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LOGIN Downloadable PDFs are a benefit of an FP subscription This article is an Insider exclusive Contact us at [email protected] to learn about upgrade options unlocking the ability to gift this article to say nothing of the mid-level and smaller powers are all running a strange simulation of the Weimar Republic: that weak and wobbly political organism that governed Germany for 15 years from the ashes of World War I to the ascension of Adolf Hitler America’s Weimar syndrome may be obvious with the reelection of the institution-destroyer Donald Trump as president But the entire world is one big Weimar now connected enough for one part to mortally influence the other parts yet not connected enough to be politically coherent Like the various parts of the Weimar Republic we find ourselves globally in an exceedingly fragile phase of technological and political transition This article is adapted from Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis by Robert D But don’t assume that the next phase of history will provide any relief to the present one It is in the spirit of caution that I raise the subject of Weimar Yet they are often the only way to communicate and explain While on the one hand an analogy is an imperfect distortion on the other hand it can create a new awareness It is only through an analogy that I can begin to describe the depth of our global crisis We have to be able to consider that literally anything can happen to us Front-line troops return from the World War I through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Nov 1918.Walter Gircke/ullstein bild via Getty Images The great German historian Golo Mann called Weimar a sprawling and unwieldy “empire without an emperor.” World War I—which lasted four long years and which ordinary Germans thought originally would be a triumph—ended in defeat and almost a half-million German civilian deaths the royal imperial governing structure had collapsed and Germany was on the verge of social chaos It was in that context that leading German politicians and lawyers devised a new constitutional arrangement that sought to avoid the autocratic tendencies of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Otto von Bismarck before him But the new arrangement was just too weak to withstand the pressures of what was to come There was no night watchman to keep the peace between its constituent parts The federal states (Länder) legislated through the Reichsrat (upper house of parliament) retaining all rights not explicitly transferred to the central government The nation as a whole elected the head of state The president then appointed the chancellor who with his cabinet ran the government at the behest of the Reichstag Two-thirds of Germany was still called Prussia and was governed under different rules than the Länder was a state within a state—there was constant talk of separation from the Reich If all this seems like a far more complicated version of the U.S Constitution with its separation of powers and 50 states it was—and it was made more unwieldy by economic and social anarchy There was catastrophic inflation during the early Weimar years and catastrophic depression toward the end: a result of a very difficult postwar economy made worse by reparations demanded by the Treaty of Versailles and by world economic dislocations Germany during the Weimar period from 1918 to 1933 was a vast and barely united world unto itself It was less a government than a system of belligerent and far-flung competing parts given the regional differences of a sprawling and Weimar’s “normal state was crisis,” writes the late historian Gordon A Weimar was like our planet today: intimately connected so as to have crises that cut across oceans To recall Weimar is to emphasize and admit the growing interdependencies of our own world all countries are now connected in ways in which a crisis for one can be a crisis for all Weimar was one long cabinet crisis where everything always seemed to be at stake Central authority exhausted itself just trying to preserve order all anyone could talk about in Germany was daily politics with one breathless series of headlines following another The public and politicians both were caught up in the moment unable to concentrate on what might come next because the present was so overwhelming Mann writes: “Divided and alienated from itself the nation was confronted by problems the hopeless confusion of which would have daunted a Bismarck.” German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann signs the Locarno pact between Germany The years of the mid- and late 1920s that were associated with Gustav Stresemann—a liberal realist politician who served as both a chancellor and foreign minister—constituted a time of economic growth and political compromises and reconciliations There was a distinct sense for a while that things were getting better and that Germany was finally emerging out of postwar chaos Stresemann’s diplomacy virtually removed the restrictions placed upon German sovereignty by the Versailles peace treaty after Germany’s defeat in World War I when the fiscal conservative Heinrich Brüning emerged in early 1930 to lead a fairly nonpartisan cabinet of national emergency Brüning’s gifts as a technocrat were not matched by his political instincts: He lacked the ability to compromise and maneuver at a time when he was trying to force tough economic choices and hardships including wage cuts and a tightening of credit upon the population and the political parties have been able to pull this off,” Craig writes But Brüning’s government struggled on until it collapsed in 1932 Audio adapted with permission of Random House Audio from Waste Land by Robert D  Brüning’s cabinet of technocrats had been eaten away by extremist forces in the streets It may have been the last real chance the Weimar Republic had to right itself History is Shakespearean as well as geopolitical and if Brüning had not had the personal limitations that he did the history of the 20th century might have been vastly different often the more extreme the tyranny to follow and that brings us to Weimar’s last chapter Weimar’s house of cards culminated in 1932 with its next-to-last chancellor a rightist authoritarian and amateur horseman without a political base a man whom Mann describes as “vain,” “irresponsible,” and “pitifully superficial.” Von Papen’s government just couldn’t get anything done and didn’t last the year at this point there was endless cabinet jockeying but no real governance he remained a close advisor to President Paul von Hindenburg bowing to the advice of von Papen and a few others “We have [only] hired him.” “We have framed him in,” added one of von Papen’s friends believing that Hitler could easily be controlled in that role Mann asks what the meaning of human existence is when “such a lightweight” as von Papen could “determine the course of world history.” Again and there are also contingencies based on pivotal personalities Adolf Hitler marches to the Reichstag in Berlin on Jan the day he took his seat as chancellor of the Reich.General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Weimar constituted a vacuum eventually filled by Nazi totalitarianism But our world today must have a different destiny it is an interconnected system of states in which no one really rules The Earth is vast enough that no individual political force can really replicate what happened to Germany at the end of Weimar a loose-limbed republic that covered only the geographical center of Europe So rather than risk the rise of another Hitler we are forced to wallow in one emergency or another without pause as crises seep and ricochet across the globe Weimar is now a permanent condition for us as we are connected enough by globalization and technology to affect each other intimately without having the possibility of true global governance Weimar might ultimately have righted itself There are quite a few Weimar democracies in the developing world—such as Lebanon and Bangladesh—and quite a few of them may yet succeed The key is to make constructive use of our fears about Weimar so as to be wary about the future without giving in to fate different parts of the globe now affect each other as intimately as different parts of Germany did in the 1920s and early 1930s with all of its factions and power centers The smaller the world becomes because of technology Every river and mountain range becomes strategic that undermines anti-terrorism activities across a vast region of Africa exposes the fragility of our world as much as an economic crisis in China Such is our globe today and in the coming decades Will this new global Weimar have the cataclysmic fate of the old German one Or will it find a measure of stability like in 1920s Germany during the Stresemann years For that interregnum might have continued indefinitely were it not for the Great Depression that afflicted the entire developed world and sent Weimar spiraling downward have not yet had the very targeted and cataclysmic effect on the globe that the Great Depression had on Germany Climate change and pandemics are relentless—and this is to say nothing of wars and great-power fractures the British geographer Halford Mackinder electrified much of the intellectual world with his now famous “pivot” theory which stated that since the Eurasian supercontinent was soon to be connected by railways the “heartland,” or vast center of Eurasia as it was equidistant from all the strategic points in any direction Mackinder fathomed that the great European imperial powers by expanding their political control into the most distant corners of Africa and Asia had essentially mapped out the entire earth meaning that their energies could no longer be expended in faraway conquests of jungles and deserts and so the great powers would increasingly turn on each other Thus did Mackinder vaguely intuit two world wars and the Cold War decades before they happened “Every explosion of social forces,” Mackinder wrote in 1904 “instead of being dissipated in a surrounding circuit of unknown space and barbaric chaos will [henceforth] be sharply re-echoed from the far side of the globe and weak elements” in between “will be shattered in consequence.” Almost everywhere there will be consequential and connected human habitation thus every place will become of critical importance The great powers will be trapped together on a finite planet World War I may have represented the first time in such stark terms that the great powers of Europe and North America were all bound up in one system But attrition of the same phenomenon—a tightening and shrinking Earth on account of technology—adds up to big change World War II saw all the major continents of the temperate zone—Europe and Asia—integrated into the same destructive conflict system: a world system that was only deepened and intensified during the almost half-century-long Cold War there has been a steady advance of high-tech military acquisitions that has made the world and its conflicts increasingly claustrophobic the possibilities of conflict become more numerous than ever And yet no global government has ever been on the horizon and Iran are locked in a conflict against a constellation of forces including the United States A high-end arms race is underway in the Indo-Pacific region with a focal point of Taiwan and the South China Sea A breakout of military hostilities there between the world’s largest and second-largest economies could be an extinction-level event for world financial markets Books are independently selected by FP editors. FP earns an affiliate commission on anything purchased through links to Amazon.com on this page Kaplan is the author of Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis He holds the Robert Strausz-Hupé chair in geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription Join the conversation on this and other recent Foreign Policy articles when you subscribe now Please follow our comment guidelines The default username below has been generated using the first name and last initial on your FP subscriber account Usernames may be updated at any time and must not contain inappropriate or offensive language FP’s flagship evening newsletter guiding you through the most important world stories of the day Specialty rates for students and faculty. Lock in your rates for longer. Unlock powerful intelligence for your team. Benedictine Military Academy and graduated from Savannah High School in 1965 He developed an interest in architecture and construction early in life earning his architectural drafting diploma from Massey Technical Institute in Jacksonville After spending a few years learning the construction business he founded Weimar Construction Company in 1976 Through his commitment to quality and meticulous attention to detail on every project Buzzy earned the respect and admiration of clients He was a member of the Forest City Gun Club and the German Friendly Society of Savannah he received an honorary