From Weimar To Hitler

Though often depicted as a rapid political transformation, the Nazi seizure of power was in fact a process that extended from the appointment of the Papen cabinet in the early summer of 1932 through the Röhm blood purge two years later. Across fourteen rigorous and carefully researched chapters, From Weimar to Hitler offers a compelling collective investigation of this critical period in modern German history. Each case study presents new empirical research on the crisis of Weimar democracy, the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship, and Hitler’s consolidation of power. Together, they provide multiple perspectives on the extent to which the triumph of Nazism was historically predetermined or the product of human miscalculation and intent.

Annotation Weimar Germany continues to fascinate and to inspire controversy. Particularly in Germany there has been a spate of recent research which calls for a fresh synthesis. This book takes a new look at the current debate on the major themes, the revolution, hyperinflation, Weimar welfarism, the labour movement, the liberal intelligentsia, the Conservative Revolution, the policies of the Bruning government and the rise of Nazism. It highlights the interconnections in a complex society between developments in different spheres and shows that Hitler's assumption of power was never inevitable.

Weimar Germany continues to fascinate and to inspire controversy. Particularly in Germany there has been a spate of recent research which calls for a fresh synthesis. This book takes a new look at the current debate on the major themes, the revolution, hyperinflation, Weimar welfarism, the labour movement, the liberal intelligentsia, the Conservative Revolution, the policies of the Bruning government and the rise of Nazism. It highlights the interconnections in a complex society between developments in different spheres and shows that Hitler's assumption of power was never inevitable.

`The extraordinary amount of new research relating to the Weimar Republic in the last two decades has created the need for a new survey of that period. Feuchtwanger...responds admirably to that need.' - C.R.Lovin, Choice `E.J. Feuchtwanger is such a good historian... Despite its prestigious critics and its inborn failings, Feuchtwanger writes, Weimar government was better than its reputation, establishing precedents that would benefit a German democracy yet to come. Boris Yeltsin might be well advised to consider some of Feuchtwanger's remarks about the openness of history. A humbled great power stripped of its colonies, an infant democracy prey to extremes on right and left, hyperinflation, roving paramilitaries, woozy racialist theories in the air - Yeltsin's Russia and Weimar Germany have a few too many similarities for comfort.' - Christian Caryl, Guardian 'Robert Langbaum's ability to react directly and independently to his reading of Hardy's work is evident on every page...This is a Thomas Hardy for our time.' - J. Hillis Miller Weimar has become synonymous with catastrophic political failure, the prelude to the greatest moral and material disasters of the twentieth century. This book shows that such failure was never inevitable and that options remained tantalisingly open right up to Hitler's assumption of power. The democratic regime was saddled with heavy burdens stemming from defeat and never enjoyed general acceptance and legitimacy. On the other hand, it encouraged for the first time in German history expectations of a high level of welfare, individual rights and modern social practices, which were at least partially fulfilled. The period of relative prosperity was, however, too short, the return of crisis too severe and the resulting demoralisation too profound to save democracy. The author draws a compelling picture of a society frequently in turmoil, yet remarkably creative and innovative, but finally overwhelmed by a tide of irrationality and barbarism. He makes full use of the extensive sources and secondary literature available in German.

An introduction to the political history of the Weimar Republic. The failure, in the years after the First World War, of German democracy was of crucial importance to the world as a whole. Very often the causes of this failure have been sought in the national character of the Germans, in their historical development, in the nature of Western capitalism, in the weaknesses of the Republic constitution, and sometimes in the hypnotic power of Adolf Hitler. While some of these explanations are more respectable than others, none alone can satisfy any serious enquiry.

The Weimar Republic has become a byword for a failed, tragic, political experiment. The official period of its existence, 1919-1933, marked the inter-war years in Germany and their related uncertainty, chaos and the state's ultimate collapse. Historians have found the roots of Nazism embedded in the Weimar years and that in the final analysis, Weimar politicians voluntarily handed over power to the man who wrought destruction on an epic scale, Adolf Hitler. Yet the Weimar era encapsulated a number of trends and fissures within German society, as well as the international community. The Weimar Republic was a prisoner of events and in the long run had little power to shape them. Historians are fond of interpreting the past as a tension between human agency, that is to say decision-making, and structural developments that evade individual choices. Both these interpretations are crucial when examining the tumultuous years of Germany's Weimar Republic. German governments had teetered on the edge of collapse throughout the Weimar years, as politicians of all stripes had struggled to stabilise the economy and the wider societal problems. In the 14 years between 1919 and 1933, a total of 20 separate coalition governments had been formed. The most stable period, after the hyperinflation of 1923 and before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, was only calm in a relative sense. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that the Weimar state was so easily dismantled by Hitler's National Socialists. What is more shocking, however, is the speed in which the Nazis turned a fragile democracy into one of history's most draconian dictatorships. The Nazis demonstrated both brute force and political guile, as well as highly effective propaganda, in achieving their aims. There are many contradictions surrounding the transition from Weimar to Nazi Germany. The country had been home to some of the key figures of the Enlightenment Period, in arts, philosophy, music and literature. Yet this beacon of civilisation descended into an abyss of barbarism and intolerance. A region that for so long resisted incorporation into one state became intensely nationalistic. A country that provided refuge to Jewish people for hundreds of years turned on them to prosecute anti-Semitism's lowest point: the Holocaust. A state (Weimar) that had been designed with liberal and progressive ideals dissolved into illiberalism and reactionary authoritarianism. The alignment of Nazism and Germany is obvious to the 21st century reader but as it unfolded, the chain of events took the world by surprise. This period of history, fueled by Hitler and his fanatical politics, led the world to the bloodiest moment of an ultra-violent century. In January 1933, when Hitler became German Chancellor, all this was in the (albeit near) future. How the Nazis accumulated power is a true "warning from history." A Brief History of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany Before World War II provides a quick but comprehensive look at the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany before the war.