‘Hitler was a lazy criminal who slept in until noon’: why most of what we think we know about the rise of the Nazis is wrong • Philipp Ruch argues that viewing the ascent of Hitler’s NSDAP through the prism of the Third Reich has distorted our understanding of fascism’s electoral breakthrough

Frank_Melena | 7 hours ago

The NSDAP arose in a time where Germans had grown up under a literal monarch, in a society that believed aggressive nationalism was good, backed up by science, and achieved tangible and rapid results on the map, and who followed it up by sending the entirety of their youth to be traumatized for years on end in a war beyond our understanding.

Furthermore, not only was liberalism not their received narrative at birth, it was seen to have evidentially failed with the massive inequality rampant through the early 1900s and climaxing with the Depression, and all the new ideas for society coalesced along lines of collectivism, either economic or ethnic. To anyone who rejected the anti-traditionalism and expropriation of Communism, Fascism was the mass politic of choice.

The past is a foreign country, 1920s Germany particularly so, and the lessons we take from it are only those of human psychology we can apply generally through history.

ghu79421 | 33 minutes ago

The vast majority of voters thought that the Depression meant liberalism had completely failed (conservative and center-right parties more or less support a form of liberalism that's more tolerant of tradition). Hindenburg was a monarchist.

Even when Germany was a liberal democracy, academia and the legal profession including judges was overwhelmingly conservative nationalists, not liberals or democratic socialists.

Germany was already pretty much not a democracy in January 1933. In July 1932, Papen used a decree to depose the Social Democratic government of Prussia and give himself direct control over the Prussian police force. Papen openly promoted proposals to essentially turn Germany into a conservative dictatorship.

In October 1932, the Constitutional Court ruled that the deposition of the government of Prussia was illegal but allowed Papen to retain control. The Nazis won the most votes in the November 1932 elections but did lost seats with only 33% of the vote. The Nazis never won more than 40% of the vote (40% is seen as "winning" in a parliamentary system because you can probably easily make some deal with 10% of the parliament to give you over 50%).

Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor based on a backroom deal with other conservative elites. Conservatives thought they could control the Nazis and that the alternative to working with the Nazis was a military dictatorship that completely bypassed popular political parties. They thought working with the Nazis would create a stronger illusion of popular support for the government.

specialpatrol | 9 hours ago

Dark af; the reason they were so popular was because they advocated violence.

LoneRonin | 3 hours ago

Pre-WWII Germany/countries that would become Germany was a very militaristic society, statesmen like Frederick the Great didn't just come out of thin air, hence the whole 'army with a state' cliche. The British Empire hired Hessians to help them in multiple wars, including the American Revolution.

This also created a large German diaspora as many left the country to keep their men from being conscripted.

ayoungmanfromtheuk | 3 hours ago

They liked to do wars eh?

Specialist_Owl3045 | 3 hours ago

It's not that different to now.

Rile people up into a lather via social or traditional media, have a politician point at a scapegoat to distract from the excesses of the moneyed classes, advocate and enact violence.

Classic-Obligation35 | 2 hours ago

People forget that violence can take other forms besides the physical.

Shaming and silencing people is also violence.

TheBlindWatchmaker | 20 minutes ago

No it isn't

OVazisten | 5 hours ago

We tend to not see a motive here: they were the fresh faces. Like AfD, they could gather credibility simply by saying that everything is bad, but all these other guys did it, we are the ones who were not part of ruining the country.

jamisonian123 | 9 hours ago

I don’t think he slept all that much as a pure amphetamine addict

rmvandink | 5 hours ago

So many people just repeat the incorrect “he was elected by a democratic majority” line. Like how Il Duce supposedly made the trains run on time.

trash-juice | 7 hours ago

He was an inept stooge, as an artist - couldn’t even get three point perspective right or any perspective for that matter … cause fascism. They teach three pt perspective in HS, I remember the unit. He sunk into criminality cause he was such a loser in most things

God_Bless_A_Merkin | 4 hours ago

*sank

crippling_altacct | an hour ago

The Nazis in general were incredibly incompetent. Most of Hitler's inner circle was just other guys who failed catastrophically in their personal/professional ambitions. They were a bunch of loser creeps. History doesn't repeat but it does rhyme.

whatidoidobc | 6 hours ago

When I learned about the I competence of the Nazis, I was incredibly disturbed.

Why on earth were so many people intent on repeating lie after lie about who the Nazis were, in ways that would make uneducated people respect them? The answer is dark.

phenomenomnom | 2 hours ago

And what is that dark answer?