lifetime membership to the Forest City Gun Club He was the life (and loudest) of the party and was famous for his crab stew One of his favorite things was sitting on the back porch in his rocking chair and waving to boaters who passed by shouting “BUZZY”! and Emmaline Weimar; his sisters Angela Orrel (Larry) of Jacksonville and Barbara Peterson of Savannah; several nieces and nephews; and his dog The family expresses their gratitude to the incredible caregivers, Kim Knight and Anna Gross for their support and care Donations to the Hospice Savannah in memory of Buzzy Weimar would be appreciated Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page The scion of a wealthy Catholic landowning family, Papen began his career as a professional soldier. At the beginning of World War I, he was military attaché in Washington, but, after being implicated in cases of espionage and sabotage he was recalled in 1915 at the request of the U.S he served as chief of staff of the Fourth Turkish Army in Palestine Schleicher induced a number of cabinet ministers to reject Papen’s policies Papen thereupon resigned and was on December 4 succeeded as chancellor by Schleicher Papen was arrested by the Allies in April 1945 and placed on trial as a war criminal. Found not guilty by the Nürnberg tribunal of conspiracy to prepare aggressive war he was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment by a German court as a major Nazi A network of correspondents providing impartial news reports and analysis in 33 languages from locations around the world Up-to-the-minute news and analysis from around the world and in Chicago Hosted by WBEZ's Mary Dixon and NPR's Steve Inskeep Newshour is the award-winning flagship program of the BBC World Service the world’s largest news gathering operation 1A convenes a conversation about the most important issues of our time smart reflection on world news as it’s happening innovators and artists from around the globe with news from Chicago from WBEZ’s Lisa Labuz Reset digs into how the news has moved since you left the house discussing and unpacking the biggest stories and issues in Chicago and beyond right in the heart of the day Fresh Air is a weekday “talk show” that hardly fits the mold Fresh Air Weekend collects the 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graphic novel “Berlin” at the Court Theatre brings to dynamic life an artistically daring politically divided city as it descends into fascism It’s a thrillingly staged piece of theater black-and-white “Berlin” over 20-plus years The story follows a sprawling collection of characters from different classes and viewpoints during the years 1928 to 1933 as the Weimar Republic decayed and Hitler emerged as the figure who could channel the rage of a population still grappling with grief and a sense of humiliation following the end of World War I essentially visual work as a source requires an expansive imagination and Newell’s choice to avoid projections forces him to rely on the purely theatrical even more yet so expressive — is mostly an empty stage with a set of tables with occasional props added in such as a telephone or a typewriter there are grand arches and a couple of hanging lights Jacqueline Firkins’ costumes and Keith Parham’s lighting follow suit not always pure white and black — the lamps for example emanate a yellowish glow — but never providing more than subtle touches of color And yet the world becomes vivid through the acting we get characters walking up circular staircases sitting (almost posing in slow motion) on a train dancing at a jazz club with all its unruly energy getting caught up in competing protests between left- and right-wing extremists You can feel the constant pressure to choose sides on those who see the worst in both Ellie Duffey and Jack Doherty in “Berlin.” Maher clearly understands that this can’t come across as a history lesson and yet needs to be coherent There are two narratives that form the core One follows a love triangle between aspiring artist Marthe (Raven Whitley) cross-dressing Anna Lenke (Mo Shipley) and journalist Kurt Severing (Tim Decker) politically at-odds Braun family (Elizabeth Laidlaw and HB Ward — covered by understudy Christopher Meister at opening) Other characters fill out the world: a jazz musician (Terry Bell) who falls in “love at first listen” with a singer (Molly Hernandez); a wealthy old-society matron (Kate Collins); a Jewish communist paperboy (Jack Doherty) and his please-be-cautious father (Guy Van Swearingen) The core turning point at the end of the first act is the “Blutmai” or Bloody May when the Berlin police began shooting at communist protesters Although the sensibilities are completely different there’s a Mary Zimmerman-like quality to Newell’s collaborative but auteur-like approach here Rain and typing are depicted by the actors’ tapping their fingers on the tables Sexual scenes employ fully dressed twirling lifts or a moving desk and chair through Mark Messing’s music and sound design as a seeming nod to Chekhov’s breaking string in “The Cherry Orchard” but on a different scale Elizabeth Laidlaw in “Berlin” at Court Theatre replacing the growing omnipresence of Hitler posters in Lutes’ drawings with a looming human Hitler (Laidlaw again) who follows people around in the second act The timing of this production feels prescient but the show itself dispels this notion — there are always those What Maher and Newell get most right here is that what matters isn’t so much the specifics of the story but the sensation of living as Kurt describes it — in a space between the unbelievable and the inevitable between “what’s real and what’s the story of what’s real,” between a belief that people can change history and a sense of utter powerlessness as a city crumbles into chaos Terms of Use • Privacy Notice • Cookie Policy • Terms of Sale will examine the works of Käthe Kollwitz and explore how her artistic treatment of gender issues during the Weimar Republic has been interpreted by scholars Copyright © University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Audience members who gathered in Kresge Auditorium yesterday evening heard retellings of life in Germany’s Weimar Republic as depicted in the TV show “Babylon Berlin.” came to campus after connecting with Jill Smith associate professor of German and the chair of the German department who recently co-edited the first scholarly volume on “Babylon Berlin,” noted the show’s broad political as well as its celebrated costumes and music it’s cleverly written [and] it’s controversial in the sense that it takes place in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Berlin at the end of the Weimar Republic,” Smith said in an interview with the Orient prior to the talk And so there’s a fascination with the Weimar Republic and its ending.” The show’s fourth and most recent season takes place in the early years of the Great Depression tracing historical shifts including changes in Jewish communities and a surge in right-wing political movements Handloegten said that the show was created with the goal of accurately depicting the late Weimar period “We started as cinephiles,” Handloegten said of himself and his co-creators “The three of us were always talking about Weimar and about this strange phenomenon that in German theater We always tell the story from the perspective of our characters and we stick to things that actually happened.” German Visual Spectacle and Global Media Culture,” incorporates perspectives on art political life and more during the end of the Weimar Republic professor of German studies at the University of Maryland and the book’s co-editor also spoke with Handloegten at yesterday evening’s event and at a book talk earlier in the afternoon Baer and Smith have both focused their research on women’s work and status (as prostitutes writers and activists) in Germany’s history They praised Handloegten for including Weimar women’s writing and art as reference texts in the show “Jill and I were especially thrilled to see increased references to women creators from the Weimar period … women writers especially,” Baer said Handloegten’s visit was sponsored by the German Funding for Handloegten’s visit was also enabled by the German Embassy’s “Germany on Campus” initiative The audience reflected this interdisciplinary support community members and students from departments such as German and cinema studies in attendance The more than 3,000-mile journey to Maine was particularly exciting for Handloegten he noted that the show had not previously been recognized in an academic context though it has been widely screened in German and media studies courses across colleges and universities “In this atmosphere there’s a certain peace,” Handloegten said Bowdoin community members were equally glad to welcome Handloegten to Bowdoin “I know people in facilities who are fans who are coming I know physics and math professors who are coming,” Smith said Kresge’s lights were dimmed and audience members sat forward in their seats to view clips from the show’s fourth season featured an original song and was filmed by Handloegten himself Each clip was screened in German with English subtitles Sisters Chloe Sheahan ’26 and Hazel Sheahan ’28 both students in elementary German this semester attended the talk in the hopes of practicing their language skills “We just wanted to expose ourselves to the language to hear more German as it is in the show,” Hazel said The talk was followed by a Q&A and a reception where Gelato Fiasco was served “Gelato Fiasco even let us rename some of our signature flavors after Babylon Berlin,” Smith said “The espresso chip is now Moka Efti which is the famous club featured in the show.” By Carey Goldberg • 3 days ago By Kaya Patel • 3 days ago By Orient Staff • 3 days ago By Emma Kilbride and Janet Briggs • 3 days ago By Mason Daugherty • 3 days ago By Abdullah Hashimi • September 6 By Rin Pastor • September 6 By Talia Traskos-Hart • May 3 By Robeson Amory • May 3 Any comments that do not follow the policy will not be published and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" One of the social dividends of post-war inflation in Weimar Germany was greater independence for women It’s no coincidence that the locus for this was on the dance floor The dance-hall clientele now included a type of customer who had never been seen before: unaccompanied women Most of these were young shorthand typists and secretaries who visited the clubs alone or with girlfriends To the puzzled observer from more conservative circles and seemed dangerously close to prostitution Many girls came from the provinces to Berlin they didn’t find a regular income as quickly as they might have wished like the famous “artificial silk girl” in the novel of the same name (Das kunstseidene Mädchen in German) by Irmgard Keun independent women who “are their own environment” and can switch themselves on “like electric light-bulbs and no one can get at them through the beam.” money played a part in the style with which young women conquered the city’s nightlife there was effectively no aspect of life in which money didn’t play an important part Many of these women could more or less find their feet thanks to their new office jobs But the ones who didn’t have that kind of independence in mind and who instead had their eyes set on marriage had their plans scuppered by hyperinflation From rich family’s elder daughter to simple housemaid some kind of dowry was seen as an economic requirement for marriageability Even many single housemaids had set aside everything they could in order to increase their chances on the marriage market Now those savings were basically liquidated The prospect of marriage wasn’t completely ruled out—sometimes love outshone the bride’s lack of means—but it had become more unlikely Many young women saw themselves thrown back on their own devices forced to recognize a potential for emancipation in the loss of their dowries and played an active and independent part in the search for a partner The idea associated with the dowry that one was supposed to “save oneself ” for the wedding night was further battered by hyperinflation Once again the same principle applied: saving is pointless Just as hyperinflation accelerated all social trends in swirling counter-currents of fresh liberation and new constraints it also gave an almost explosive boost to female emancipation the “new woman” became a new social role model Starting with the very highest social strata where the fashionable attributes of tennis playing the rebellious daughters fought their way downwards Praised and photographed a thousand times over in the illustrated magazines the “new woman” also impressed the girls who had to earn their money at typewriters in the cities and in many respects created a hypermodern type of woman pointing far into the future One of the more regrettable aspects of inflation was the rise of prostitution It had nothing to do with emancipation but was ideally placed to bring the notion into disrepute Sudden poverty