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This talk follows the cultural, economic, social and political impediments under which the Weimar Republic in Germany was born in 1918 and how the nearly constant assault of the conservative right wing upon a form of government it never accepted created opportunities for the extremist Nazi Party to take advantage of political paralysis, economic chaos, social panic and cultural despair to use democratic structures to come to power, establish a dictatorship, and increase popular support among Germans for the Nazi agenda. It will focus on Nazi use of traditional, conservative, populist and nostalgic themes to present a palatable program for non-Nazi members of the upper and middle classes that cut across traditional cultural cleavages in Germany, including religion, region, social class, gender, age, the rural-urban divide and the military-civilian divide. Key issues include revision of the post-World War I treaty system, destruction of the perceived leftist threat to Germany, stabilization of the economy, and restoration of self-esteem and solid German values to social and cultural life. Finally, it explores the Nazi presentation of WWII in terms that made it possible for non-Nazis to participate willingly in perpetrating Nazi crimes. |
