Death of Democracy in Germany 1933 with the Rise of Hitler

Germany in the late 1920's and early 30's was a hotbed of political violence as the weak Weimar Republic, established after the Great War, demonstrated it's inherent weakness and lack of capability to govern. Emerging Nazis, trumpeting Adolf Hitler, were in a fierce combat, often with bloody riots, against the Communists and Social Democrats. There were also Monarchists who clung to the notion that the Hohenzollern dynasty might one day return as well as the Catholic party.

Nazi strategy was to crush the Social Democrats, perceiving them to be the greatest opposition threat. German Communists, however, also prioritized debilitating the Social Democrats and listed them as a greater oppositional fear than the Nazis, despite some KPD (Kommunist Party Deutschland) activists believing the Nazis should be the first priority.  Joining the Nazis against the Social Democrats was a major mistake that would lead to catastrophe for the nation in 1933. Communist leaders that saw the obvious outcome were silenced.

In the several parliamentary elections preceding Hitler's rise to power as Chancellor, Communists and Nazis used every opportunity to browbeat the Social Democrats and dwindle away their parliamentary numbers. But as soon as Hitler gained absolute power, following the February 27, 1933 Reichstag fire, The proverbial die was cast and within hours every Communist leader was arrested, primitive concentration camps had already been erected and were being rapidly filled with men and women considered enemies of the state, and the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) took over many city police stations such as in the large northern city of Hamburg, often considered the "red-est city" in the Republic.

Particular effort was placed on the destruction of key unions, such as those controlling shipping and the harbor docks, and Catholic groups that posed possible threats to Nazi rule. Often, this resulted in fierce fighting within city areas controlled by the Communists. Invariably, the Nazis rooted out all opposition and made prolific use of the axe, cutting off the heads of thousands of opposition activists. Some historians estimate that more Nazi enemies were beheaded during the Third Reich than during the French Reign of Terror. 

Communists and Nazis battled in the streets of many cities. Guns were plentiful, smuggled from Belgium and Russia. Ultimately, the Nazis won and proceeded to ruthlessly suppress Communist opposition.

The Nazi takeover and ultimate German reign of terror could have been avoided if Communist strategies had seen the primary enemy as Hitler and his Brown shirts. But Communist directives were coming from Berlin, Europe's Communist "hub" which was receiving marching orders through the Comintern and ultimately Stalin himself. In Russia it was a period of mistrust, purges, show trials, long sentences served in Siberian labor camps, or death in the dungeons of the Lubyanka. European leaders within the Communist organization often found themselves called to Moscow, never to return.

Everyday Germans faced a choice that involved not only politics but a way of life. Neighbors acting suspiciously were to be denounced to the local Gestapo. Good Nazi children entered the Nazi Youth organizations and the female auxiliary groups. If your family was not a member of the Party, you were literary an outcast. In schools, their children sat in the back of the class. Once Jews were identified, this became a norm in classrooms.

Nazi police stations tortured people mercilessly, attempting to obtain names of other Communists, families that helped hide activists. Once found, entire families: men, women, and children were brought in for questioning and, often, brutalized. *

We, in this enlightened century, have slowly forgotten the dark times that represented Germany in 1932 and 1933. Dachau concentration camp was already built in Munich. And by 1933 it was being filled. The camp was built in a Munich suburb, on a Munich city bus line. Residential buildings virtually surrounded the camp. How can the presence of Dachau be disputed?

The Nazi camp system was like a large octopus, reaching to every part of the Reich. The camp system often starting as transitional camps and hubs, much later leading to the death camps through out occupied Europe.

It only took a few years for Democracy in Germany to be quashed and be replaced by a totalitarian dictatorship. German people were desensitized and stood by as Jews and other "undesirables"  were taken away to camps or, in the east, shot en masse and dumped into graves. 

All it took was people believing a lie, supporting a system whose party leaders lied constantly and spread propaganda. Listening to opposing viewpoints meant arrest and possibly death (such as listening to BBC on the radio or other foreign stations). 

People who lived through that time still recall the horrors and warn that if not careful, it could happen again, even in a solid democracy.

*my grandmother was called to her local gestapo office for not displaying a portrait of Hitler in her living room.

 Constitutional Supremacy Still A Good Idea

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once observed that, “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.” In 1787, as the American nation’s founders gathered in Philadelphia in order to create a more perfect union, both history and philosophy influenced the resolve to write the new Constitution.

 

Americans left Europe, in part, to distance themselves from a history of warfare among the various European states. Following independence from Britain and the 1783 peace, however, growing sectional concerns helped fuel a feeling of disunity. As historian David Hendrickson correctly noted in his book on the founding of America, “…the corporate identity of the individual states would be far less secure under disunion than under the proposed constitution…”

 

The Absence of a Strong Central Government

 

The new American government under the Articles of Confederation, conceived during the years of war, was impotent against the looming national crisis involving debt, commerce, and national integrity; no European power took the Americans seriously.

 

Growing sectional concerns, notably between the commercially-minded Northeast and the agriculturally-geared South, threatened to disunify, enabling European states to manipulate Americans against each other. George Washington warned his colleagues about “relaxing the powers of union” which would expose the new country to the, “…sport of European politics…”

 

Independence also meant an end to the British mercantile system in regard to key American enterprises such as tobacco, rice, indigo, and naval stores in the South and lumber in the North. As soon as the war ended, European goods flooded the American market, hurting attempts to expand American industries. Agricultural prices also fell, hurting American farmers and contributing to the levels of popular discontent associated with events such as Shays’ Rebellion in 1786.

 

Unity, after 1783, was based on a loose confederation. The American Congress lacked any direct power to levy taxes. The individual states printed their own money and acted as sovereign states, thus contributing to the overall weakness of the confederation. Any moves toward greater centralization of power were equated with tyranny and the loss of liberty. As writer Robert Harvey noted, “…the new nation was a ragbag of competing authorities.”

 

Another source of friction involved the westward movement. Land claims regarding these territories frequently overlapped, pitting one state against another. The Articles of Confederation lacked an organized formula addressing territorial assumptions.

 

The need for a Constitution and Centralized Power

 

The Constitution gave power to the people, but not too much power. Through a series of compromises, the weaknesses that had left the nation vulnerable after 1783 were remedied: a bicameral legislature, a chief executive, a judiciary, and an enumeration of the rights of individual states. The Constitution was inspired both by history and philosophy.

 

Ratification, however, did not end the debate over personal liberties and sectional concerns. Additionally, European powers continued to threaten and manipulate the new nation. The realities of Paris mobs, with the outbreak of the 1789 French Revolution, hardened conservatives in Britain – men like Edmund Burke who referenced the mobs as “swinish multitudes.”

 

The Constitution helped unify the individual states but it would take a civil war to reign in the friction over the extent of state sovereignty. This debate has continued in American history, especially when federal centralization was perceived as interfering with individual liberties and threatening the powers of individual states.

 

References:

 

Colin B. Goodykoontz, “The Founding Fathers and Clio,” The Vital Past: Writings on the Uses of History, Stephen Vaughn, editor (The University of Georgia Press, 1985)

Robert Harvey, “A Few Bloody Noses”: The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution (The Overlook Press, 2002)

David C. Hendrickson, Peace Pact: The Lost World of the American Founding (University Press of Kansas, 2003)

Simon Schama, A History of Britain: The Fate of Empire 1776-2000, Volume III (Hyperion, 2002)