forced even upper-class women on to the street “Now only amateurs practice prostitution and in broad daylight,” Egon Erwin Kisch wrote from Berlin in August 1923: a woman addressed me and told me that her husband was an interior designer but that he had had no commissions and was ill I hadn’t even answered when a girl stepped between us and tried to push the woman away ‘I have fabulous hair and a beautiful body…’ There was an abundance of information on prostitution in the years of inflation in Mel Gordon’s Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin one can read about which Berlin street offered which kind of prostitutes from minors to pregnant women to the disabled How much of this was factually accurate and how much was lewd and voyeuristic exaggeration—widespread even at the time—is hard to tell Prostitutes acted as a handy real-life metaphor to contemporaries who were inclined to see inflation as a moral decay in every respect Left and right outdid one another in their scorn for a society that they saw as selling itself Prostitutes can hardly have been painted as frequently in any age as they were in the interwar years They strut like greedy seagulls through the paintings of Otto Dix and George Grosz—overweight coquettes in the company of paunchy provincials snuggle up to their black-tie-and-tailed patrons In the watercolors of the painter Jeanne Mammen sarcastic gold-diggers eye the dancefloor in search of prey Ferrety and pig-headed faces can be seen in Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler’s pub paintings These pictures contained a great deal of social criticism but there was also a subliminal current of contempt for the Republic but also a secret fascination with the perverse dressed up as critique The prostitute became an essential part of the scene in the 1920s; many people saw her as the face that lay behind the seductive mask of the “new woman.” In Alfred Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz or Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis the symbol of a capitalism that had ended up in the moral gutter assembled a series of set-pieces to form an image of the decadent 1920s nocturnal strollers met up in the station waiting room of Berlin’s Bahnhof Zoo—caught off guard by the closing time they still wanted to spend the rest of the evening in the stylish way it had begun: the party crowd sat among the few weary travellers who didn’t have enough money to spend the night in a hotel bed the heavily made-up dregs of the street jostled shrieking image that had never been seen before in Berlin and which has luckily disappeared again since Does this “deeply intertwined confusion of avarice lust for life and superficial pleasure” not recall the pictures of nightlife painted by Otto Dix and Gorge Grosz And as if to emphasize the similarity with Dix the cripple who is an inevitable part of the stereotype appears when Hans Ostwald continues: While the party raged under the railway arch the war-wounded stood outside in the street offering matches or shoelaces for sale Miserable street-corner tarts strolled around unable to make enough to get them through the next day even by giving up their own bodies The revulsion that many Germans felt at the sight of this tumultuous nightlife and partygoing had also to do with the dubious power of foreign currencies Germany became a discount sale for prostitution Some people came specially for the nightlife particularly Americans tired of the strict rules of prohibition at home Others bought their cut-price pleasure as an afterthought once they had done their business deals during the day Germany was on sale in every respect—or that was what many shocked observers thought Whole hordes of foreign shoppers came to buy up goods and take them away on a grand scale Under the heading “German export trade,” the Berlin Vossische Zeitung—in October 1923 it was 5 million marks a copy—published two pages of small ads directed at foreign importers from A for Abziehbilder (stickers) to Z for Zeitschaltuhren (timers) foreigners who could afford at best a two-room apartment on the outskirts of town became billionaires when they stepped off the train at Berlin’s Anhalter Station and rented whole suites at the Excelsior Hotel Newspapers published shocking depictions of their luxurious lives—”glitzy parties dance parties,” at which the lady guests ostentatiously displayed their cheaply purchased pearls and furs head of the features section of the left-liberal newspaper Der neue Tag reported from Berlin on the foreigners’ bad behavior including an American in the dining room of a luxury Berlin hotel practicing his habit of whisking egg whites at a provocatively high volume: “For ten or twenty minutes his spoon strikes the plate And the pallid locals keep their heads down It’s as if the noise of victory is roaring above their heads.” Humiliated journalists wrote about how the foreigners gorged themselves at copiously laden tables got drunk on the most expensive champagne and then availed themselves of the newly unemployed shorthand typists now known as “currency girls.” The maelstrom of devaluation seemed to drag down with it everything that had once been cherished and expensive: loyalty and faith honor—it all disappeared down the drain of time Germany seemed to be hurtling towards the end like an out-of-control steam engine Excerpted from Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany by Harald Jähner Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature Masthead About Sign Up For Our Newsletters How to Pitch Lit Hub Privacy Policy Support Lit Hub - Become A Member Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving he hastened the drift toward rightist dictatorship by ignoring the Reichstag and governing by presidential decree In the Reichstag he came to be known as a financial and economic expert and in 1929 he became the leader of his party in that legislative body The immediate cause of his dismissal was his project to partition several bankrupt East Elbian estates and his withdrawal of confidence left Brüning with no choice but to resign Berlin briefly offered unprecedented liberties Published: Dec 23, 2024written by Anastasiia Kirpalov Germany lived through a dramatic yet remarkable period of extreme political instability and outstanding cultural upheaval installed after Germany’s loss in World War I was a democratic experiment in building a constitutional republic the Republic introduced several liberal reforms that benefited the social climate and we associate the culture of the Weimar Republic with loud nightlife In 1918, the devastating loss in World War I led Germany to seek radical change in its political and social system. Monarchy proved insufficient, as the last German monarch, Wilhelm II, fled to the Netherlands. In November 1918, a coalition of German political parties signed the new constitution in the city of Weimar which gave the name to the short-lived yet famous era of German history The Weimar Republic was the first attempt in German history to adopt democracy it was flawed and dysfunctional from the start Neither the people nor the politicians were prepared to function in a democratic system leading the country into economic and political instability Another issue was the Treaty of Versailles which demanded that Germany pay reparations for the destruction caused by World War I The post-war German economy could not handle the demands which led to unprecedented hyperinflation in 1923 the money lost so much value that Germans started repurposing it as wallpaper and toys for children The new republic officially banned censorship which brought opportunities for previously unseen creative freedoms The new constitution also established equal rights for men and women regarding access to education many workers preferred to spend their earned money in bars and cabarets at once a side note needs to be made here—despite our widespread recognition of the interwar German culture as the era of cabarets Germany was still predominantly rural and remained in a more conservative cultural context greatly affected by the economic hardships The Weimar culture as we know it belonged mostly to Berlin and a couple of other major cities Despite the appealing image of the decadent and liberal Weimar Berlin the majority of the republic’s contemporaries were happy when it was over The capital’s cabarets and art galleries did little to compensate for the poverty and instability The war brought a great crisis in the ranks of European creatives It seemed that their pre-war knowledge of art was rendered useless over the four years of bloodshed The old art could not exist any longer; a new form of creative expression had to take its place burdened by the newly found experience of pain and destruction The ultimate solution to the post-war artistic crisis was Dada deliberately absurd and meaningful in its absurdity Dada poets compiled nonsensical verses from random sounds and Dada artists put together found objects and magazine cutouts Dada united artists from different parts of the world like Berlin criticizing capitalist values and the hypocrisy of German society Another emblematic type of Weimar art was the New Objectivity movement. Although it had no coherent ideology and no manifesto, art historians regard it as the post-war protest against the dominance of Expressionist art. Expressionism departed reality in favor of subjective emotions the New Objectivity artists aimed to once again grasp reality in its most physical and often unpleasant form The most recognizable artists of the movement and corruption in almost a caricaturistic way that somehow made the images even more realistic and uncomfortably life-like Otto Dix was particularly famous for his depictions of crippled soldiers he experienced combat first-hand and was haunted by it for the rest of his life his anti-war paintings were labeled as degenerative by the new militaristic regime with many of them captured and even destroyed One of the most remarkable features of the Weimar-era Berlin culture was the surprisingly progressive gender attitude The legal emancipation of women as well as the changing workforce dynamic created a new character for the Berlin cultural scene: The New Woman The New Woman had her own means of supporting her lifestyle she was as free and non-committed as the men of her circle were The fight against the patriarchal norms of chastity and “decent” behavior was seen as a necessity to break free from the living conditions of the previous generations In cabarets and bars, performers often appeared nude or in provocative outfits. Dance generally was the area of liberal sexualized self-expression and the dismantling of boundaries Crossdressing and transgender performers were common occasions and often attracted large crowds like the touring American female impersonator Barbette (Vander Klyde) Experimental artists like Valeska Gert performed dances through abrupt and seemingly unsynchronized movements exploring the limits of dance as a performative practice She explained it as a mix of pantomime and abstract dance inspired by the marginalized people she met on the streets of Berlin Although male homosexuality technically remained illegal, the liberal reforms of Weimar Germany gave the sensation of freedom to its queer inhabitants Berlin nightlife was particularly welcoming and open with more than a hundred gay and lesbian bars functioning there in the early 1920s Lesbian and bisexual women openly expressed their sexuality and even became cultural icons like Marlene Dietrich were forcefully euthanized in an attempt to clear Germany from degenerate elements the Weimar period became greatly romanticized with its flaws overlooked and glossed over by the memories of parties the Republic remained on the pages of decadent novels and stills from period dramas Perhaps our desire to overlook the worst aspects of the Weimar years developed from the sheer horror of the years that followed—the years that starkly contrasted the decadent freedoms of 1920s Berlin Anastasiia is an art historian and curator based in Bucharest Previously she worked as a museum assistant caring for a collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art Her main research objectives are early-20th-century art and underrepresented artists of that era She travels frequently and has lived in 8 different countries for the past 28 years Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country Digital access for organisations. Includes exclusive features and content. See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times. In parallel, the city prepares to shine during the summer months with a busy calendar of outdoor events, collected under the title Weimar Summer 2025. From June through September, Weimar will be transformed into a grand stage with concerts, plays, street parties and dance performances. The goal is to return the city to its role as an artistic crossroads, mixing different forms of expression and welcoming artists from around the world. Details of the