I'm doing research now on the origins of the Nazi Party that made the Third Reich possible from one of the two sides of the equation: the preparation side.
Let me try to explain in a manner that is understandable to you, dear reader.
As I did research on the history of the causes of the Hitler phenomenon, I came to realize something that so many historians either overlooked or just didn't mention, that in my opinion, should have been not just mentioned but featured.
Let's see. Many historians and many history teachers often just discuss the preparation part.
What's that? Hitler joined the DAP and then changed the name to NSDAP after he had acquired dictatorial powers over the Nazi Party. How did he pull that off? He resigned his membership and quit the party unless he were granted dictatorial powers. Anton Drexler and Karl Harrer who were the original founders and leaders of the DAP gave in because if Hitler quit and left, then the DAP would go back to being one more discussion beer hall club. They needed Hitler to stay on because no one could give the kinds of speeches that only he could deliver.
But then, the Hitler story if you've read Hitler biographies goes further back and discusses the Thule Society financing and founding the DAP as the political arm of the Thule Society. The discussions about the Thule Society talk about esoteric and volkish and antisemitic rhetoric. Well, I count all this as only one part of the equation of Preparation plus Opportunity equals success.
Easy. If you go back to the Hitler and Nazi Germany history books, you'd find deep and protracted discussions regarding how the Weimar Republic failed to keep Germany in one piece and that when the Great Depression struck, Hitler was quick to take advantage of that to get where he was unable to get before the Great Depression set in worldwide.
So you have all this discussion about nationwide economic conditions in Germany as the major factor that made the rise of Hitler possible. That's the opportunity phase of the equation.
You have the German nation under the new control of the Weimar Republic which although unable to keep the country in one piece for the long term, things were tolerable for it. As soon as the Weimar Republic took over the country, there developed political clubs and fringe groups all over. Then we focus on only of these, the one that later became the Nazi Party: DAP created and founded by Anton Drexler and Karl Harrer in 1919 in the same year that the Treaty Versailles was signed.
Then we talk about how Hitler got into the act and the rest is history. All this is the preparation. If there had been no organized mass organization such as the Nazi Party under the rule of Adolf Hitler by the time that the Depression struck, there would have been an opportunity but Hitler would have been unable to take advantage of it because it would have caught him unprepared.
You have Adolf Hitler and you have the Nazi Party all set up but not enough people were listening to him or taking him seriously. There was a party with a body of ideology all set up and dressed up but without the Depression, the Nazi Party was all dressed up with nowhere to go. It took the Opportunity of the Depression for him to apply his preparation, his Nazi Party and it's organization, to take advantage of that huge opportunity.
Part A) Nazi Party nationwide organization and all of its ideology and rhetoric and Hitler as its boss
Part B) the German country falls into the Great Depression so deeply that there's no way for the Weimar Republic to hold the Country together
Part C) Hitler and the Nazi Party take over Germany, destroy the Weimar Republic, and now, the Third Reich is in effect.
That's my version of the complete and understandable picture of the Hitler and Nazi Germany story.
This blog is not about me. It is about a moral crisis that resulted in global tragedy costing between 50 million and 70 million lives -- and for what?
Did it happen so that one megalomaniac, psychopathic man could feel important?
Now that it's your move, my reader -- let us see what you think. I offer you a challenge.
I'm asking you to both comment on these articles and subscribe to this blog if you are interested in the histories of the Third Reich and of the Second World War.
What Equation am I talking about here? What's up with any equation?
Let me try to explain in a manner that is understandable to you, dear reader.
As I did research on the history of the causes of the Hitler phenomenon, I came to realize something that so many historians either overlooked or just didn't mention, that in my opinion, should have been not just mentioned but featured.
"Success = Opportunity + Preparation"If you were to read self improvement, motivational, or self-help rhetoric, you'd probably come across the axiom that:
So what! How would this apply to the history of the rise of Hitler in Germany?
Let's see. Many historians and many history teachers often just discuss the preparation part.
What's that? Hitler joined the DAP and then changed the name to NSDAP after he had acquired dictatorial powers over the Nazi Party. How did he pull that off? He resigned his membership and quit the party unless he were granted dictatorial powers. Anton Drexler and Karl Harrer who were the original founders and leaders of the DAP gave in because if Hitler quit and left, then the DAP would go back to being one more discussion beer hall club. They needed Hitler to stay on because no one could give the kinds of speeches that only he could deliver.
But then, the Hitler story if you've read Hitler biographies goes further back and discusses the Thule Society financing and founding the DAP as the political arm of the Thule Society. The discussions about the Thule Society talk about esoteric and volkish and antisemitic rhetoric. Well, I count all this as only one part of the equation of Preparation plus Opportunity equals success.
If what's been discussed above is the preparation part of the equation, then what is the opportunity phase of that equation?
Easy. If you go back to the Hitler and Nazi Germany history books, you'd find deep and protracted discussions regarding how the Weimar Republic failed to keep Germany in one piece and that when the Great Depression struck, Hitler was quick to take advantage of that to get where he was unable to get before the Great Depression set in worldwide.
So you have all this discussion about nationwide economic conditions in Germany as the major factor that made the rise of Hitler possible. That's the opportunity phase of the equation.
Now, here's where it all is put together
You have the German nation under the new control of the Weimar Republic which although unable to keep the country in one piece for the long term, things were tolerable for it. As soon as the Weimar Republic took over the country, there developed political clubs and fringe groups all over. Then we focus on only of these, the one that later became the Nazi Party: DAP created and founded by Anton Drexler and Karl Harrer in 1919 in the same year that the Treaty Versailles was signed.
Then we talk about how Hitler got into the act and the rest is history. All this is the preparation. If there had been no organized mass organization such as the Nazi Party under the rule of Adolf Hitler by the time that the Depression struck, there would have been an opportunity but Hitler would have been unable to take advantage of it because it would have caught him unprepared.
You have Adolf Hitler and you have the Nazi Party all set up but not enough people were listening to him or taking him seriously. There was a party with a body of ideology all set up and dressed up but without the Depression, the Nazi Party was all dressed up with nowhere to go. It took the Opportunity of the Depression for him to apply his preparation, his Nazi Party and it's organization, to take advantage of that huge opportunity.
Now let's look at that equation with the blanks filled in and how it applies to the Third Reich's history
Part A) Nazi Party nationwide organization and all of its ideology and rhetoric and Hitler as its boss
Part B) the German country falls into the Great Depression so deeply that there's no way for the Weimar Republic to hold the Country together
Part C) Hitler and the Nazi Party take over Germany, destroy the Weimar Republic, and now, the Third Reich is in effect.
That's my version of the complete and understandable picture of the Hitler and Nazi Germany story.
This blog is not about me. It is about a moral crisis that resulted in global tragedy costing between 50 million and 70 million lives -- and for what?
Did it happen so that one megalomaniac, psychopathic man could feel important?
Now that it's your move, my reader -- let us see what you think. I offer you a challenge.
I'm asking you to both comment on these articles and subscribe to this blog if you are interested in the histories of the Third Reich and of the Second World War.
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