism. The class composition of the Nazis largely consisted of the petite bourgeoisie and middle strata who aligned