program will be announced in the coming weeks. Adolf Hitler and his cabinet, January 30, 1933, the day he became Chancellor of Germany. (Everett Collection / Alamy)January 8, 2025 ShareSave Listen-1.0x+0:0032:43Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (Noa) using AI narration Adolf Hitler was appointed the 15th chancellor of the Weimar Republic In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy Hitler set about destroying a constitutional republic through constitutional means What follows is a step-by-step account of how Hitler systematically disabled and then dismantled his country’s democratic structures and processes in less than two months’ time—specifically Hans Frank served as Hitler’s private attorney and chief legal strategist in the early years of the Nazi movement While later awaiting execution at Nuremberg for his complicity in Nazi atrocities Frank commented on his client’s uncanny capacity for sensing “the potential weakness inherent in every formal form of law” and then ruthlessly exploiting that weakness Following his failed Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923 Hitler had renounced trying to overthrow the Weimar Republic by violent means but not his commitment to destroying the country’s democratic system a determination he reiterated in a Legalitätseid—“legality oath”—before the Constitutional Court in September 1930 Invoking Article 1 of the Weimar constitution which stated that the government was an expression of the will of the people Hitler informed the court that once he had achieved power through legal means he intended to mold the government as he saw fit through constitutional means?” the presiding judge asked the fallibilities of the Weimar Republic—whose 181-article constitution framed the structures and processes for its 18 federated states—were as obvious as they were abundant Having spent a decade in opposition politics Hitler knew firsthand how easily an ambitious political agenda could be scuttled He had been co-opting or crushing right-wing competitors and paralyzing legislative processes for years helping to bring down three chancellors and twice forcing the president to dissolve the Reichstag and call for new elections Hitler wanted to prevent others from doing unto him what he had done unto them Though the vote share of his National Socialist party had been rising—in the election of September 1930 they had increased their representation in the Reichstag almost ninefold they had more than doubled their mandate to 230 seats—they were still far from a majority Their seats amounted to only 37 percent of the legislative body and the larger right-wing coalition that the Nazi Party was a part of controlled barely 51 percent of the Reichstag but Hitler believed that he should exercise absolute power: “37 percent represents 75 percent of 51 percent,” he argued to one American reporter by which he meant that possessing the relative majority of a simple majority was enough to grant him absolute authority But he knew that in a multiparty political system He believed that an Ermächtigungsgesetz (“empowering law”) was crucial to his political survival But passing such a law—which would dismantle the separation of powers grant Hitler’s executive branch the authority to make laws without parliamentary approval bypassing democratic institutions and the constitution—required the support of a two-thirds majority in the fractious Reichstag The process proved to be even more challenging than anticipated Hitler found his dictatorial intentions getting thwarted within his first six hours as chancellor he swore an oath to uphold the constitution then went across the street to the Hotel Kaiserhof for lunch then returned to the Reich Chancellery for a group photo of the “Hitler Cabinet,” which was followed by his first formal meeting with his nine ministers at precisely 5 o’clock Hitler opened the meeting by boasting that millions of Germans had welcomed his chancellorship with “jubilation,” then outlined his plans for expunging key government officials and filling their positions with loyalists At this point he turned to his main agenda item: the empowering law that according to the stipulations laid out in the draft of the law) and the authority necessary to make good on his campaign promises to revive the economy withdraw from international treaty obligations purge the country of foreigners he claimed were “poisoning” the blood of the nation “Heads will roll in the sand,” Hitler had vowed at one rally From the March 1932 issue: Hitler and Hitlerism: a man of destiny But given that Social Democrats and Communists collectively commanded 221 seats the two-thirds vote Hitler needed was a mathematical impossibility “Now if one were to ban the Communist Party and annul their votes,” Hitler proposed “it would be possible to reach a Reichstag majority.” was that this would almost certainly precipitate a national strike by the 6 million German Communists lead to a collapse of the country’s economy Reichstag percentages could be rebalanced by holding new elections “What represents a greater danger to the economy?” Hitler asked “The uncertainties and concerns associated with new elections or a general strike?” Calling for new elections Economic Minister Alfred Hugenberg disagreed if one wanted to achieve a two-thirds Reichstag majority there was no way of getting around banning the Communist Party Hugenberg had his own self-interested reasons for opposing new Reichstag elections: In the previous election Hugenberg had siphoned 14 seats from Hitler’s National Socialists to his own party making Hugenberg an indispensable partner in Hitler’s current coalition government New elections threatened to lose his party seats and diminish his power When Hitler wondered whether the army could be used to crush any public unrest Defense Minister Werner von Blomberg dismissed the idea out of hand observing “that a soldier was trained to see an external enemy as his only potential opponent.” As a career officer Blomberg could not imagine German soldiers being ordered to shoot German citizens on German streets in defense of Hitler’s (or any other German) government Hitler had campaigned on the promise of draining the “parliamentarian swamp”—den parlamentarischen Sumpf—only to find himself now foundering in a quagmire of partisan politics and banging up against constitutional guardrails He responded as he invariably did when confronted with dissenting opinions or inconvenient truths: He ignored them and doubled down and issued a memorandum to his party leaders “After a thirteen-year struggle the National Socialist movement has succeeded in breaking through into the government but the struggle to win the German nation is only beginning,” Hitler proclaimed and then added venomously: “The National Socialist party knows that the new government is not a National Socialist government even though it is conscious that it bears the name of its leader Adolf Hitler.” He was declaring war on his own government We have come to perceive Hitler’s appointment as chancellor as part of an inexorable rise to power an impression resting on generations of postwar scholarship much of which has necessarily marginalized or disregarded alternatives to the standard narrative of the Nazi seizure of power (Machtergreifung) with its political and social persecutions its assertion of totalitarian rule (Gleichschaltung) and subsequent aggressions that led to the Second World War and the nightmare of the Holocaust I intentionally ignored these ultimate outcomes and instead traced events as they unfolded in real time with their attendant uncertainties and misguided assessments New York Times story on Hitler’s appointment as chancellor was headlined “Hitler Puts Aside Aim to Be Dictator.” where I served as a teaching fellow in a course on Weimar and Nazi Germany that underscored the tenuous nature of Hitler’s political career “The Führer was a man who was possible in Germany only at that very moment,” the Nazi legal strategist recalled “He came at exactly this terrible transitory period when the monarchy had gone and the republic was not yet secure.” Had Hitler’s predecessor in the chancellery or had German President Paul von Hindenburg exercised his constitutional powers more judiciously or had a faction of moderate conservative Reichstag delegates cast their votes differently then history may well have taken a very different turn ends at the moment the story this essay tells begins Both Hitler’s ascendancy to chancellor and his smashing of the constitutional guardrails once he got there are stories of political contingency rather than historical inevitability Hitler’s appointment as chancellor of the country’s first democratic republic came almost as much as a surprise to Hitler as it did to the rest of the country After a vertiginous three-year political ascent Hitler had taken a shellacking in the November 1932 elections shedding 2 million votes and 34 Reichstag seats almost half of them to Hugenberg’s German Nationalists Hitler’s movement was bankrupt financially Hitler told several close associates that he was contemplating suicide But a series of backroom deals that included the shock weekend dismissal of Chancellor Schleicher in late January 1933 hurtled Hitler into the chancellery Schleicher would later remember Hitler telling him that “it was astonishing in his life that he was always rescued just when he himself had given up all hope.” Thomas Weber: Hitler would have been astonished The eleventh-hour appointment came at a steep political price Hitler had left several of his most loyal lieutenants as political roadkill on this unexpected fast lane to power he found himself with a cabinet handpicked by a political enemy whose government Hitler had helped topple and who now served as Hitler’s vice chancellor who commanded 51 Reichstag votes along with the power to make or break Hitler’s chancellorship As President Hindenburg waited to receive Hitler on that Monday morning in January 1933 Hugenberg clashed with Hitler over the issue of new Reichstag elections Nein!” While Hitler and Hugenberg argued in the foyer outside the president’s office a military hero of World War I who had served as the German president since 1925 had the Hitler-Hugenberg squabble lasted another few minutes the awkward coalition cobbled together by Papen in the previous 48 hours would have collapsed There would have been no Hitler chancellorship Hitler was given a paltry two cabinet posts to fill—and none of the most important ones pertaining to the economy Hitler chose Wilhelm Frick as minister of the interior and Hermann Göring as minister without portfolio But with his unerring instinct for detecting the weaknesses in structures and processes Hitler put his two ministers to work targeting the Weimar Republic’s key democratic pillars: free speech Frick had responsibility over the republic’s federated system as well as over the country’s electoral system and over the press Frick was the first minister to reveal the plans of Hitler’s government: “We will present an enabling law to the Reichstag that in accordance with the constitution will dissolve the Reich government,” Frick told the press explaining that Hitler’s ambitious plans for the country required extreme measures a position Hitler underscored in his first national radio address on February 1 “The national government will therefore regard it as its first and supreme task to restore to the German people unity of mind and will,” Hitler said “It will preserve and defend the foundations on which the strength of our nation rests.” Frick was also charged with suppressing the opposition press and centralizing power in Berlin While Frick was undermining states’ rights and imposing bans on left-wing newspapers—including the Communist daily The Red Banner and the Social Democratic Forward—Hitler also appointed Göring as acting state interior minister of Prussia the federated state that represented two-thirds of German territory Göring was tasked with purging the Prussian state police the largest security force in the country after the army and a bastion of Social Democratic sentiment Rudolf Diels was the head of Prussia’s political police when Göring knocked at his door and told him in no uncertain terms that it was time to clear house “I want nothing to do with these scoundrels who are sitting around here in this place,” Göring said This permitted the state police to shoot on sight without fearing consequences “I cannot rely on police to go after the red mob if they have to worry about facing disciplinary action when they are simply doing their job,” Göring explained He accorded them his personal backing to shoot with impunity Göring also designated the Nazi storm troopers as Hilfspolizei or “deputy police,” compelling the state to provide the brownshirt thugs with sidearms and empowering them with police authority in their street battles Diels later noted that this—manipulating the law to serve his ends and legitimizing the violence and excesses of tens of thousands of brownshirts—was