The death of democracy Hitler's rise to power and the downfall of the Weimar Republic

Review by New York Times Review

THE PISCES, by Melissa Brodér. (Hogarth, $25.) In Broder's charmingly kooky debut novel, a depressed Ph.D. student chances upon her dream date - and he's half fish. Brodér approaches the great existential subjects as if they were a collection of bad habits. That's what makes her writing so funny, and so sad. KUDOS, by Rachel Cusk. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) As she did in the first two volumes of this spare, beautiful trilogy, Cusk illuminates her narrator's inner life via encounters with others. The novels describe in haunting detail what it's like to walk through the world, trailing ashes after your life goes up in flames. SHE HAS HER MOTHER'S LAUGH: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity, by Carl Zimmer. (Dutton, $30.) Zimmer does a deep dive into the question of heredity, exploring everything from how genetic ancestry works to the thorny question of how race is defined, biologically. The book is Zimmer at his best: obliterating misconceptions about science in gentle prose. FRENEMIES: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else), by Ken Auletta. (Penguin Press, $30.) Advertising has lost its luster in recent decades - in part because of the dependency and competition between ad agencies and Silicon Valley, one of many "frenemy" relationships Auletta details. BAD BLOOD: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou. (Knopf, $27.95.) Elizabeth Holmes and her startup, Theranos, perpetrated one of the biggest scams in the history of Silicon Valley, raising millions for a medical device that never really existed. Carreyrou's account reads like a thriller. REPORTER: A Memoir, by Seymour M. Hersh. (Knopf, $27.95.) In Hersh's long, distinguished and controversial career he exposed brutality, deception, torture, illegal surveillance and much else. His memoir about knocking on doors in the middle of the night and reading documents upside down can be considered a master class in the craft of reporting. THE GIRL FROM KATHMANDU: Twelve Dead Men and a Woman's Quest for Justice, by Cam Simpson. (Harper/ HarperCollins, $27.99.) Simpson, an investigative reporter, retraces the journey of 12 laborers from their Nepal homes to their deaths by terrorists in Iraq while en route to an American military base. THE PERFECTIONISTS: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World, by Simon (Harper/HarperCollins, $29.99.) This eclectic history celebrates feats of engineering while asking if imperfection might have a place. THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic, by Benjamin Carter Hett. (Holt, $30.) Hett's sensitive study of Germany's collapse into tyranny implies that Americans today should be vigilant. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]

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Review by Booklist Review

Hett (Burning the Reichstag, 2013) asks how Germany's state-of-the-art modern democracy could elect an intemperate, authoritarian radical, who, within weeks of assuming the chancellorship, would suspend civil liberties, dissolve the German legislature and its federal system, and begin mobilizing for genocidal war. A typical answer, refined here, is that economic malaise and the legacy of WWI created an opportunity for an antidemocratic alternative, which Hitler, with his talents as an orator and political strategist, shrewdly exploited. But Hett also reminds us that Hitler was deliberately enabled by conservative elites, especially business leaders and military commanders, who wanted the electoral votes of the Nazi movement and were willing to overlook its excesses to achieve their goals of demolishing the labor movement and rebuilding the armed forces. Hitler was also enabled by a disaffected public increasingly prone to aggressive myth-making and irrationality yet also fatally naive, assuming Hitler's rule would be brief and unable to imagine the worst possibilities. At no point does Hett mention any current political figure by name, but his warning is nonetheless loud, clear, and urgent.--Driscoll, Brendan Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Hett, an associate professor of history at Hunter College and CUNY, persuasively challenges familiar arguments that the rise of Nazi Germany was an inevitable consequence of abstract forces like racism, militarism, and capitalism. Hitler's appointment as chancellor in 1933 was, he argues, a political gambit orchestrated by "a small circle of powerful men... who sought to take advantage of his demagogic gifts and mass following to advance their own agenda." This cabal of businessmen, generals, and administrators held Hitler and his message in contempt and were confident they could use and discard him, detaching him from his base and shepherding his followers into a conventional right-wing authoritarian system. Hett's page-turning account lays out the dire consequences of their simultaneously underrating Hitler's ability and grievously overestimating their power. He demonstrates that Hitler played a deeper game, exploiting his opponents' narrow self-interests and using sophisticated sleight of hand to score and build on seemingly inconsequential successes. The increasing bewilderment of this cabal defies conventional explanation, but Hett concludes with a possible clue: the "incongruous innocence" of a society unable to imagine that the worst could happen. Scholars and general readers alike will learn something from Hett's credible analysis of right-wing power brokers' role in Hitler's ascent. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Hett (history, Hunter Coll.; Graduate Ctr., City Univ. of New York; Burning the Reichstag) examines the tumultuous and violent politics of Weimar Germany. Using primary and secondary sources along with memoirs and diaries, Hett places German politics within the broader context of postwar globalization. The author shows how the Nazis were one of many left- and right-wing movements that took root during this crisis-filled period across Europe. As part of a growing trend in globalization, the Nazis were not immune to outside influences. In particular, Adolf Hitler admired Turkey's founder, Kemal Atatürk, and praised the Armenian genocide as a necessary step toward consolidating power. However, Hitler's rise and eventual appointment as chancellor would not have been possible if not for conservative politicians, who sought to manipulate the party to secure policies favorable for themselves. Hitler understood this and rarely made pacts that did advance his agenda. VERDICT The international roots of the Nazi movement come into sharp focus in this illuminating and essential book detailing the rise of the Third Reich.-Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

