The idea that Germans carried a sense of supremacy stronger than that of other peoples seems very doubtful to me. My impression is the various units that became Germany weren’t particularly nationalistic until the Napoleonic wars and occupations which left behind a sense of vulnerability to the West, and also Napoleon’s own kind of modernized bureaucratic government. This lead to intensified sense of “German-ness” and a zeal for “catching up” which helped inspire the German style research university (which gave the world modern industrial chemistry and modern physics, as well as some very bad philosophy).
The mid-19c was another rude shock as technology accelerated colonialism. Steamboats that could ply the rivers of Africa set off a scramble among the main colonizing nations, giving them the raw materials for a huge acceleration of economic strength.
Bismark’s consolidation made turned a somewhat medieval patchwork into a nation and left the world in no doubt of its strength. Wilhelm III was a reckless spirit who did much to put Germany on course to its first great disaster.
Antisemitism was strongest in Austria not coincidentally Hitler’s home. Lately, I’ve read from a couple of sources that Jews were about 1% of the population of Germany, but Austria had to deal with a lot of ethnicities that they once dominated.
It was 14 years from the end of WWI to Hitler’s becoming Chancellor, a period of shame and humiliation, and recent and continued encounters with socialism and Communism. The atmosphere seemed to breed only extreme parties. In the interim years, Hitler’s propaganda conflated Jews and Communists, and he opportunistically took advantage of a sort of sense of moral superiority which often wells up among beaten people.
Hitler, like Mussolini (whose nation also was playing “catch up” in terms of modern national forms) was able with new technology to stage mass spectacles and nationwide radio events which with his talents whipped Germany into a kind of hysterical paranoia about the rest of the world and “will” to reverse the situation.
When it comes to “gaming democracy” Weimar democracy was very peculiar. Once Hitler had a kind of figurehead power (very insecure for the first months), he could control events with his private armies, the SA and SS, whose numbers dwarfed the official army severely limited in number by the Versailles Treaty. Whether or not the Nazis set the Reichstad fire, it gave them the excuse to raise the level of paranoia and declare a state of emergency during which the Socialist and communist parties were crushed—mostly I believe not by the regular government, but by the SA and SS.
Hitler used his private armies, a force to anarchic to be precisely controlled to destroy order in Germany. Soon after, he decapitated the SA’s leadership in the “night of the long knives”. Had he not, the regular army would have seen Hitler as connected with them. It was his way of declaring to the General Staff “You don’t have to worry about this band of thugs pushing you out of power, you are just what I want”.
Much of the persecution of Jews was extra-legal until Krystallnacht, which occurred in 11⁄38, four years after the night of the long knives.
An incredible amount of system gaming that we’ll probably not see the like of again. Hitler started off with millions in extra-governmental forces and up-front declared intentions such that when he was placed in power, the people looked around and, as his grip tightened, were apt to say the nation elected this guy, so this is the course the nation has set itself on (even if I personally can’t condone it).
There is a wide general belief that somebody could gain power talking nice and democratically with a hidden agenda, and once in that seat, the reins of government would be his—it is the myth of the Reader’s Digest version of The Road to Serfdom, which turned Hayek’s reasonable arguments and fears and concerns into a paranoid fantasy (see http://whatwasthecoldwar.blogspot.com/2010/07/illustrated-comic-book-in-fact-road-to.html) for an illustrated even more condensed summary.
The idea that Germans carried a sense of supremacy stronger than that of other peoples seems very doubtful to me. My impression is the various units that became Germany weren’t particularly nationalistic until the Napoleonic wars and occupations which left behind a sense of vulnerability to the West, and also Napoleon’s own kind of modernized bureaucratic government. This lead to intensified sense of “German-ness” and a zeal for “catching up” which helped inspire the German style research university (which gave the world modern industrial chemistry and modern physics, as well as some very bad philosophy).
The mid-19c was another rude shock as technology accelerated colonialism. Steamboats that could ply the rivers of Africa set off a scramble among the main colonizing nations, giving them the raw materials for a huge acceleration of economic strength.
Bismark’s consolidation made turned a somewhat medieval patchwork into a nation and left the world in no doubt of its strength. Wilhelm III was a reckless spirit who did much to put Germany on course to its first great disaster.
Antisemitism was strongest in Austria not coincidentally Hitler’s home. Lately, I’ve read from a couple of sources that Jews were about 1% of the population of Germany, but Austria had to deal with a lot of ethnicities that they once dominated.
It was 14 years from the end of WWI to Hitler’s becoming Chancellor, a period of shame and humiliation, and recent and continued encounters with socialism and Communism. The atmosphere seemed to breed only extreme parties. In the interim years, Hitler’s propaganda conflated Jews and Communists, and he opportunistically took advantage of a sort of sense of moral superiority which often wells up among beaten people.
Hitler, like Mussolini (whose nation also was playing “catch up” in terms of modern national forms) was able with new technology to stage mass spectacles and nationwide radio events which with his talents whipped Germany into a kind of hysterical paranoia about the rest of the world and “will” to reverse the situation.
When it comes to “gaming democracy” Weimar democracy was very peculiar. Once Hitler had a kind of figurehead power (very insecure for the first months), he could control events with his private armies, the SA and SS, whose numbers dwarfed the official army severely limited in number by the Versailles Treaty. Whether or not the Nazis set the Reichstad fire, it gave them the excuse to raise the level of paranoia and declare a state of emergency during which the Socialist and communist parties were crushed—mostly I believe not by the regular government, but by the SA and SS.
Hitler used his private armies, a force to anarchic to be precisely controlled to destroy order in Germany. Soon after, he decapitated the SA’s leadership in the “night of the long knives”. Had he not, the regular army would have seen Hitler as connected with them. It was his way of declaring to the General Staff “You don’t have to worry about this band of thugs pushing you out of power, you are just what I want”.
Much of the persecution of Jews was extra-legal until Krystallnacht, which occurred in 11⁄38, four years after the night of the long knives.
An incredible amount of system gaming that we’ll probably not see the like of again. Hitler started off with millions in extra-governmental forces and up-front declared intentions such that when he was placed in power, the people looked around and, as his grip tightened, were apt to say the nation elected this guy, so this is the course the nation has set itself on (even if I personally can’t condone it).
There is a wide general belief that somebody could gain power talking nice and democratically with a hidden agenda, and once in that seat, the reins of government would be his—it is the myth of the Reader’s Digest version of The Road to Serfdom, which turned Hayek’s reasonable arguments and fears and concerns into a paranoid fantasy (see http://whatwasthecoldwar.blogspot.com/2010/07/illustrated-comic-book-in-fact-road-to.html) for an illustrated even more condensed summary.