The weakenesses of the German Weimar Republic, that lasted from 1918 to 1933, gave rise to the popular support that fostered the arrival of the Nazi party and Hitler to power.
The Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, mainly economic, related to the accomplishment of the requeriments established by the Treaty of Versailles and the payment of the excessive war reparations imposed on Germany after WWI. Such impositions prevented economic recovery and stagnation led to hyperinflation. Moreover, political extremism and paramilitary forces started to arise, that were intensified by the tense relationships maintained with the victorious powers of WWI, specially France and UK.
Hitler became popular by fierceley attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism (nationalist ideas together with the need of the great German nation to expand its territories), anti-semitism and anti-communism using a charismatic oratory and by constantly publishing Nazi propaganda. He pointed out international capitalism and communism to be part of a Jewish conspiracy that could not beat the Germans hence, something had to be done.
In 1932 the Nazi Party obtained the largest share of votes for the constitution of the German Reichstag (Parliament), although they did not obtain a majority. Conservative leaders convinced Hinderburg, the President of the Weimar Republic, to name Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, which is a power position with extense executive powers in the German goverment. Right after, the Enabling Act of 1933 was enacted, and it meant the first step of the process of transformation from the democratic Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a totalitarian and autocratic state based on the dictatorship of the Nazi party, headed by Hitler, and on the National Socialism ideology.
