Endgame Two German Historians Have Co-Written the Story of How Hitler
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18 The German Times – Life March 2019 Endgame Two German historians have co-written the story of how Hitler DPA/ULLSTEN BILD DPA/ULLSTEN came to power, yet in the form of a contemporary political thriller. It’s a disturbing and entirely intoxicating read from diaries, letters and the news- together with his military friends, The unspoken take-away from papers of the day. And then they von Schleicher concocts a secret Barth’s and Friederichs’ sober throw in a little trivia and few service report outlining the account is that it all did not have spoonfuls of gossip. danger of an imminent civil war to happen, that Hitler’s rise to It all makes for a disturbing, between Nazis and communists power was not inevitable. The and entirely intoxicating read. ¬– if von Papen stays in power. many twists and turns of the The authors themselves credit Von Schleicher alone can “fi x it” unheroic saga provide all too the American TV show House of and save the republic! Von Papen’s many moments when history – or Cards as an inspiration, claim- cabinet members defect and on rather upstanding, sober old white ing the machinations underway Dec. 2, 1932, Hindenburg is forced men – could and should have inter- in Germany during the Weimar to appoint von Schleicher. vened. Republic were just as shifty but in Kurt Schumacher, a young, up- But von Papen, vengeful and Raucous rally: Hitler’s supporters celebrate in front of his party’s fact more gripping – after all, they and-coming Social Democrat delusional, cannot come to grips unoffi cial headquarters, Hotel Kaiserhof, next to the Reichstag. did actually happen. The cast of who would like to fi ll the role of with being ousted from the chan- characters provides the full gamut the smart and principled politi- cellery. With the help of rich indus- percent combined. The situation of gruesome archetypes without cian, sees von Schleicher as “an trialists, he conspires with Hitler. BY LUTZ LICHTENBERGER is in deadlock. any clear-cut heroes for relief. offi ce Napoleon, an opportunist, Von Schleicher’s feeble social ini- Chancellor Franz von Papen, There’s the larger-than-life Paul despite some modernist leanings, tiatives fail, as do his attempts to ermany, November 1932. a monarchist at heart, is able to von Hindenburg, a 77-year-old a man of the authoritarian state, bring the indecisive and duplicitous These are dark times for remain in offi ce only by way of World War I fi eld marshal who an anti-democrat, a monarchist, Strasser on board. In a last-ditch Gthe Weimar Republic. special powers granted to him had never been a politician but a prisoner of his ancestry and his eff ort, the beleaguered chancellor While still alive, democracy is but by President Paul von Hinden- RÜDIGER BARTH AND was so admired for his role in the cast” – and someone who had to demands dictatorial powers from hanging by a thread. Unemploy- burg. Adolf Hitler, his cronies HAUKE FRIEDERICHS Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 that be opposed by all possible means. von Hindenburg. The president, ment is dramatically high – more and henchmen are getting ner- Die Totengräber. Der letzte 11 years later he was called upon The new chancellor’s plan is with some infl uence from his close than fi ve million Germans are vous. Just this summer, they saw Winter der Weimarer Republik, by still-influential monarchist indeed to come to the help of low- advisor, his son Oskar, denies von out of work. Fights are break- themselves on the verge of seiz- Frankfurt a.M., S. Fischer, elites to run for the presidency, income workers – to appease the Schleicher and – hoping that von ing out in the streets. There’s a ing power, with Hitler one elec- 2018 which he won with 48 percent left, including Social Democrats Papen, now as Vice Chancellor, will whiff of civil war in the air. The tion away from the chancellery. of the vote. In 1932, the 84-year- and Communists. And to split the be able to contain him – appoints Reichstagswahlen – the national Now, the party with seemingly Such is the premise of a new old head of state did not care for Nazi party apart by making Stras- Hitler chancellor on Jan. 30. parliamentary elections – already unstoppable momentum is sud- book by two German historian- democratic values and sought to ser, Hitler’s NSDAP nemesis, vice the second of the year, have denly running out of cash, with journalists that has become a keep his protégé Franz von Papen chancellor. It is a shrewd move by again failed to yield a governing factional divisions beginning to surprise bestseller since its pub- as chancellor. The sharp-tongued a dubious character. When Paul von Hindenburg coalition. The National Socialist show within the ranks. Hitler and lication last April. Historians have Harry Graf Kessler quipped that Meanwhile, Hitler has become dies in 