a “well-tested Hitler tactic.” As Hitler scrambled to secure power and crush the opposition rumors circulated of his government’s imminent demise Another said that Hitler was a puppet of Papen and a backwoods Austrian boy in the unwitting service of German aristocrats Still others alleged that Hitler was merely a brownshirt strawman for Hugenberg and a conspiracy of industrialists who intended to dismantle worker protections for the sake of higher profits (The industrialist Otto Wolff was said to have “cashed in” on his financing of Hitler’s movement.) Yet another rumor had it that Hitler was merely managing a placeholder government while President Hindenburg but Hitler did have to confront the political reality of making good on his campaign promises to frustrated German voters in advance of the March Reichstag elections The Red Banner published a list of Hitler’s campaign promises to workers and the Center Party publicly demanded assurances that Hitler would support the agricultural sector avoid “financial-political experiments,” and adhere to the Weimar constitution the dismay among right-wing supporters who had applauded Hitler’s earlier demand for dictatorial power and refusal to enter into a coalition was distilled in the pithy observation “No Third Reich the center-left newspaper Vossische Zeitung wrote that despite Hitler’s campaign promises and political posturing nothing had changed for the average German Hitler’s promise of doubling tariffs on grain imports had gotten tangled in complexities and contractual obligations Hugenberg informed Hitler during a cabinet meeting that the “catastrophic economic conditions” were threatening the very “existence of the country.” “In the end,” Vossische Zeitung predicted “the survival of the new government will rely not on words but on the economic conditions.” For all Hitler’s talk of a thousand-year Reich there was no certainty his government would last the month Over the eight months before appointing Hitler as chancellor Hindenberg had dispatched three others—Heinrich Brüning exercising his constitutional authority embedded in Article 53 And his disdain for Hitler was common knowledge and the country,” he would never appoint Hitler as chancellor Hindenburg had quipped that if he were to appoint Hitler to any position “so he can lick me from behind on my stamps.” In January Hindenburg finally agreed to appoint Hitler but with great reluctance—and on the condition that he never be left alone in a room with his new chancellor how much longer would the aging field marshal put up with his Bohemian corporal That Forward article appeared on Saturday morning under the headline “How Long?” Two days later sheafs of fire collapsing the glass dome of the plenary hall and illuminating the night sky over Berlin Witnesses recall seeing the fire from villages 40 miles away The image of the seat of German parliamentary democracy going up in flames sent a collective shock across the country The Communists blamed the National Socialists The National Socialists blamed the Communists saw evidence of potential Nazi involvement From the May 1944 issue: What is German? When Hitler convened his cabinet to discuss the crisis the next morning he declared that the fire was clearly part of a Communist coup attempt Göring detailed Communist plans for further arson attacks on public buildings as well as for the poisoning of public kitchens and the kidnapping of the children and wives of prominent officials Interior Minister Frick presented a draft decree suspending civil liberties and curbing states’ rights during a national emergency Papen expressed concern that the proposed draft “could meet with resistance,” especially from “southern states,” by which he meant Bavaria which was second only to Prussia in size and power the proposed measures should be discussed with state governments to assure “an amicable agreement,” otherwise the measures could be seen as the usurpation of states’ rights only one word was added to suggest contingencies for suspending a state’s rights Hindenburg signed the decree into law that afternoon Put into effect just a week before the March elections the emergency decree gave Hitler tremendous power to intimidate—and imprison—the political opposition The Communist Party was banned (as Hitler had wanted since his first cabinet meeting) and members of the opposition press were arrested Göring had already been doing this for the past month but the courts had invariably ordered the release of detained people Thousands of Communists and Social Democrats were rounded up “No stranger election has perhaps ever been held in a civilized country,” Frederick Birchall wrote that day in The New York Times Birchall expressed his dismay at the apparent willingness of Germans to submit to authoritarian rule when they had the opportunity for a democratic alternative “In any American or Anglo-Saxon community the response would be immediate and overwhelming,” he wrote More than 40 million Germans went to the polls which was more than 2 million more than in any previous election representing nearly 89 percent of the registered voters—a stunning demonstration of democratic engagement “Not since the German Reichstag was founded in 1871 has there been such a high voter turnout,” Vossische Zeitung reported Most of those 2 million new votes went to the Nazis “The enormous voting reserves almost entirely benefited the National Socialists,” Vossische Zeitung reported Although the National Socialists fell short of Hitler’s promised 51 percent managing only 44 percent of the electorate—despite massive suppression the Social Democrats lost just a single Reichstag seat—the banning of the Communist Party positioned Hitler to form a coalition with the two-thirds Reichstag majority necessary to pass the empowering law the National Socialists stormed state-government offices across the country Swastika banners were hung from public buildings Opposition politicians fled for their lives Tens of thousands of political opponents were taken into Schutzhaft (“protective custody”) a form of detention in which an individual could be held without cause indefinitely He did not call his new chancellor to account for the violent public excesses against Communists he signed a decree permitting the National Socialists’ swastika banner to be flown beside the national colors He acceded to Hitler’s request to create a new cabinet position minister of public enlightenment and propaganda “What good fortune for all of us to know that this towering old man is with us,” Goebbels wrote of Hindenburg in his diary “and what a change of fate that we are now moving on the same path together.” Hindenburg’s embrace of Hitler was on full public display He appeared in military regalia in the company of his chancellor who was wearing a dark suit and long overcoat The former field marshal and the Bohemian corporal shook hands The “Day of Potsdam” signaled the end of any hope for an Article 53 solution to the Hitler chancellorship an Article 48 decree was issued amnestying National Socialists convicted of crimes perpetrated “in the battle for national renewal.” Men convicted of treason were now national heroes The first concentration camp was opened that afternoon in an old brewery near the town center of Oranienburg the first group of detainees arrived at another concentration camp in an abandoned munition plant outside the Bavarian town of Dachau Plans for legislation excluding Jews from the legal and medical professions though Hitler’s promise for the mass deportation of the country’s 100,000 Ostjuden Many had acquired German citizenship and were gainfully employed a run on local banks caused other banks and businesses to panic Accounts of Jewish depositors were frozen until “they had settled their obligations with German business men.” Hermann Göring now president of the newly elected Reichstag assuring Germany’s Jewish citizens that they retained the same “protection of law for person and property” as every other German citizen He then berated the international community: Foreigners were not to interfere with the domestic affairs of the country Germany would do with its citizens whatever it deemed appropriate Adolf Hitler's address to the Reichstag on March 23 a majority of the delegates voted to eliminate almost all constitutional restraints on Hitler’s government the Reichstag delegates assembled in the Kroll Opera House just opposite the charred ruins of the Reichstag the traditional Reich eagle had been removed and replaced with an enormous Nazi eagle dramatically backlit with wings spread wide and a swastika in its talons dressed now in a brown storm trooper uniform with a swastika armband arrived to pitch his proposed enabling law now formally titled the “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich.” At 4:20 p.m. Appearing uncharacteristically ill at ease he shuffled a sheaf of pages before beginning to read haltingly from a prepared text Only gradually did he assume his usual animated rhetorical style He enumerated the failings of the Weimar Republic then outlined his plans for the four-year tenure of his proposed enabling law which included restoring German dignity and military parity abroad as well as economic and social stability at home “Treason toward our nation and our people shall in the future be stamped out with ruthless barbarity,” Hitler vowed Read: Trump: ‘I need the kind of generals that Hitler had’ The Reichstag recessed to deliberate on the act When the delegates reconvened at 6:15 that evening Papen touched Hitler’s wrist to keep him in check we German Social Democrats solemnly pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice He chided Hitler for seeking to undermine the Weimar Republic and for the hatred and divisiveness he had sowed Regardless of the evils Hitler intended to visit on the country the republic’s founding democratic values would endure “No enabling act gives you the power to destroy ideas that are eternal and indestructible,” he said just proclaimed are words that have come a bit too late for world history,” he began He dismissed allegations that he posed any kind of threat to the German people He reminded Wels that the Social Democrats had had 13 years to address the issues that really mattered to the German people—employment “Where was this battle during the time you had the power in your hand?” Hitler asked A series of them rose to state both their concerns and positions on the proposed enabling law as well as the representatives of the Bavarian People’s Party said they were willing to vote yes despite reservations “that in normal times could scarcely have been overcome.” Similarly expressed concern about what would happen to judicial independence and equal rights for all citizens under the law and stated that he had “serious reservations” about according Hitler dictatorial powers The 94 Social Democrat delegates who were in attendance cast their votes against the law (Among the Social Democrats was the former interior minister of Prussia who had been arrested earlier in the day as he was about to enter the Reichstag but was released temporarily in order to cast his vote.) The remaining Reichstag delegates more than enough to put the enabling law into effect without amendment or restriction Ambassador Frederic Sackett sent a telegram to the State Department: “On the basis of this law the Hitler Cabinet can reconstruct the entire system of government as it eliminates practically all constitutional restraints.” who was present that day as a National Socialist Reichstag delegate would later marvel that the National Socialists had succeeded in dismantling a federated constitutional republic entirely through constitutional means after being elected to the Reichstag as one of the first 12 National Socialist delegates Goebbels had been similarly struck: He was surprised to discover that he and these 11 other men (including Hermann Göring and Hans Frank) seated in a single row on the periphery of a plenary hall in their brown uniforms with swastika armbands had—even as self-declared enemies of the Weimar Republic—been accorded free first-class train travel and subsidized meals and paralyze democratic structures and processes at will “is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction.” 