The Nazi Seizure Of Power

“Tells us how Nazism happened, in microcosm, in a single German town that was neither typical nor exceptional in admitting and then yielding to tyranny.” —The New York Times In this classic work of twentieth-century history, William Sheridan Allen demonstrates how dictatorship subtly surmounted democracy in Germany and how the Nazi seizure of power encroached from below. Relying upon legal records and interviews with primary sources, Allen dissects Northeim, Germany with microscopic precision to depict the transformation of a sleepy town to a Nazi stronghold. This cogent analysis argues that Hitler rose to power primarily through democratic tactics that incited localized support rather than through violent means. Revised on the basis of newly discovered Nazi documents, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922–1945 continues to significantly contribute to our understanding of this phenomenon and the political and moral debate over the roots of fascism. Allen’s research provides an intimate, comprehensive study of the mechanics of revolution and an analysis of the Nazi Party’s subversion of democracy. Beginning at the end of the Weimar Republic, Allen examines the entire period of the Nazi Revolution within a single locality. “The book’s distinction lies . . . in its fidelity to the facts in one particular town, with one set of civic officials (notably the Nazi ‘Local Group Leader’), and one population—whose shift in attitudes, indifference and, in the end, total lack of comprehension of what was really happening convert the theory into actuality and make it both clearer and more readable.” —Kirkus Reviews “A first-rate study of absorbing interest…Hitler did not seize power single-handed.” —Walter Laqueur, The New York Review of Books

Documents the propaganda and politics that brought Naziism to power in one German town where the population was predominately Lutheran and the largest local employer was the Civil Service.

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.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The town of Northeim was the center of prewar Germany. It was a small town with a population of about ten thousand in 1930. The town was surrounded by walls that enclosed the medieval inner core. The most desirable area was on the hillside above the old town, where you could see town and valley. #2 The town of Northeim was built around a medieval city, with three areas where it had expanded: up the hill and toward each of the two rivers. The center and essence of Northeim remained the old medieval city, surrounded by the slowly crumbling walls. #3 The town of Northeim was able to recover slowly from the Black Death. It was not until the French Revolution that the town regained its population, about 2,500 people. The town was able to acquire a variety of technical academies and college preparatory schools in the 1870s. #4 Northeim was a center for the violently right-wing Jung Deutsche Orden in the 1920s. The town was torn apart by strife and division, and it would experience the death agony of German democracy within a few years.

Nazi Germany may have only lasted for 12 years, but it has left a legacy that still echoes with us today. This work discusses the emergence and appeal of the Nazi party, the relationship between consent and terror in securing the regime, the role played by Hitler himself, and the dark stains of war, persecution, and genocide left by Nazi Germany.

On 30 January 1933, Alfred Hugenberg's conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) formed a coalition government with the Nazi Party, thus enabling Hitler to accede to the chancellorship. This book analyzes in detail the complicated relationship between Conservatives and Nazis and offers a re-interpretation of the Nazi seizure of power - the decisive months between 30 January and 14 July 1933. The Machtergreifung is characterized here as a period of all-pervasive violence and lawlessness with incessant conflicts between Nazis and German Nationals and Nazi attacks on the conservative Bürgertum, a far cry from the traditional depiction of the takeover as a relatively bloodless, virtually sterile assumption of power by one vast impersonal apparatus wresting control from another. The author scrutinizes the revolutionary character of the Nazi seizure of power, the Nazis' attacks on the conservative Bürgertum and its values, and National Socialism's co-optation of conservative symbols of state power to serve radically new goals, while addressing the issue of why the DNVP was complicit in this and paradoxically participated in eroding the foundations of its very own principles and bases of support.