Fateful Hours: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic, Ullrich - B+

         As the Great War ended, violence, mutiny, strikes, and revolution came to Germany. Elections in January 1919 led to a convocation in Weimar, a city chosen because of its historic connection to Goethe and Schiller. Nonetheless, violence spread around the country, particularly in and around Munich. Expecting some Wilsonian consideration, the country was offered the draconian terms of the peace treaty in May. It was signed on the fifth anniversary of the Sarajevo assassinations. The Weimar Constitution was adopted that summer. The following year, a right-wing revolt known as the Kapp Putsch marched on Berlin and occupied the offices of government. The putsch failed because the workers of the country called an effective general strike, as the return of Wilhelmine militarism was completely unwanted.
           In June of 1922, Foreign Minister Rathenau was assassinated. His offense was that he was wealthy, Jewish, and the man who signed the Treaty of Rapallo recognizing the USSR. The center and the left mourned. The right rejoiced. In early 1923, France occupied the Rhineland because of Germany's failure to pay reparations. German resistance was met with harsh French retribution. The financial pressure put on Germany exacerbated the already spiraling inflation. "The bottomless pit that was hyperinflation defied rational explanation, leaving Germany veritably stunned." Toward the end of the year, Chancellor Stresemann was able to resolve a few issues with France, enact currency reform, agree to the Dawes Plan to reduce reparations, and set the stage for the ensuing economic recovery. The center held.
           In June of 1925, seventy-seven-year-old Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was sworn in as president, committed to "serving the cause of nonpartisan unification of our people." Nonetheless, it was "a tacit constitutional change, a conservative refounding of the republic." During his first five years in office, he slowly increased the power of the presidency at the expense of democracy and the Reichstag. Black Friday on Wall Street led to a withdrawal of American loans and pushed Germany into a serious fiscal crisis. The following March, the grand coalition cabinet failed. This was "a major turning point in the history of the Weimar Republic. It marked the last time a government would be based on a parliamentary majority." The chancellor was given emergency powers and was able to appoint his own cabinet. In the Reichstag elections later in 1930, the Nazis received a quarter of the vote, second to the left-centre Social Democrats.
          Ironically, it was in Thuringia, whose capital was Weimar, that the right-wing fascists first achieved office. Wilhelm Frick, a fellow Beer Hall putschist with Hitler, held two ministries for a mere fourteen months, but "delivered a foretaste of what could be expected if the National Socialists came to power nationally."
         Hindenburg appointed von Papen chancellor in May 1932, a month after defeating Hitler in the presidential election. He quickly moved to replace all of the Social Democrats in ministerial offices in the Prussian state. Hitler twice requested the chancellorship from Hindenburg and was twice denied. At year's end, journalists pronounced the country saved from the Nazis. After an opponent maneuvered Papen out of the chancellorship in December, he met with Hitler in an attempt to find some common ground to present to Hindenburg. He was able to convince the president that, between the two of them, they could manage the man the Field Marshal called the "Bohemian Corporal." Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor and Papen vice chancellor. On January 30, Hitler was sworn in.
          Those around the president were comfortable with the Nazis' desire to overthrow Versailles and their disdain for Weimar.  Papen told people he would "push Hitler so far into a corner that he'll squeak." "Germany's governing elites could not have more negligently underestimated Hitler's craving for power." The Reichstag fire four weeks later led to emergency decrees gutting the constitution. Jews lost their equality under the law in April. By the summer, Hitler had complete and total control of the country.
          The author has published some truly excellent books on the Third Reich. My takeaway here is that the hateful rhetoric, vicious disparagement of people, and endless lying cast a not-so-distant mirror.