03/05/2025 ( Detailed Political Quizzes ) – As comparisons between contemporary American politics and the rise of the Nazi Party are frequently invoked in the media it’s crucial to draw one specific lesson from the history of Weimar Germany the democratic state that existed from 1918 to 1933 The rise of Hitler and the Nazis was not the result of Weimar’s failure to punish hate speech it was the futile attempt to suppress such speech while not acting effectively to curb political violence that allowed the Nazis to rise and gain power there were laws in place that criminalized hate speech In the fifteen years leading up to Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933 more than 200 legal prosecutions were initiated in response to antisemitic speech and hundreds of Nazi-affiliated newspapers were shut down. Hitler himself was banned from speaking in several German states from 1925 to 1927 while prominent Nazi figures were sentenced to prison Rather than curbing the spread of Nazi antisemitic ideology legal prosecutions of Nazis undermined the credibility of Weimar leaders and inadvertently aided the Nazi movement by providing a platform for their racist and fascist beliefs claimed they were being persecuted for exposing an international conspiracy aimed at oppressing “true” Germans as articulated by Hitler in his 1925 autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf centered on a supposed conspiracy between Jews and their government sympathizers to politically disenfranchise Aryan Germans it’s unsurprising that the Nazis were able to portray government censorship as proof that powerful forces were aligned against them The issue with Germany’s response to the rise of Nazism but rather the inadequate punishment of Nazi violence This violence allowed the Nazis to suppress the rights of anti-Nazis Acts of political violence committed by Nazis were either under-punished or went unpunished often due to the sympathetic attitudes of judges and juries—sympathy that was not extended to their leftist or communist counterparts after leading an attempted coup d’état in 1923 a permanent ban from holding public office due to the leniency of a sympathetic judge he was sentenced to only five years in prison the clearest way to have prevented the rise of the Nazi party would have been the proportionate prosecution of its political violence During the presidential elections of March and April 1932 Hitler’s paramilitary Brownshirts formed “emergency squads” to intimidate voters On the night of the Reichstag election on July 31 including the murders of local officials and communist politicians When five Brownshirts were sentenced to death for these murders Hitler condemned the sentences as “a most outrageous blood verdict” and declared that “from now on your freedom is a question of honor for all of us and to fight against the government which made possible such a verdict is our duty.” These words bear a disturbing resemblance to a statement made by Donald Trump during a January 2024 speech where he defended his supporters’ actions during the January 6 Capitol attack — an attack that included assaulting police officers and attempting to disrupt the lawful transfer of power to Joe Biden Trump claimed his supporters had acted “peacefully and patriotically” — despite the attack resulting in more than 1,200 criminal charges with nearly 900 individuals pleading guilty or being convicted I call them hostages,” and promised to pardon them if re-elected anti-democratic organizations linked to some of these individuals during the Biden presidency The question remains whether such vigilance will continue under Trump’s FBI director The fear of political violence likely influenced some Republicans to refrain from voting to convict Trump during his impeachment trials Numerous journalists have reported that Republican lawmakers privately express concern that Trump might incite his MAGA supporters to engage in acts of political violence against them if they fail to support him the Capitol Police recorded fewer than 900 threats against members of Congress The threats continued to rise throughout his presidency reaching a peak of 9,700 in 2021.) Former Senator Mitt Romney hired personal security for himself and his family after receiving threats following his vote to remove Trump from office for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack Romney revealed to his biographer that during Trump’s impeachment a member of the Republican Senate leadership had initially leaned toward voting to convict Trump after other senators expressed concerns for their personal safety and that of their families former Republican Representative Liz Cheney disclosed to CNN that several House Republicans confided in her their fears for their own security and Former Republican Representative Peter Meijer also heard similar concerns from his colleagues Senator Thom Tillis reportedly said that the FBI had warned him about “credible death threats” when he was contemplating voting against Pete Hegseth’s 2025 nomination for Secretary of Defense Tillis eventually voted in favor of Hegseth’s confirmation The lesson of Weimar Germany is that a free society cannot endure if it fails to respond decisively to political violence The normalization of such violence undermines the foundations of democracy by eroding the space for reasonable debate and the peaceful transfer of power Imagine the implications if a president were to pardon violent rioters who attempted to thwart the peaceful transfer of power … a troubling thought Via Detailed Political Quizzes Filed Under: Germany, History Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at: By | January 23 — Morey’s Piers and Beachfront Waterparks a leading amusement and water park destination in the Mid-Atlantic region today announced the creation of a new Director of Games Operations position and the promotion of long-time Games Manager Mike Weimar to this key role a seasoned amusement industry veteran with over 20 years of dedicated service to Morey’s Piers expenses and revenue of the park’s expansive Games program which boasts over 30 thrilling games across three iconic piers In his previous role as Senior Manager of Games for the past 15 years Weimar played a pivotal role in all aspects of Games operations This new leadership position was established in recognition of Mike’s contributions from representing Morey’s externally on the New Jersey Amusement Association Board of Directors to being an integral part of the team that conceptualized and brought to life the popular and now nationally available “Mike’s unwavering dedication and proven success within our Games department make him the ideal candidate for this leadership role We are confident that under his expert guidance the Games department will continue to flourish and provide our guests with unparalleled levels of entertainment.” Weimar expressed his enthusiasm for this exciting new chapter “I am deeply honored to be appointed Director of Games Operations at Morey’s Piers I am committed to working collaboratively with our talented team to ensure we continue to deliver an unmatched level of fun and excitement to our guests for years to come.” Sign up to be alerted when the latest Amusement Today issue is published via our Digital Edition and you’ll also receive the daily EXTRA featuring FREE industry news delivered directly to your email every workday morning by Amusement Today © 1997-2025 Amusement Today and one of the architects of German-Soviet understanding in the 1920s which had seemed to link Germany too closely with the Western powers As ultra-conservative attitudes to sex and gender re-emerge performer Jen Byrne’s Weimar act is increasingly radical – even convincing one woman to leave her husband Fast-forward on a tape and whole worlds open up. For Jen Byrne, the creator of legendary Weimar cabaret singer Bernie Dieter, it came at the end of her own christening video: filmed in Germany where she was initially raised Fast-forwarding past the usual scenes – moments in the church drinking champagne and eating cake – she suddenly came across the remnants of a German prison porno “Lots of men with moustaches and all these very large bushes,” Byrne says The discovery echoed an experience she had as an eight-year-old watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show with her parents who “would stop it just before the orgy scene in the pool – one night I was on my own and I just kept watching Bernie Dieter on stage in Melbourne. Photograph: Ruth SchwarzenholzBernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett at Underbelly Boulevard in Soho Photograph: Craig SugdenDieter is an international fixture on the cabaret scene having hosted the ribald circus antics of La Clique for a number of years as well as touring her own shows Little Death Club and Berlin Underground throughout Europe and the UK Dieter deliberately evokes the heady maximalism of interwar Weimar cabaret with its sharp edges and politically subversive sensibility If Byrne isn’t quite as sexually outrageous as Dieter – who often climbs over audience members in her predilection for hirsute men – she still suggests levels of allure and depravity under her gamine smile Weimar cabaret flares up in times when there’s a lot of scary shit happening in the worldJen Byrne“Bernie’s obviously an extension of me,” Byrne says “Everything that she represents is actually within me.” But Dieter also allows for a kind of debauched anarchy that Byrne would never get away with in ordinary life – “all those primal weird beautiful things that live deep inside you that you’re not always allowed to express” Byrne has been performing as Dieter since her early 20s but only recently discovered a familial link to the character stretching back to her German grandmother’s childhood her Oma began to relive her early life growing up in a travelling circus while wartime Germany divided in two and the family travelled under the Sarrasani umbrella But the hard border between east and west made it increasingly difficult to tour,” Byrne says Jen Byrne’s Oma Photograph: Supplied by Jen ByrneHer Oma’s stepfather abusive man who had forbidden his stepdaughter to perform – decided they had to escape across the border to the west Oma was smuggled in under a bunch of costumes while her brothers hid in hay from the elephant enclosures Harry abandoned his family and left them with a single food truck “Whenever they got some money selling sausages they would add on a room and the food truck became their kitchen.” This hodgepodge approach to architecture made for “a weird house Oma never fulfilled her dream of performing as an adult so her family never made the connection between her and Byrne’s Weimar-inspired alter ego “All these stories and no one had told me,” Byrne says “I don’t know why; they just never talked about it.” ‘The veil between Bernie and I is getting thinner’ … Jen Byrne as Bernie Dieter in Melbourne Photograph: Cameron Grant/@parenthesyDieter may have come unbidden from Byrne’s consciousness but she clearly satisfied a need It’s something Byrne recognises as she tours the world especially when visiting countries with less permissive attitudes to sex and sexuality take on a social and political urgency in a place such as Hungary which is “still pretty traditional in their gender roles” Some of the reactions she receives from audiences after her shows astonishes her “One immaculately dressed Japanese woman in her 70s took my hands and said ‘Thank you for the most joy I have had in my life’.” Another woman in the UK told Byrne she was going to leave her husband after seeing the show social commentary energy about it,” Byrne says “It flares up in times when there’s a lot of scary shit happening in the world.” Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett is on in Melbourne 3 April-11 May NC State’s Caitlin Weimar is no longer with the program and no decision has been made whether she will rejoin Wolfpack next season a team spokesperson confirmed to On3 this afternoon The spokesperson added that this was a mutual decision after Weimar underwent hip surgery this Fall and thought it was best to recover at home Weimar, who transferred to NC State from Boston University this offseason, averaged 18.7 points, 10.6 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 2.8 blocks per game last year. She began her career at Marist, before transferring to the Terriers following her freshman campaign.  Weimar won the 2023-24 Patriot Conference Player of the Year twice with Boston University as well as two conference Defensive Player of the Year honors and three all-conference selections. Top 101Trump, SabanDuo's NIL order blasted Hot32026 NFL Mock DraftTodd McShay looks ahead By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms and use of my personal information described therein The 6-foot-4 post player was the Wolfpack’s lone portal addition and never suited up for NC State due to her hip injury Weimar has not yet entered the transfer portal but she has one year of eligibility remaining On3 is a registered trademark of On3 Media signing NC State transfer Caitlin Weimar on Saturday (April (12) Weimar missed the 2024-2025 season at NC State but was the Patriot League Player of the Year the previous season at Boston University “I’m ecstatic about adding Caitlin to our family,” said Virginia head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton She can score with either hand in the low post while defending and rebounding at an elite level Caitlin is a culture kid who takes pride in her work ethic on and off the court She will help us be a presence in the paint on both sides of the floor and I can’t wait to get to work with her.” A 6'4" forward from Cortlandt Manor averaged 8.