How did unemployment change in Germany during the Great Depression?

During the Great Depression, Germany experienced a catastrophic rise in unemployment. Following the 1929 stock market crash, the withdrawal of foreign loans and a sharp decline in foreign trade caused widespread business failures.12

The unemployment rate rose to three million during 1930 and continued to climb, reaching six million by the winter of 1932. This economic collapse severely undermined the Weimar Republic, as the government struggled to maintain unemployment benefit payments, eventually leading to the dissolution of the ruling coalition government.21

The Nazi Party exploited this mass unemployment to gain political support, with their electoral success closely tracking the economic crisis. After Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, the Nazi government implemented public works programs that reduced the number of registered unemployed to approximately 2.6 million by December 1934, followed by a shift toward massive rearmament that eventually created an acute labor shortage.324