4. The Nazis were crippled by the actions of the Bavarian government
When the Beer Hall Putsch failed, the Bavarian government banned the Nazi Party and any activities undertaken by them or their affiliate groups as a threat to the legitimate government. When Hitler was released from Landsberg Prison he met with the Bavarian Prime Minister on January 4, extending his personal promise that Nazi party members would seek office only through the elective process. In February the ban on Nazi activities was lifted in Bavaria, but after Hitler delivered a speech later that month the Bavarian authorities banned him from speaking in public. Hitler assigned deputies, one of whom was Joseph Goebbels, to rebuild the Nazi party in Bavaria. Their activities were hampered by Germany’s improving economy until the Great Depression struck worldwide following the collapse of the US stock market in 1929.
Through the 1920s increasingly violent confrontations occurred between the Nazi SA and supporters of other parties, including frequently Communist groups. The violence and the improving economy under the Weimar Republic kept Nazi party membership down and the party held few seats in the Reichstag. Following the election of May 1928 the Nazi party held but 12 seats, and membership was down to about 130,000 nationally be the end of the year. Confrontations with the armed wing of the Communists, the Red Front, and the SA continued. Hitler used his deputy Joseph Goebbels to present him to the public as a common man, despite his rapidly growing wealth, and as the German economy veered towards collapse as the Great Depression took hold, his popularity among workers grew steadily. In 1930 the Nazis won 107 seats in the Reichstag, making them the second largest, in terms of representation, in Germany.