William Tyler
The Rise of Nazism

How, and why, did Democracy fail in Germany after World War One? And, how did the Nazi Party emerge victorious in 1933? These are the perennial questions asked of Germany in the first half of the 20th century. How could a sophisticated and educated people so easily fall to the lies and horrors of Nazism?

Firstly, there was the failing economy, a hurdle that The Weimar Republic could not surmount. Secondly, there was the fact that many ex-soldiers of World War One gave the Nazis the brute force they needed on the streets of Germany. Thirdly, there was the fact that Germany, despite Weimar, remained deeply divided between the communist far left and The fascist far right. Both extremes attempted coups which failed, and the irony is that the leading party of the far right, the Nazis, finally gained control in 1933 by way of a democratic vote. This is arguably the first lesson the Nazis taught liberal democracies- that their democratic processes can lead to an extremist takeover.

Once in power, Hitler was never going to acquiesce in the vote of the people. He was from the start only ever going to be removed by force. His choice to go to war meant that it would only be defeat in that war which would break him and his party. Thus, once he seized power in 1933, he began quickly to turn Germany into an absolutist autocracy, forever staining German and European history with the blood of nations in war and in the death camps of the Shoah.