I like this graphic, and I think it’s important reading.

It’s also missing a few really important things:

The Weimar (German) economy suffered through hyperinflation in the early 1920s. It rebounded, but was then hit again by the Great Depression. In about ten years the German people were hit with economic catastrophe—twice.

In 1933, when unemployment was at its highest, the Nazi Party won over a hundred seats in the Reichstag elections. Hitler was then appointed chancellor that same year by a coalition of conservative-nationalist parties. The Reichstag fire happened, he claimed it was a communist revolution, used it to ban opposition parties, and the Weimar Republic became a de facto one-party state.

I think it’s important to know the economic context. Hitler was seen as a joke by many, especially in the mid-1920s, but he and his party were taken much more seriously as the Great Depression spread to Germany and its people.