Why was there was increased support for the Nazis in the years from 1929 to 32?

1929 was
the year of the Wall Street Crash, which led to the worst worldwide economic depression in
history. Germany was especially hard hit as its economy was built almost entirely on foreign
loans. So when American banks and other financial institutions on Wall Street called in their
loans, the German economy experienced an especially catastrophic downturn.

Almost overnight, thousands of German businesses folded, causing mass unemployment.
Hyper-inflation began to eat into people's savings, causing widespread hardship and destitution.
The established political parties seemed to have no answer to the growing chaos. This created an
opening for the Nazi Party, which before the Great Depression had been nothing more than a tiny
fringe group on the extreme Right.

Under Hitler's leadership, the Nazis
promised to restore German greatness. They would rip up the hated Versailles Treaty imposed upon
Germany at the end of World War I and begin the process of rearmament. On the economic front,
they promised an end to unemployment and a return to prosperity.

Millions of
people, driven to desperation by the horrors of poverty, mass unemployment, and national
humiliation, threw in their lot with the Nazis. They were willing to take a leap of faithto give
the Nazis a chance to do something different to solve the massive problems that Germany was
facing.

The Nazis cleverly kept their promises deliberately vague so that
they could offer something for just about everyone: businesses, farmers, and workers alike. But
as so many Germans were so desperate for change, they overlooked the huge gaps in the Nazis'
policies and increasingly gave Hitler their support in large numbers.

As a
result, the Nazis became the largest single party in the German Parliament, or Reichstag, after
the Federal Election of July 1932, albeit without a majority. Although economic chaos and
depression had taken the Nazis so far, it would take shabby backstairs dealings by the
established conservative parties to put Hitler into power only eight months
later.