How did Adolf Hitler, an obvious extremist, con a nation into backing him? This historical essay answers the question, to often unsettling effect.Hett (History/Hunter Coll.; Burning the Reichstag: An Investigation into the Third Reich's Enduring Mystery, 2013) observes that, by design, Hitler entered the German government with only two of his fellow Nazis holding cabinet-level positions. He wanted to appear powerless, it seems, and to give the impression that the right-wingers who had put him into office, who "sought to take advantage of Hitler's demagogic gifts and mass following to advance their own agenda," were actually in control of the situation. In the context of the Weimar Republic, whose system of representational democracy inadvertently splintered any organized resistance, Hitler was able to build an effective right-wing alliance that, in time, caused liberals to wonder whether democracy itself might be to blame if someone like Hitler could gain votes. It was "monstrous," one Berlin paper wrote, that so large a portion of the electorate had supported "the commonest, hollowest and crudest charlatanism," even as establishment conservatives bridled at having to work with what Paul von Hindenburg called "the Bohemian private"but did so anyway. One constitutional crisis later, in the form of the burning of the Reichstagthe work, very likely, of the stormtroopers themselvesand democracy was suspended, the fate of the Jews and political opponents effectively settled, and war practically inevitable. It doesn't take too much of a stretch to find uncomfortable historical parallels in the current political scene, and Hett, though careful to support each of his assertions with scholarship, doesn't shy away from those possibilities. In the end, he writes, what won Hitler his power was the assent of the disaffected, who forgave him his sins and excesses in the hope that he would provide for them "the fastest and easiest solutions to their own particular problems."A provocative, urgent history with significant lessons for today. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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1. August and November   Prince Max von Baden spends most of the day waiting impatiently for news from Kaiser Wilhelm II.      Prince Max is a trim man who seems to look into every camera lens with the baleful expression of someone who has seen a lot, been impressed by little, and bears few illusions about his fellow men and women. He has an unusual reputation as a liberal German prince. This was why he was named chancellor of the German Reich in October, at the age of fifty-one. Later, he will record his experiences in a dry tone, betraying irritation with almost every one he had to deal with: the Kaiser, the generals, the moderate and radical socialists.      Prince Max's problem is that the Kaiser--Germany's hereditary emperor, whose family has ruled from Berlin since the fifteenth century--cannot make up his mind to abdicate the throne. Germany is falling further into the grip of revolution and every minute counts. Max's repeated phone calls to the Army's headquarters at Spa in Belgium, where the Kaiser has gone, are met only with stalling. The prince wants to save what he can of the old order. He knows that the revolution is winning. It can't be "beaten down," but "it might perhaps be stifled out." The only thing to do is contain the revolution by naming Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the moderate Social Democrats, as chancellor by royal authority.             Ebert will soon be chancellor one way or another, Max reasons, if not by royal appointment then by revolution in the streets. "If Ebert is presented to me as the Tribune of the People by the mob, we shall have the Republic," he tells himself. A still-worse fate is possible. If the mob makes the more radical in de pen dent socialist Karl Liebknecht chancellor instead of Ebert, "we shall have Bolshevism as well." But if, in his last act, Kaiser Wilhelm names Ebert, "then there would still be a slender hope for the monarchy left. Perhaps we should then succeed in diverting the revolutionary energy into the lawful channels of an election campaign."             