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and was named the Co-Rookie of the Year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference which didn't count against her eligibility as it was the 2020-2021 season Weimar then transferred to Boston University where she was a regular starter for the next three years Weimar averaged 10.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game she was named the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year after leading the conference in blocks (1.9 blocks per game) and became the second player in Boston U program history to average a double-double ranking third in the league in scoring at 15.5 points per game to go along with 10.0 rebounds per game Weimar also led the conference in shooting percentage at 59.7% from the floor Weimar repeated as Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year and was also named the Patriot League Player of the Year Weimar then entered the transfer portal and committed to NC State where she intended to spend her final season of eligibility But she never played a game for the Wolfpack suffering a hip injury in the fall that required surgery and ended her 2024-2025 season before it began It was reported back in January that Weimar was no longer with the program She then entered the portal again and will now come to Charlottesville to play her final season of college basketball with Virginia Caitlin Weimar is the second transfer addition of the offseason for Virginia Both of UVA's transfer pickups so far have been in the front court as that is clearly the Cavaliers' biggest roster need following the departures of Latasha Lattimore and Edessa Noyan to the transfer portal We're keeping track of all of Virginia's transfer portal activity this offseason, including Cavaliers entering the portal and UVA's pursuit of transfer targets. See our transfer portal tracker here: Virginia Women's Basketball Transfer Portal: Latest News and Updates Today’s global powers are running a strange simulation of the weak and wobbly republic that governed Germany before World War II. To understand how the Second World War happened, one has to consider the Weimar Republic, the German state that existed in the interwar years. A new exhibition in the CaixaForum in Barcelona transports visitors to that fervent period of history, explaining the cultural and intellectual boom of the time, and how it foreshadowed one of the darkest periods of human history.  ‘Uncertain Times. Interwar Germany’ starts with a brief timeline of what happened in Germany from 1918, defeated and humiliated after World War One, all the way up to Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, before then moving on to seek an understanding of the political turbulence of the time through the various artistic and social movements that defined the Weimar Republic.  The exhibition stands out for its multifaceted perspective appealing to the different sensors, with paintings, films, sculptures, original artefacts like pamphlets and books, as well as music all combining to transport the visitor to the heady decades of rapid change. In total, there are nearly 90 original pieces from the period on display, from the likes of Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Marianne Brandt, Jeanne Mammen, and the Bauhaus Design School.  After the global political earthquake that was the First World War, which put an end to many of the world’s great empires such as the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman, and the Russian, the Weimar Republic emerged as a renewed approach to organize society, based in ideas of democracy, reason, and equality, in which women were given the right to vote for the first time. Despite its short duration of only 14 years and it being succeeded by Hitler’s Nazis, the burst of creativity seen in the interwar period left a longstanding legacy as a symbol of change towards a new era.  At the same time, art also started to become politicised, with many artists positioning themselves on the left and in favour of democracy, showing a utopian world in their work.  After World War One, the disfigured bodies of the wounded were commonly seen on the streets, as a weakened Germany with huge debts couldn’t take care of its veterans. This horror was also represented in the art of the time.  Politics became a phenomenon of the masses, with different movements regularly marching for their aims and political engagement more and more commonplace. Philosophical questions about the masses and the individual were pondered in a hugely unstable country that seemed capable of moving in any direction.  In a society rebuilding itself, writing new rules of engagement, at times it felt like there were no limits to the possibilities that the Weimar Republic could provide. There were new gender roles for women, now able to work, vote, and liberated sexually, while science also took great leaps forward, led in the country by Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, who shook the foundations of deterministic science. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which had repercussions all over the world, millions in the Weimar Republic were immediately sunk into poverty, while many others profited from the turbulence and lived opulently. This stark contrast also made its way into the art of the time, and sowed the seed of deep social discontent.  Soon afterwards, Hitler would be named chancellor. His supporters destroyed many artworks they considered anti-German in a demonstration of control over art and culture, with the objective of aligning this world with the Nazi ideology, all part of a broader movement aimed at synchronization, the process of violently Nazifying all of Germany.  Understanding history is the best way to try to understand the present, and the Weimar Republic can act as a bridge in time. The CaixaForum exhibition finishes with some considerations and questions for the visitor about the uncertainty facing the world today, which they answer with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. ‘Uncertain Times. Interwar Germany’ is open now in CaixaForum Barcelona until July 20. Get the day's biggest stories right to your phone Richard Murphy on developing a fairer and sustainable economy Posted on October 10 2024 It's said that states that have suffered hyperinflation prove that modern monetary theory (MMT) is not true They demonstrate that the conditions that MMT says must exist for a well-managed economy to function are correct We remember them because the examples of hyperinflation are so rare that they stand out in our memory. But every single time I mention modern monetary theory on this channel, and the explanation that it provides of the way in which money actually works in modern economies like those of the UK look at what happened in one of those three Let's be clear: I'm not arguing that things did not end other than disastrously in the Weimar Republic and I am not disputing that that was at least in part because all of those governments did But that wasn't the fundamental problem within those countries that gave rise to their economic disaster Let's look at what modern monetary theory says is necessary to have a properly functioning economy which runs its own currency because it's really important to understand those conditions because when they don't apply of course modern monetary theory doesn't apply either And those conditions are that the government in question must be strong It must also have its own central bank or be an active participant in a currency zone where there is a strong central bank It must be able to operate an efficient tax system because if it doesn't have such a tax system it can't recover the money from the economy that it has spent It must have a sufficiently large government sector that the government's demand to be paid basically forces the currency that the government creates into use in that economy for everyday exchange If there are parallel currencies operating in a country it's very difficult to enforce any form of monetary policy The currency in question must also be acceptable for international trade That's vital because if it isn't accepted for international trade then the country is wholly dependent upon its ability to make export sales whereas if the currency is available and acceptable for international trade then it can effectively trade internationally on credit ride out the inevitable troughs and highs that exist with regard to the economic fortunes of any country there must be no sanctions against trade with that country and no bars on the use of its currency and it mustn't be the victim of war or some other deep political circumstance that means it's basically a pariah within the international community Let's now look at the situation of the Weimar Republic it was told it must make reparation payments to the countries that had beaten it in the First World War But the reality was that Germany was already on its knees just as those countries that had beaten it were It didn't have the means to generate the foreign currency that it was required to make payment of as a reparation let alone to meet its own need for imports And that foreign currency was not under its control because it was all gold-backed took over the main productive capacity of Germany for its own benefit and denied it a chance to actually earn the foreign currency it was going to need to make the payments anyway The Weimar Republic failed because it was put in an absolute impossible position where its own currency was never going to be acceptable it had to make payments in foreign currency and it was denied the chance to earn any of that currency and it collapsed in value because local people lost their faith in that currency just as the international community had Go back to 1980 and Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe declared UDI which basically made it an independent country within Africa because it turned its back on the UK and set itself up in contravention of what was then thought to be international law Whether that was right or wrong doesn't matter Sanctions were imposed upon the left-wing government that was put into place in Zimbabwe and the world turned its back on the place Robert Mugabe decided to throw the landowners off the land in his country and put in their place the people who previously worked for them as farm workers the collapse of agriculture followed because there was simply a lack of organisation and managerial ability to make sure the production remained in place Its currency was not internationally acceptable It couldn't buy the resources it needed to make good the domestic shortfall Is anything like that happening in any country in Europe or any other developed place in the world right now Venezuela began its really steep downward spiral with regard to its currency because the USA hasn't been too keen on left-wing government in its backyard It isn't the only country to have suffered sanctions as a consequence And the pressure was brought to bear right across the whole of the Latin American region But then the oil price also collapsed and Venezuela had totally geared itself to a high oil price and it was unable to make good that deficit from sales of oil because that wasn't possible and sanctions denied it the chance its currency collapsed as a result and people with the opportunity to use the dollar instead did so none of the conditions which suggest that modern monetary theory could apply did exist To therefore say that they prove that modern monetary theory doesn't work is absurd they prove that precisely because they failed modern monetary theory is a good explanation of how systems can work well and it sets out the conditions for them to do so They don't disprove the case; they make the case and the Weimar Republic failed because the world turned against them In a situation where the world doesn't turn against the country which is true of most countries in the world most of the time then the likelihood that such a situation can recur is low as I mentioned right at the start of this video we remember those cases because they are so rare Modern monetary theory is in some ways deeply misnamed It isn't even a theory; it's an explanation It is what actually happens in a country which meets the criteria for its use: a strong government which is acceptable for international trade and which is borrowed in by the country in question It's a simple and straightforward explanation of the truth And just as the behaviour of successful countries is explained by modern monetary theory so modern monetary theory explains very precisely why countries like Zimbabwe and the Weimar Republic could never have succeeded and never had a chance because their currencies had no hope because they didn't meet the criteria for success But they're outliers not just because they got hyperinflation but because they prove that MMT is true Thanks for reading this post.You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons: There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here. And if you would like to support