How important was the Treaty of Versailles in the rise of Nazism? | Professor Dan Stone

[Music] hello i'm dan stone i'm professor of modern history and director of the holocaust research institute at royal holloway [Music] the treaty of versailles is often raised i think as one of the major causes of the rise of nazism and of course it's undeniably important but my comeback to this question is always well if the versailles treaty was the prime cause of the rise of nazism why did hitler come to power in 1933 and not in 1923 the nazi party was not the only political movement in germany after the great war that was opposed to the versailles treaty in fact the vast majority of german politicians were opposed to the versailles treaty when the weimar republic was created it was signed into being by a majority of politicians who were opposed to the thing that they were signing and so whilst it's true that the the nazis made a lot of noise about versailles that their intention to revoke the versailles treaty was clear from the start that's not something that marked them out specifically in the early 1920s and therefore there have to be other reasons i think for explaining the rise of of nazism and whilst there are many i think no explanation is complete without some consideration of the great depression it's really the depression from 1929 1930 that first of all brings about the downfall of the weimar republic which after all from 1930 not 1933 from 1930 was being run more or less on an authoritarian basis by presidential decree and it's the depression that turned people finally against the mainstream parties and drove them to the extremes so whilst versailles clearly an important factor one that won the nazis a lot of support i don't think on its own it's the thing that distinguished them from the other radical parties in weimar germany you