This is a whimsical, speculative novel that won the 2017 Prix Goncourt, which I can only assume is awarded for beautiful, fanciful writing and not coherent storytelling. There are two vignettes about Nazi Germany that are not to my eye connected in any way.
The first is the story of the complicity of 24 of Germany's industrial leaders in the rise to absolute power of the Nazi's. The names are familiar: Krupp, Siemens, Opel, Schacht, Quandt and Reuter are the more famous of the group. They met with Herman Goering and Adolf Hitler on February 20, 1933, just weeks after Hitler had became Chancellor. The upcoming March elections for the Reichstag were the opportunity to overcome communism and end the wishy-washy ideas of the Weimar Republic. To obtain a majority though, the Nazis needed money, and money they received. In the penultimate chapter of the book, we see Gustav Krupp as an addled old man haunted by the ghosts of the workers who have died in his factories.
The scene shifts to the Anschluss in March, 1938. The right-wing, fascist-sympathetic Arthur von Schuschnigg was Chancellor of Austria for years until summoned to Berchtesgaden by the former Austrian corporal from Braunau. There he was berated and verbally beaten into submission. Arthur Seyss-Inquart replaced him and 'asked' for German help. The Reich's occupation of Austria ensued, but was an exercise in folly, as most of the tanks were in such bad shape that they had to be put on trains to get them to Vienna. The inability of Germany to project power only next door did not stymie the enthusiasm of the local Nazis, nor preclude their immediate abuse of the local Jews. Hitler addressed the enthusiastic crowds from the Schoenbrunn Palace.
"And there stands History, a reasonable goddess, a frozen statue in the middle of the town square. Dried bunches of peonies are her annual tribute; her daily gratuity, bread crumbs for the birds."
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