(First Published March 2, 2021)
Germany, after World War I …
Governed by a democracy – the Weimar Republic, which lasted from 1919 to 1933, when Adolf Hitler demonstrated just how vulnerable a democracy can be.
Hitler had been given up for political roadkill several times. In 1923, he took over a beer hall with his fanatics and sent them off to storm government buildings in Munich. Hitler hoped to kidnap local officials and seize power in Bavaria as a base to overthrow the entire German government. The coup failed and Hitler was convicted of treason -- but he served less than nine months in prison, used the time to plot strategy, retained his grip on the Nazi Party and emerged with no restrictions on his political future.
The Nazis – made up of fantastical conspiracy theorists, anti-Semites, white supremacists, rough-house thugs – remained for years on the fringe of German politics and never did win a majority vote in free German elections.
In 1928, Nazis got 2.6% of the vote. But in 1932, they rose to 37.4% as Germans suffered from the Great Depression-- and partisan divisions in the Reichstag, which included Communist members, paralyzed government action except for emergency presidential decrees. More and more Germans looked for solutions to the crisis and scapegoats to blame for Germany’s woes.
The Nazis solidified a determined, vocal base of support through jingoistic messages and lies like these: Germany didn’t lose World War I – the nation was stabbed in the back by elites and Jews who stole the glorious victory that Germany rightfully deserved. Weimar leaders were weak, but Nazis stood strong -- only Nazis could solve the economic crisis and, in effect, make Germany great again.
Beyond propaganda, Nazis were enabled by leaders of important institutions – bankers, business titans, military officers and right-leaning politicians who believed they could use Hitler and the Nazis for their own benefit and still exert control over them.
But after aging President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor in 1933, the Weimar Republic crumbled. Hitler whipped his supporters into a frenzy and trashed the German Constitution. He staged grand rallies where he could shout slogans and lies as Hitler’s true believers chanted of Weimar officials, “Hang Them Up” or “Bust Their Ass.” Another favorite: “Jews Drop Dead.”
When Hindenburg died, Hitler merged the offices of president and chancellor. He silenced opposition media, crushed political enemies, suppressed or eliminated voting by Jews and ethnic minorities, ensured that elections favored only Nazis, boasted about his landslide victories and demanded that officials and military recruits swear loyalty to him, not their country.
Democracy in Germany was dead for a generation, killed from within by an authoritarian demagogue who had cemented control of his party -- a genius at leveraging power and spewing false conspiracies until people either believed them or threw their hands up and fell in line.
Thankfully, in World War II America made the world safe for democracy. Our own could never be threatened – certainly, not from within. Could it?
— Paul Anger, 2nd vice chair, Jefferson Parish Democratic Executive Committee, March 2, 2021