Y'all may remember from the "what are you reading" thread that I'm working on a biography of Hitler. That doesn't make me an expert, but it won't keep me from expanding some of these points.
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Originally posted by Radar
[b]A Little History Can Be a Dangerous Thing
[i]by Harry Browne
allowing the Allies to step up the war and forcing Germany to surrender in 1918.
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Let's not forget that there was actually a revolution in Germany in 1918, and it was the new government who surrendered. The old monarchy was apparently prepared to fight till the end, no matter what the cost. I can't speak to how the entry of the US affected or did not affect this, but what little I know suggests that the German government of 1917 would not have been interested in an armistice.
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Hitler would have been laughed out of Germany in 1910.
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In 1910 Hitler was an itinerant living in a men's hostel who made his living by painting postcards that were then sold by associates of his (including some Jews), and who pretended that he would one day be an architect even though he had failed the entrance exams for art school twice and had never made any efforts to train as an artist or an architect.
OK, that's picky. Still, in early 1923, Hitler had made a name for himself as a 2-bit rabble-rouser, and the government went so far as to arrange his deportation to Austria, but for some reason they never followed through on it. (At this point Hitler was still technically an Austrian citizen.) Later that year, Hitler staged the infamous Beer Hall Putsch. After it ended, Hitler was imprisoned after a show trial that gave him a national platform to spew his venom. After a period of a handful of months, Hitler was released on parole. This happened over the very strenuous objections of the Bavarian state prosecutor, who at least twice appealed to have Hitler's parole overturned.
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But in 1933 he seemed to be the only person able to end the reparations, recapture the stolen territory, reunite families, and restore Germany's glory. The Germans could see he was a brutal man, but they were told you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
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The German "people" had precious little choice by this time. Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and other right-leaning aristocrats (of which there were many) didn't give a damn about democracy and were convinced that all of Germany's problems could have been solved if they could reinstate an authoritarian government rather than a parliamentary one. He did everything he could to dilute the power of parliament so his cabinet could rule by presidential fiat. His appointment of Hitler to the Reich Chancellorship in 1933 was not something he wanted to do, but with deteriorating economic conditions, support for the Nazis was high enough that they had to be involved in the government, and Hindenberg apparently thought he had stacked the cabinet with enough of his own non-radical right-wing cronies that they would be able to keep Hitler's more outlandish tendencies in check. The day after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Hindenburg agreed to dissolve parliament and call elections, a step he had refused Hitler's predescessor 4 days ago. This allowed the Nazis to solidify their hold in Parliament.
The bottom line is, Hitler did not seize power, he was given it, because the power brokers were more afraid of democratic rule than they were of the Nazis, especially since the Nazis were controlled by an incompetent politician whose only talent was to give speeches and rile people up.