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THREAD (I’ll build this one as I go.) my daughter gave me a copy of “The Death of Democracy”, by @BenjaminHett. This excellent book explores the fall of the Weimar Republic in Germany and the rise of the Nazis. As I go I’ll post lines from the book that are especially noteworthy.
Let’s start with this one: “Among the Weimar Republic’s more fatal defects was that millions of its people deeply believed things that were verifiably untrue.” Pg 30, “The Death of Democracy”, by @BenjaminHett.
“Right-wing politics began to take on an angrier, often more...desperate tone. By 1914 much of the far right had become so frustrated and angry with the rise of liberal and socialist forces...that it was becoming a frankly antisystem, almost revolutionary movement.” Pg. 28
“It was ‘monstrous...that 6million, 400k voters in this highly civilized country’ had backed ‘the commonest, hollowest, and crudest charlatanism’.” “The Death of Democracy”, pg 97, by @BenjaminHett
“(T)here was also the worship of power, strong value placed on ‘manliness’ and ‘virility’, social elitism, racism, and misogyny. The nationalist right was hostile to democracy, liberalism, and socialism.” The Death of Democracy”, pg 72, by @BenjaminHett
“The Nazis were politicians: like all politicians, including fascists in other countries, they moved into the political space that was available to them, and their programs evolved to fit the supporters they attracted. This means that the Nazis’ ideology and goals
were always deliberately vague and always changing.” “The Death of Democracy”, pg 98, by @BenjaminHett
For context, in 1928, Hitler had been accused of accepting campaign funds from a foreign power (Italy), and filed a libel suit against the entities that spread the story. “During the first trial, a Berlin newspaper reported that when evidence of his collusion with Mussolini arose
‘Hitler did not know how to respond, except to complain with great agitation about a “Jewish press gang” that had united in an “international conspiracy” against him.’” #TheDeathOfDemocracy, by @BenjaminHett, pg 117.
“The (Nazi) party propagandist Joseph Goebbels wrote in 1932...’Thus a thick wall around Germany? Certainly we want to build a wall, a protective wall.’” #TheDeathOfDemocracy, by @BenjaminHett, pg 109.
During the 1920s German Protestants sought to “create a ‘People’s Church’, an attempt to...mobilize Protestants for the mass politics of the 20th century. The People’s Church would be the best way of defending Protestant Christianity and German values (which Protestants saw