Prince Max doesn't know about the drama playing out at the Kaiser's headquarters. At Spa, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the supreme commander of the German Army, understands two things clearly: the Kaiser has to abdicate, and Hindenburg himself must escape blame for pushing him to this realization. The Kaiser is toying with the idea of leading his army back to Germany to crush the revolutionaries. Hindenburg under-stands that this will lead to a disastrous civil war. He does not want to be responsible for such a thing. But Hindenburg is also a monarchist, and he knows that other monarchists might blame him for not standing by his king. Hindenburg is the hero of Tannenberg, one of Germany's few great victories in this lost war. He cannot let his reputation be tarnished now.      He solves the problem by giving the job to his second in command, First Quartermaster General Wilhelm Groener. Groener tells the Kaiser bluntly that the army will return peacefully to Germany under its commanders, "but not under the command of your majesty, because it no longer stands behind your majesty." Hindenburg quietly begins arranging the Kaiser's escape to neutral Holland, where he will be safe.     These events set a pattern. More than a decade later, Hindenburg will still be wrestling with the problem of potential civil war. He will still be trying to find a way to keep the army out of domestic strife while preserving his own reputation. He will still be unloading unpleasant tasks on his subordinates.      With no decision from Spa, Prince Max runs out of patience and decides to take matters into his own hands. He will announce Wilhelm's abdication himself. Prince Max summons Ebert and asks if he is prepared to govern in accordance with "the monarchical constitution."      Ebert is an unusually conservative Social Demo crat and would have preferred to retain the monarchy, but events have gone too far. "Yesterday I could have given an unconditional affirmative," he tells Prince Max. " Today I must first consult my friends." Prince Max asks him about considering a regency, someone to serve as placeholder for a  future monarch. Ebert replies that it is "too late."  Behind Ebert, as Max's jaded pen records, the other Social Demo crats in the room repeat in unison: "Too late, too late!"      Meanwhile, Ebert's colleague Philipp Scheidemann stands on a balcony of the Reichstag and calls out, "Long live the Republic!" This is taken as a declaration that Germany has in fact become a democratic republic, although Scheidemann will later say he meant it only as a "confession of faith" in the idea.      At the royal palace, a half mile or so east of the Reichstag, the radical Karl Liebknecht declares Germany a "socialist republic." By this time, the Kaiser has finally abdicated as emperor of Germany.      In the late afternoon, Prince Max has a final meeting with Ebert. Ebert now asks the prince to stay on as "administrator," a regent by another name. Prince Max replies stiffly, "I know you are on the point of concluding an agreement with the Independents [the more radical Independent Social Demo crats] and I cannot work with the Independents." As he leaves, he turns to say one last thing: "Herr Ebert, I commit the German Empire to your keeping!"             Ebert responds gravely, "I have lost two sons for this Empire."             It is November 9, 1918.       Two days later, an armistice negotiated between German politicians and Allied military officers goes into effect. The First World War is over. For most Germans, defeat comes suddenly and shockingly. Among them is a wounded soldier convalescing from a poison gas attack at a hospital in Pasewalk, a small Pomeranian town about seventy- five miles northeast of Berlin.      "So it had all been in vain," he writes. "In vain all the sacrifices and deprivations . . .  futile the deaths of two millions who died . . ." Had Germany's soldiers fought only to "allow a mob of wretched criminals to lay hands on the Fatherland?" He has not wept since the day of his mother's funeral, but now the young man staggers back to his ward and buries his "burning head in the blankets and pillow."       His name is Adolf Hitler, Private First Class. Excerpted from The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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