Since the end of the First World War until Hitler introduced the Third Reich, Germany had been known as the Weimar Republic. The Weimar period was characterised by economic hardship and political tension. This was made worse when in 1929 the stock market on Wall Street, New York, crashed, and worldwide economic depression set in. In their haste to address the domestic problems that followed, many members of the German public chose to ignore or even believe Hitler's violent antisemitic ideas.