German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism

German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism PDF Author: Donna Harsch
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807861928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism explores the failure of Germany's largest political party to stave off the Nazi threat to the Weimar republic. In 1928 members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) were elected to the chancellorship and thousands of state and municipal offices. But despite the party's apparent strengths, in 1933 Social Democracy succumbed to Nazi power without a fight. Previous scholarship has blamed this reversal of fortune on bureaucratic paralysis, but in this revisionist evaluation, Donna Harsch argues that the party's internal dynamics immobilized the SPD. Harsch looks closely at Social Democratic ideology, structure, and political culture, examining how each impinged upon the party's response to economic disaster, parliamentary crisis, and the Nazis. She considers political and organizational interplay within the SPD as well as interaction between the party, the Socialist trade unions, and the republican defense league. Conceding that lethargy and conservatism hampered the SPD, Harsch focuses on strikingly inventive ideas put forward by various Social Democrats to address the republic's crisis. She shows how the unresolved competition among these proposals blocked innovations that might have thwarted Nazism. Originally published in 1993. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism

German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism PDF Author: Donna Harsch
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807861928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

Get Book Here

Book Description
German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism explores the failure of Germany's largest political party to stave off the Nazi threat to the Weimar republic. In 1928 members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) were elected to the chancellorship and thousands of state and municipal offices. But despite the party's apparent strengths, in 1933 Social Democracy succumbed to Nazi power without a fight. Previous scholarship has blamed this reversal of fortune on bureaucratic paralysis, but in this revisionist evaluation, Donna Harsch argues that the party's internal dynamics immobilized the SPD. Harsch looks closely at Social Democratic ideology, structure, and political culture, examining how each impinged upon the party's response to economic disaster, parliamentary crisis, and the Nazis. She considers political and organizational interplay within the SPD as well as interaction between the party, the Socialist trade unions, and the republican defense league. Conceding that lethargy and conservatism hampered the SPD, Harsch focuses on strikingly inventive ideas put forward by various Social Democrats to address the republic's crisis. She shows how the unresolved competition among these proposals blocked innovations that might have thwarted Nazism. Originally published in 1993. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

The response of German social democracy to the rise of national socialism

The response of German social democracy to the rise of national socialism PDF Author: Donna T. Harsch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description


Confronting Hitler

Confronting Hitler PDF Author: William Smaldone
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739132113
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The stories of the individual men and women who led German Social Democracy's failed efforts to fend off the Nazi onslaught in 1933 have largely been lost in the wake of the cataclysmic war, the Holocaust, and the division of Europe that followed Hitler's victory. Confronting Hitler recovers their stories and places them at center stage. In a series of biographical essays focusing on the experiences of ten leading Social Democratic activists, Smaldone examines their defeat in 1933 from the perspective of individuals enmeshed in political struggle. This study reveals what aspects of these activists' lives were most important in shaping their political outlook during the republic's final crisis and it illustrates the key factors that guided their actions in the effort to keep the republic alive. In addition, the biographies raise the important issue of the degree to which the defeat of German Social Democracy in 1933 is comparable to the experiences of other democratic socialist movements in the twentieth century.

The Death of Democracy

The Death of Democracy PDF Author: Benjamin Carter Hett
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1250162513
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen. Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. He would never have come to power if Germany’s leading politicians had not responded to a spate of populist insurgencies by trying to co-opt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler’s hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship. Benjamin Carter Hett is a leading scholar of twentieth-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of these feckless politicians show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it. He offers a powerful lesson for today, when democracy once again finds itself embattled and the siren song of strongmen sounds ever louder.

Social Democracy and the Working Class

Social Democracy and the Working Class PDF Author: Stefan Berger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317885767
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This is a powerful and original survey of German social democracy breaks new ground in covering the movement's full span, from its origins after the French Revolution, to the present day. Stefan Berger looks beyond narrow party political history to relate Social Democracy to other working class identities in the period and sets the German experience within its wider European context. This timely book considers both the background and long-term perspective on the current rethinking of Social Democratic ideas and values, not only in Germany but also in France, Britain and elsewhere.

Radical Perspectives on the Rise of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1945

Radical Perspectives on the Rise of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1945 PDF Author: Michael N. Dobkowski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy

The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy PDF Author: Hans Mommsen
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807876070
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Book Description
In this definitive analysis of the Weimar Republic, Hans Mommsen surveys the political, social, and economic development of Germany between the end of World War I and the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor in 1933. His assessment of the German experiment with democracy challenges many long-held assumptions about the course and character of German history. Mommsen argues persuasively that the rise of totalitarianism in Germany was not inevitable but was the result of a confluence of specific domestic and international forces. As long as France and Britain exerted pressure on the new Germany after World War I, the radical Right hesitated to overthrow the constitution. But as international scrutiny decreased with the recognition of the legitimacy of the Weimar regime, totalitarian elements were able to gain the upper hand. At the same time, the world economic crisis of the early 1930s, with its social and political ramifications, further destabilized German democracy. This translation of the original German edition (published in 1989) brings the work to an English-speaking audience for the first time. European History

Towards the Holocaust

Towards the Holocaust PDF Author: Michael N. Dobkowski
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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German Social Democracy, 1918-1933

German Social Democracy, 1918-1933 PDF Author: Richard N. Hunt
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press
ISBN:
Category : Germany
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description


Revolution from the Right

Revolution from the Right PDF Author: Benjamin Lapp
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004433643
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Revolution from the Right provides important new perspectives on the rise of National Socialism as it focuses on one of the most politically significant areas in the Weimar Republic: the central German state of Saxony. This highly industrialized state was the traditional stronghold of the left wing of Social Democracy, yet in the state elections of 1929 and 1930 it gave the National Socialists their first major electoral successes following a dramatic shift in its political life from the left to the far right. The National Socialists were able to gain support of middle-class voters attracted to militant anti-Marxism as well as from workers previously committed to the revolutionary left. Lapp investigates the dynamics of political radicalization in this densely populated, highly polarized, and politically volatile state from the German Revolution of 1918-19 to the Nazi seizure of power. He focuses on themes central to the history of Germany’s failed democracy: the role of bourgeois “moral outrage” in response to the Socialist reforms of the early Weimar period, the failure of the bourgeois parties to maintain their support among an increasingly radicalized middle-class electorate, and the success of the NSDAP in appealing to large segments of the working-class electorate. Studies of National Socialism have hitherto focused on a largely rural and middle-class following; by examining a highly industrialized area with a largely working-class population, Revolution from the Right illuminates central aspects of the appeal of National Socialism to a diverse constituency and in doing so offers new insights into the appeal of National Socialism and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.