Scan barcode
Reviews
Ο θάνατος της δημοκρατίας: Η πτώση της Βαϊμάρης και η άνοδος του ναζισμού by Benjamin Carter Hett
lizzie04's review against another edition
5.0
My professors pick out such good books sometimes. This was probably the most engaging history book I've read because it reads like a novel. We hear a lot about Nazi Germany, but not about the democratic government that came beforehand and lasted 14 years before its collapse (14 years of democracy in central/eastern Europe was actually a new record at the time). I never knew there was such a fascinating background to the variety of reasons why the Third Reich came into power, all of which are inextricably linked to WWI, scheming self-interested politicians, and the malleability of a large voting body when they are desperate and angry. Some aspects echo alarmingly of modern trends rising again, serving as a cautionary tale that things can always get worse.
blazekcurrie's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this book up while in Germany at the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau had an exhibit explaining the rise of Hitler, and it bothered me how it was a slow boil with some similarities to politics in the US today.
It started with grievances that turned into propaganda and lies, and slowly over several years, put Nazis into power. It didn’t happen overnight and was supported by common, everyday people. They had lost sight of what was happening around them. They had become anti democratic and used the “other” as a scapegoat for anything wrong at home. For economic issues, global capitalism was to blame, leading many Germans to prefer nationalism.
They longed for the pre-WWI Germany. And the Nazis falsely promised to bring back the Germany of the past, which was an impossible promise, but one that captured the sentiment of many German people, especially Protestants.
A quote from the book:
“What a nation believes about its past is as least as important as what the past actually was.”
The book is not an easy read. It is dense and thorough. I wish there was a more abridged version.
A summary quote I underlined:
“The Weimar Republic seethed with other resentments and hatreds: the German people were bitterly divided along every conceivable line. Rural people disliked the big cities for breaking with traditions of religion and sexual identity and morality. A postwar tide of refugees, particularly from Eastern Europe, alarmed millions of Germans… The stress of war and revolution had exacerbated antisemitism… Eventually, these different grievances coalesced, especially among the numerically dominant Protestant: Weimar was too Jewish, too Catholic, too modern, too urban - all in all, too morally degenerate. But this cultural code always expresses grievances about something beyond itself. Antisemitism did not spell the end of German democracy or the coming of Hitler, but it did provide a language with which anti democrats could criticize the democratic global order they detested.”
It started with grievances that turned into propaganda and lies, and slowly over several years, put Nazis into power. It didn’t happen overnight and was supported by common, everyday people. They had lost sight of what was happening around them. They had become anti democratic and used the “other” as a scapegoat for anything wrong at home. For economic issues, global capitalism was to blame, leading many Germans to prefer nationalism.
They longed for the pre-WWI Germany. And the Nazis falsely promised to bring back the Germany of the past, which was an impossible promise, but one that captured the sentiment of many German people, especially Protestants.
A quote from the book:
“What a nation believes about its past is as least as important as what the past actually was.”
The book is not an easy read. It is dense and thorough. I wish there was a more abridged version.
A summary quote I underlined:
“The Weimar Republic seethed with other resentments and hatreds: the German people were bitterly divided along every conceivable line. Rural people disliked the big cities for breaking with traditions of religion and sexual identity and morality. A postwar tide of refugees, particularly from Eastern Europe, alarmed millions of Germans… The stress of war and revolution had exacerbated antisemitism… Eventually, these different grievances coalesced, especially among the numerically dominant Protestant: Weimar was too Jewish, too Catholic, too modern, too urban - all in all, too morally degenerate. But this cultural code always expresses grievances about something beyond itself. Antisemitism did not spell the end of German democracy or the coming of Hitler, but it did provide a language with which anti democrats could criticize the democratic global order they detested.”
lottie1803's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.75