In 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. He took office
in January, with Fritz Von Papen as vice-Chancellor to keep him in
check. Only twenty years earlier the German Kaiser led his people into a
disastrous war with the West.
Germans had had enough of the monarchy and the absolute power it had,
and demanded the Kaiser's abdication. Having gotten rid of the Emperor,
the new German Republic carefully separated powers between the
presidency and the chancellery.
But President Von Hindenburg was 86 years old when Hitler assumed the
title of Chancellor of Germany. The timing was perfect.
Hitler's ascendancy was meteoric. In the early 1920's, he was little
more than a neighborhood organizer. Over time, as hyper-inflation and
catastrophic unemployment hit Germany, Hitler's movement, dubbed
'national socialism' grew into a fringe party.
In 1923, leading what he hoped would be a violent overthrow of the
Weimar Republic, Hitler leapt to a table in a beer hall in Bavaria and
called on a gathering of officials to support him in the march on
Munich.
Instead, they arrested him, put him in prison and outlawed the Nazi
party. After his release, Hitler set about reorganizing the national
socialists as a movement. In 1927, when the government lifted the ban on
national socialism, it became a political party. In 1928, the Nazis
managed only 3% of the vote.
It wasn't until 1931 that Hitler began to make inroads within the vast
German center-right political monolith still controlled by traditional
conservatives like von Hindenberg.
In the 1932 election, thanks to such tactics as voter intimidation,
voter registration fraud, voter fraud at the polls, etc. the national
socialists managed a solid majority in Parliament.
In January, 1933 and only days after Hitler assumed the chancellorship,
there was an explosion followed by a fire in the Parliament building.
Hitler declared an emergency and rammed home the 1933 Enabling Act that
allowed an emergency suspension of civil rights.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
President von Hindenburg died in August, 1934. Within hours of his
death, the German parliament issued the following press release:
"The Reich Government has enacted the following law which is hereby
promulgated.
Section 1. The office of Reich President will be combined with that of
Reich Chancellor. The existing authority of the Reich President will
consequently be transferred to the Führer and Reich Chancellor, Adolf
Hitler. He will select his deputy.
Section 2. This law is effective as of the time of the death of Reich
President von Hindenburg."
The law was technically illegal since it violated provisions of the
German constitution concerning presidential succession as well as the
Enabling Act of 1933 which forbade Hitler from altering the presidency.
But whether or not he was legally eligible to serve didn't matter much
anymore.
Hitler declared himself Fuhrer and ordered a referendum to retroactively
confirm it.
So on August 19, Germany, still grieving its beloved war hero and
president, went to the polls and confirmed Adolf Hitler as their Fuhrer,
an action that only four years earlier would have been unthinkable.
Desperate times called for desperate measures.
In 1933, Germany was one of the most cultured and honorable nations on
earth. German honor was legendary, particularly among German military
officers who would rather die than dishonor themselves or their sacred
oath of service.
The German culture at the time was such that, despite the World War and
its excesses, Germany was THE place for foreign exchange students and
was a favored diplomatic posting.
Hitler was widely respected at first for his governing ability. He
nationalized much of Germany's banking system and began pouring money
into the German infrastructure.
The first interstate highway system in the world was Adolf Hitler's
Autobahn. The 'People's Car' (Volkswagen in German) was introduced at
Hitler's insistence.
Hitler's political popularity morphed into a kind of cult worship in
which he was styled as the German messiah. (The word 'fuhrer' is
generally translated 'leader' but it is actually closer to the English
word 'lord'. )
Britain's King Edward had so fallen under Hitler's spell that it was
necessary to force his abdication to prevent England from being ruled by
a Nazi sympathizer. (Edward died in exile in 1972)
In 1934, when Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader of Germany, Germany
had both a free press and a legally elected parliament.
The German Republic was a functioning, western-style representative
democracy. Germany was known for, and disliked because of its excesses,
but it was also known for being one of the world's most honorable
countries.
The demands of national socialism required rounding up certain classes
of people. Experiments began on efficient ways to euthanize those deemed
to be a drain on the German economy or damaging to its culture.
At first, it was baby steps, nationalizing the banks, rounding up
firearms, demonizing certain classes of people, etc.
But desperate times call for desperate measures.
The trick to making it all work is making sure the times are desperate
enough to justify the measures being advanced.
Here's the point. When von Hindenburg died in August, 1934, Germany was
still one of the most honorable and cultured nations in Europe and
everybody from King Edward of England to FDR thought Hitler was the
greatest thing since sliced bread.
FDR's biggest worry abut Germany in 1934 was that competition posed by
growing German industrial power might further damage America's depressed
economy.
Only four years later, German Jews were being beaten and killed and
their property either destroyed or confiscated during Kristallnacht (The
Night of the Broken Glass).
What is the point I am trying to make here? There is no period in
history that more perfectly mirrors the current global situation that
that of the 1930s - and on almost every scale of measurement; economic,
political and spiritual.
One of the truisms of history, which has been observed by everyone from
philosopher Georges Santayana to George Bernard Shaw is this: "One thing
we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."
So, what does history teach us? Free speech is only free under
certain
circumstances in this brave, new 21st century world.
And my sense of history tells me this isn't one of them.