this blog you can In support of Mike Parr (although he did not ask for it As someone notes in the film ‘The Coming War with China’ the West changes it’s governments in the name of democracy – but does not really change policy We know this is happening right now – more barefacedly at anytime in my life anyway The Chinese have a perma-party in charge of their country instead of perma-politics but have changed the way it works But at the centre of it all as Mike alludes is the willingness of the Chinese government to intervene – it knows about bad behaviour in markets ( monopolies price fixing) and also knows how the West works (read Isabella Weber – ‘How China Escaped Shock Therapy’ If deceit is a crime against human rights and democracy then the UK and U.S China has opened up and stepped towards the West whose fall under the advice of Western economists and politicians has led us all the way to the Ukrainian war Top marks……………. China does simply not trust the Western way and will do what it needs to do to keep us at bay And this game has been going on for hundreds of years Even with the ‘advances’ that China has made for many in the West it is never going to be enough until they get in there to seize their assets as Western international markets have helped capital plunder wealth in the West and around the world that has lead to redistribution simply stopping leaving us with huge inequality – inequalities that a ‘modernised’ China is dealing with internally as it tries to use Western market ideas We are confronted with two models of governance that both in someway oppress people Do I really need to go into detail here folks What do we spend a lot of time here talking about We continually hear people on this blog criticising voters for putting governments like David Cameron and Margaret Thatcher into power – and not to mention a certain bloke called Boris the Communist party is incarcerating the people in the name of ‘re-education’ who would vote in the Chinese versions of Thatcher Braverman – because of their naivety and vulnerability to Western capitalist forms of freedom which as we know is actually ‘unfreedom’ they are protecting their people from corrosive ideas that have been abused in the West for far too long and will lead to our demise That control of public information is a form of direct action by China – it is not based on some woolly Christian based hope of some sort of imagined voter epiphany as to what is really going on which resides even here and to me is a hiding to nothing And speaking of Christianity – another thing noted in ‘The Coming War with China’ is the evangelical side of Western Neo-liberalism – the constant need to ‘convert’ others rather than understand and exist alongside Ask the Africans and Red Indians and countless others All that matters is that you believe – facts mean nothing What bothers China about the West is what bothers us here So they have decided to do something about it that to our eyes looks extreme China under Xi also has an admirably brisk approach to uppity billionaires who seek to undermine it’s political system… How does MMT work in less developed economies the UK adopted left wing principles of MMT wouldn’t the international monetry markets and banks who weild great power get pissed off as US did to south American countries for trying to change their economy And arguably in a sense isn’t that what happened with Corbyn for having wildly more progressive spending policy (though not sound MMT he may have wised to it sooner or later) And Liz truss who did want to print money rather than austerity Was roundly shunned by international markets And if you think full employment is left wing how close are you to falling off the right hand edge I do so agree that MMT is misnamed – not only because it’s not really a ‘theory’ but also because the ‘modern’ is unclear – does it mean ‘new’ or ‘post-gold-standard’ – and it has connotations of ‘fashionable now’ rather than ‘true’ Isn’t a theory something that explains all the available evidence Maybe the problem with MMT is that it doesn’t treat itself like a scientific theory of economies at all but is immediately used as the basis for particular solutions like an employment guarantee etc Could someone should release a book and rename the theory It worked for Stringer Bell when he got the idea from his economics class The trouble us even the theoreticians confuse the two But Wikipedia has a much longer list of hyperinflationary incidents than I had expected – from modern day Argentina and 1920s Austria through revolutionary France and post-war Hungary to 1980s Vietnam and post-Communist Yugoslavia And the list makes clear hyperinflation does not exist in the types of state MMT describes Just making the point that people fixate on these three examples of a phenomenon that has occurred many times too much domestic money chasing too few assets denominated in another currency often associated with or in the aftermath of conflict The French Revolution is an interesting example because it shows it is not just a phenomenon of the 20th century or later If you think hyperinfaltion is 6% you are very seriouysly mistaken I think you incorrectly referred to Zimbabwe declaring UDI That was the Ian Smith regime in the sixties Zimbabwe became independent after negotiations and the introduction of equal voting rights My mistake then – but it suffered almost immediate sanctions the renamed Zimbabwe did not face immediate sanctions It had both World Bank and IMF support and sanctions that had been levelled at Rhodesia after UDI (at British insistence) were lifted For ar least a decade Zimbabwe was more accepted internationally than Rhodesia had been If you are to use history to support your arguments But it makes no significant difference to the analysis – as you need to acknowledge by and large Zimbabwe did well during the 80s and early 90s and was talked of as an Africa ‘Tiger’ economy It was a key supplier of grain to neighbouring African countries It was then in the mid and late 90s when Mugabe turned on the white community much of it going to corrupt cronies and so called veterans That was what caused the economy to collapse – both white and black professionals and others fled the country impacting neighbouring countries like Malawi which relied on Zimbabwean grain South Africa still has significant numbers of Zimbabweans who have fled the country Mugabe resorted to printing money in a doomed attempt to keep his supporters happy and the economy going But the problems were overwhelmingly self inflicted Mugabe blamed everyone else but he was primarily to blame I was travelling to Zambia for work in 79/80 and was there when the Commonwealth Summit was held as the Smith regime was replaced Weird experience of being in the hotel where it was held and being a couple of feet away from Thatcher and Kaunda as they greeted the heads of state Then back in Zimbabwe in mid-late 90s as Mugabe started to lose the plot Most of the company’s senior and middle management team were highly competent It was not like South Africa with far better relations Sadly I suspect they would all have left for better futures elsewhere the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe prove MMT is true Funding the Future […] Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe prove MMT is true funding the future […] LinkedIn @RichardJMurphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social Design by Andy Moyle Our Website uses cookies to improve your experience. Please visit our Private: Data Protection & Cookie Policy page for more information about cookies and how we use them. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Subscribe to Asia Sentinel to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. according to a recent study by the political science faculty of the University of Gothenburg there are more closed autocracies in the world than liberal democracies has been most dramatic in the Pacific region This article was published more than 6 months ago It was a period of inflation and confrontation There was an explosion of cultural innovation and sexual experimentation when chaos flourished and government cabinets floundered when Hitler loomed and democratic government seemed doomed There never was a time – there never was a government – there never was a continuing crisis – remotely like the period known as Weimar Germany From the end of 1918 to the beginning of 1933 Germany marked several ends and beginnings which before the First World War produced two-thirds of Europe’s steel and half its coal was defeated and devastated – and it was sent into ruins more by the Versailles treaty than by the four years of conflict that comprised the Great War Financially destroyed and morally humiliated What Germany got instead was recrimination and revolution All these things – all the items on this menu of mortification – are recounted a monumental re-creation of life in Germany when the guns were silenced on the battlefields but when gunfire shattered the peace of the nation’s cities and countryside McDonough’s subject is what we might call the Years Between Between the First World War and the Second Between the economic domination of the prewar years and the rapid industrialization and militarization that led to Germany’s near conquest of Europe and the catastrophe that followed from the jubilation that followed the departure of the Kaiser (to the Netherlands) and the bright skies of the notion of a fresh idealistic democracy and then onto the the debate – socialist councils or a republic all conducted while Germany seethed about how it was treated as a defeated country even though the war ended with the Allies holding none of its European terrain the fighting over the character of the country spilling into the streets with fiery exchanges and bloody confrontations “Given all the cumulative problems it faced,” McDonough writes “it is surprising Weimar Germany lasted as long as it did but we need to remember that it endured longer than Hitler’s Third Reich.” was a republic dependent on the army for stability workers staged the largest general strike in history a resurgent right and a fragmented middle class that ultimately made its choice: usually the cement that holds together democratic government decided to support a party openly promising to destroy democracy,” McDonough writes “Hitler’s party grew because millions of Germans felt democratic government had been a monumental failed experiment Hitler offered the utopian vision of creating an authoritarian ‘national community’ that would sweep away the seeming chaos and instability of democratic government even before the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 he was identified as a speaker of unusual gifts; as early as 1919 founder of the German Workers Party (which provided the base of the future Nazi party) “that rescued him from the graveyard of under-achievers.” It was in this period that Hitler’s antisemitism ripened The reparations and restrictions of the Versailles treaty were tinder for the right McDonough says that Hitler “no longer was … the buffoon who had botched a coup in a beer hall but instead [appeared to be] a true patriot who had tried to rescue Germany from democratic chaos.” Along with the chaos came cultural improvisation This was the period of the cabaret – 899 of them in Munich alone in 1930 The first gay film appeared in Germany in 1919 It wasn’t until 1961 that the first film about gay love appeared in Great Britain This volume is suffused with great detail no small domestic contretemps goes unexplored no subtle shift in the culture goes untold But the great virtue of this book – basically a chronology of life in Weimar Germany – is also its great flaw McDonough organizes his account chronologically a chapter for each year between the armistice and the Hitler takeover Thus the reader gets a sense of the sweep of events McDonough believes there is a bracing lesson for our time in the story he tells “The history of the Weimar Years is … a warning sign of how a democracy under poor leadership can drift towards a form of authoritarian crisis and unrelenting political stability,” he writes “This is a question that continues to engage us today.” It surely does Report an editorial error Report a technical issue Editorial code of conduct Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. 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For more information on our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines and our Terms and Conditions More The “Weimar Triangle” is a three-country format – France Poland and Germany – that was established in 1991 at the initiative of Germany to promote Poland's integration into the EU and NATO and according to the Latvian Foreign Ministry "will focus on further support for Ukraine and the security and defence of the region NB8 cooperation is coordinated by Denmark A joint press conference of all NB8 and "Weimar Triangle" ministers will be held on Tuesday Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor