Hitler needs the Depression to make the German middle class sufficiently desperate to try anything to escape the economic and political chaos they were living through. No depression, and a prosperous Germany is unlikely to be susceptible to Hitler’s xenophobic, antisemitic propaganda line. No Hitler, no “Gathering Storm” (as Churchill termed it) in Europe in the late 1930s and 1940s. Germany remains prosperous and eventually pays off the reparations it owes to France and Great Britain. Mussolini finds himself isolated politically in Europe and his overseas adventures are opposed by an effective League of Nations.
However ... does Germany continue to rearm (something it was already doing in secret during the Wiemar Republic) and how does France and the United Kingdom react when it is finally discovered/revealed? How does all of Europe react to the nascient power of the Soviet Union once it gets through the bloody throes of collectivizing and industrializing Soviet society? How does Europe react to the civil war in Spain? Is there even a civil war in Spain? Without Germany and Italy to take some of the diplomatic heat off of it, does Japan eventually yield to international diplomatic pressure and withdraw its forces from China? Does Chang Kai Shek (sp) finish hunting down and killing every last Communist he can get his hands on in China (as he had been before being so rudely interrupted by the Japanese)? Without the growing threat in Asia and Europe, does the United States embark on the most massive military buildup in its history? Even more important, do I get still get to be born if there is no Baby Boom following the non-WWII?
Yeah, you’re right. You can play this game all day and it is fruitless. Better to think about the future and how the "real" past continues to influence it.
The hyperinflation peaked in 1923 and the depression started in 1929. The Weimar Republic had its best years in between.
You are correct that the depression led to the rise of Nazism to power, but the depression neither caused nor was caused by the hyperinflation.
(Ironically, in the interval between Hitler’s installation as Prime Minister in 1932 and his assumption of full dictatorial powers in 1934 (following Hindenburg’s death and the oh-so-convenient Reichstag fire), the economic reforms instituted by the Wiemar government finally took hold and began to turn the German economy around. But by then it was the Nazis that would get the credit.)
Hitler became Chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933. The Reichstag fire (which really wasn't planned by the Nazis, though they took full advantage of it) occurred on Feb. 27 of '33, and the Enabling Act giving Hitler dictatorial power was passed on March 23 of '33.
Rather than two years, all these events took place in less than two months.