Post the First World War, Germany’s Weimar Republic (1919-1933) faced endless troubles. The burden of war reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, economic instability, unemployment, hyperinflation, political unrest, and deepening social divisions weighed heavily on the populace.
Ordinary Germans found themselves adrift in a sea of turmoil, struggling to maintain their livelihoods, protect their families, and retain their faith in the promise of democracy. Exploiting the instability of the Weimar Republic, Adolf Hitler presented himself as a strong, decisive leader who could restore order and lead Germany’s economic revival and national renewal.
Hitler: The Supreme Autocrat
Hitler had a mouth on him, and he used it to maximum effect. A teetotaller, he could even without lubricating his tongue with liquor, speak forcefully and persuasively, lie confidently, and let conjectures fly.
From the floor of Hofbrauhaus, the celebrated Munich beer hall, he warned dispirited tipplers of Germany’s grim future and set out a tempting menu of intended policies to boost national confidence.
At first, they considered him an eccentric but by and by, a forlorn, threatened populace stomached his offerings, flocking in thousands to hear his political rhetoric. Hitler became a magnet for his dejected, beaten countrymen.
He did not molly-coddle voters, but intimidated them. Electoral battles were fought by his cloak-and-dagger SS group on the streets and not in polling booths. Though his electoral victories were not thumping, they were enough to propel him to power.
Once in office, an emboldened Hitler exploited the system to consolidate his control. He quickly dismantled democratic institutions, suppressed opposition parties, and eliminated political rivals.
The Reichstag Fire in February 1933, was blamed on communists and used as a pretext to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, restricting civil liberties and enabling mass arrests of political opponents.
Hero-Worshipping Hitler Became a Norm
He targeted all those who distrusted him or he thought would obstruct his novel agenda. Opposition was capped. Politics was dead. No one was left to fight his criminal dictatorship or accuse him of tyranny, treachery, or bigotry.
Raucous cheerleaders, trumpeting rallies, media subversion, and propaganda gave the world the impression that the entire country had massed at the side of a populist leader.
'Heil Hitler’ replaced 'Guten Tag’ and 'Auf Wiedersehen’ as a phrase for greeting and parting. Artists, film directors, actors, poets, and philosophers further glorified Hitler and fuelled his narcissism.
People noticed – but said nothing – about the Nazi control over the media. History was reinterpreted and school textbooks were revised to align with Nazi principles of racial purity, anti-Semitism, nationalism, and loyalty to Hitler.
The Mounting Atrocities and Hatred Against the Jews
Free from the shackles of matrimony, Hitler worked overtime. The war economy roared louder than Hitler’s voice. Manufacturing spurted, people were back at work and inflation dipped. The regions of Alsace-Lorraine and Ruhr pocketed back from France, fed the German economic engine’s voracious appetite for energy and minerals.
Mesmerised by Hitler’s charismatic leadership and persuasive oratory skills, people fell for him and looked at him with worship in their eyes – as if he were a saint and saviour. They turned a blind eye to Hitler’s faults, letting the Nazis vent their rage: hounding Jews, herding them into concentration camps; robbing them of their possessions, clothes, and hair; gassing them with cyanide; disposing of their bodies in crematoriums, and fertilising the surrounding fields with their ashes.
With rising ambitions, Hitler punched well above his weight, annexing Austria, Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia and causing only a ripple of irritation amongst the naive Western powers.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of Hitler’s expansionist ambitions, no one tried to moderate his behaviour. Neighbour after neighbour was quashed under German military boots. Till 1942, it seemed that the Nazis were going to walk away with all of Europe. But the turning point came in the winter of 1942-43 when the Germans lost the Battle of Stalingrad and began to retreat before the Soviet advances.
The Beginning of the End
In March 1945, as the Soviet Red Army approached Berlin in an orgy of destruction, Hitler, reduced to a helpless pig hiding from a pack of ravenous wolves, slid into his bunker on 'In der Ministergärten’ street. Here, he would live out the last six weeks of his life.
A month after Hitler moves into the bunker, the fortifications of Berlin are penetrated by the Soviets and the Battle of Berlin begins in earnest. On 20 April, leaders of the evaporating Nazi party get together in the bunker to celebrate Hitler’s 56th birthday. By this time, two of the most monstrous Nazis, Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering, had already fallen out with Hitler for attempting to negotiate with the Allies without his consent.
Albert Speer, Minister for Defence Production and Hitler’s chief architect who designed for him a new parliament (Reichstag) and a swanky office-cum-residence (Chancery), also lets him down by not implementing Hitler’s Nero Decree – an order to destroy the German infrastructure to prevent their use by the Allied forces as they advanced into Germany.
On 22 April, General Steiner refuses to carry out Hitler’s suicidal counter-attack plan, saying he is outmanned 10:1 by the Soviets.
Hitler realises that the end has come and begins to take his last steps. On 29 April, he marries his long-time mistress, Eva Braun. After a two-hour wedding breakfast, Hitler goes into his private quarters with his secretary and dictates his will.
The next day, i.e., on 30 April, when he hears that the fighting around Reichstag is intensifying, he decides he's not going to give the Soviets the satisfaction of capturing him alive and will take his own life. Eva decides to give him company. Hitler carried cyanide pills but wanted to make sure they would work.
He pops one to his dog, Blondie, who dies instantly. Hitler and Eva go into their private quarters, pop the pills, and Hitler, to make doubly sure that he dies, shoots himself in the head.
A Template To Learn From
On Hitler’s 79th death anniversary, the world should remember that if the people that comprise a nation are not vigilant, if the 'silent majority’ turns a blind eye to injustice inflicted on their fellow citizens, if the privileged sit back and enjoy their comforts and show no concern for public issues, there is a danger of repressive forces, dictators and fanatics taking over our lives and bringing ruin to our families and society – as it happened in Nazi Germany.
It happened in other countries too. The Russians were a peaceful lot – but they let the communists take over and kill 20 million people. Most of the Japanese were not warmongers. Yet, their government systematically slaughtered 12 million Chinese civilians before World War II. Later, the Chinese, heirs to one of the greatest civilisations, allowed themselves to be governed by leaders who wiped out a staggering 38 million of their own people.
The peace-loving majority must make its voice heard and become relevant in public life.
(Akhil Bakshi, an author and explorer, is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Explorers Club USA, and Editor of ‘Indian Mountaineer’. He is also the founder of Bharatiya Yuva Shakti, an organisation that ensures good leadership at the village level. He tweets @AkhilBakshi1. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)