1934, Hitler assumes the German Workers’ Party under Gregor Strasser, his main intra- dismissed Die Totengräber. Der von Papen “looked like a grouchy restless. It has been his stated presidency by fiat. That very Adolf Hitler comes in ahead of party rival, with socialist leanings letzte Winter der Weimarer Repub- billy goat trying to snap to atten- purpose to go all in, to give in to same year, the Nazis oust Franz all other parties; still, with 33 per- to boot, cannot agree on a way lik (The Gravediggers. The fi nal tion. A fi gure straight out of Alice no compromise, to join no coali- von Papen and the rest of the cent of the vote, it has incurred forward. The old Prussian elites winter of the Weimar Republic) as in Wonderland.” The chancellor is tion without him and his party at cabinet’s old elite. Von Papen signifi cant losses. Meanwhile, the inside the Berlin beltway are a non-scholarly book. Newspaper backed by the fat cats and indus- the helm. But now he fears being becomes ambassador to Turkey. Communist Party, at 17 percent, clinging to power, and the radi- critics – and readers – on the other trial elites who care not a whit left out in the cold again. He is Later, after being convicted as a is gaining in popularity. cal Nazi upstarts cannot see how hand, have embraced the blow-by- about growing income inequality, uncertain how much support he war criminal by a German de- The center does not hold. they can rise to the highest ranks blow account of the 75 days before people freezing in their unheated can rally among the ranks of the Nazification court, he would Against the two extremist parties, of government legally, through Hitler become chancellor and apartments and the most desti- NSDAP to oppose Strasser. He is spend two years in prison. the Social Democrats and the cen- elections, as long as Hindenburg Germany descended into 12 years tute actually starving to death. so distraught that he contemplates On Hitler’s orders, Kurt von ter-right Zentrum party are fur- and his constitutionally guaran- of tragedy, death and destruction. His long-time ally and Minister suicide. “If the party falls apart,” Schleicher and Gregor Strasser ther weakened. The two moderate teed emergency powers keep von Rüdiger Barth and Hauke Fried- of Defense, Kurt von Schleicher, Hitler confi des to his sycophantic are murdered by Nazi henchmen parties, which have been holding Papen’s cabinet in power. It’s time erichs tell their story in the present is well aware of von Papen’s spokesman Joseph Goebbels, “I during the wee hours of June Germany together for the 14 years to scheme their way to the top. tense while documenting offi cial unpopularity and misguided poli- will be gone in a matter of three 30, 1934, the Night of the Long since World War I, win a mere 35 But how? records and quoting extensively cies. But hardly a straight-shooter, minutes.” Knives. PERCEPTION TRAP WESTERN FALLACIES CALIFORNIA CRIB or four long chapters of masterfully even-handed historical olker Steinkamp, a professor for French and Italian literature homas Mann, author of The Magic Mountain, winner of the Fanalysis, Andreas Rödder hides his political leanings – without Vat the University of Duisburg-Essen, had never written about T1929 Nobel Prize for Literature and “the greatest living man ever being dull. The historian from the southwestern German city of international politics until he published a forceful essay titled “The of letters,” as he was announced during his 1938 United States Mainz asks “Who is afraid of Germany?” (Wer hat Angst vor Deutsch- West and the Rest” in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2013. book tour, was forced to fl ee Nazi Germany. After four years in land? Geschichte eines europäischen Problems) and lays out the confl icts Six years later, he has expounded on his original idea in a slender Princeton, New Jersey, he moved to his new home in California, over the country in the center of Europe, starting with the lead-up yet historically profound volume titled Foreign Aff airs: Kritische where he resided for 10 years. From there, he aided the allied to World War I, spanning the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, post- Betrachtungen zur Außenpolitik (Foreign aff airs. Critical observa- counter-propaganda eff orts by writing his famous 55 BBC radio war Western Germany, post-reunifi cation and fi nishing with today’s tions on foreign policy). broadcasts, which were published by Knopf in 1943 under the debate on the euro and the migration crises. The country’s elites Steinkamp retells how Germany, after reunifi cation in 1990, joined title Listen, Germany.” want to see Germany as a “post-classical democratic nation-state” all other Western states in championing democracy and human The German government bought his home on San Remo Drive among other nation-states and as a “non-military power.” rights worldwide and thus plays its part in achieving world peace.