“Nazism seemed to many just an extreme version of what [most Germans] had always believed in or taken for granted. It was nationalistic, respectful of the armed forces, socially conservative, disdainful of laziness, hostile to eccentric or incomprehensive ideas that came from cities, disapproving of homosexuals and other unconventional human types, and avid to achieve ‘greatness’ for Germany. They welcomed parts of the Nazi political and social smorgasbord and told themselves that the rest was less important or was not meant seriously.” Walter Rinderle and Bernard Norling, historians
Okay, full disclosure, I started this podcast not for any deep political reason, but because I was fascinated by the culture of the Weimar Republic, the music, the arts, the architecture, the personalities, and I didn’t start it because I thought that the political parallels between then and now were absolutely clear. But, there’s that thing that happens where because something's in your head you start seeing it and hearing it everywhere, now I feel like every time I open up the newspaper, turn on the radio, or listen to a podcast someone is telling me that we are living in days that resemble the end of the Weimar Republic.
I’m not sure about that, but I thought it might be worth an episode. And in fact, this is my 2nd try at this episode. I put up a version in June, and then took it down over the summer. I’m not a historian or a journalist, and my optimistic take on the current political situation seemed to be getting very quickly overcome by current events. So, what I did in that episode was to compare and contrast the actions of the current administration with the actions of the National Socialists in 1933. Essentially comparing their first 100 days, with the first 100 days in the USA, and I personally came to the conclusion that the US democracy was strong and deep and would survive, unlike the Weimar Republic. But everything is changing so quick, so what I’m going to do in this revised episode is just a recap of the methods of how the National Socialists took control of Germany in 1933 after their election, and I’ll leave you, the listener, to make your own conclusions about what, if any, of their playbook is being used by right-wing groups around the world.
Welcome to The Weimar Spectacle, where I explore the brief and extraordinary life of the Weimar Republic. I’m Bremner Fletcher Duthie, singer, actor and theatre maker. I’ve spent years performing songs and theatre from the Weimar period, and I’m inspired and maybe more than a little obsessed by that moment in time. I’ll put images for this episode onto my website: bremnersings.com. Just click on the Weimar Podcast link on my site. So, as you know, my big, big absurd idea for these podcasts, is that the Weimar Republic invented everything about the modern world, and we are all still dealing with the possibilities and problems it gave to us. To prove this possibly unprovable idea, I’ll be exploring the arts, politics, science, architecture, social innovations of the Weimar period, and of course, the terrible and irresistible rise of the Nazi Party.
Listen to Bremner's two albums of Weimar Cabaret songs
https://songwhip.com/bremnerduthie/bremner-sings-weill
https://songwhip.com/bremnerduthie/bremner-sings-kurt-weill-vol-2-moon-faced-starry-eyed
So, when pundits say we are living in times just like the end of the Weimar Republic, I think they mean that around the world, populist, right wing politicians are appealing to voters worst fears to get elected, fears of the other, the immigrant, the enemy within, fears of losing personal and family and generational prosperity, and once those politicians are elected they intend to shut down the Democratic process in order to keep power. Also, that in appealing to voters worst fears, blowing those dog whistles over and over again, creating the idea that there are enemies all around and they could be your neighbour, that those populist demagogues will encourage people to turn to violence to suppress other voices, other choices, other ways of living.
At the end of the Weimar Republic Hitler seized power. Well, first he was elected democratically and then given even more power by a cabal of men who believed they could use him for brief period of time, and believed the Nazi era would be short and limited and move the country away from the freedoms of the Weimar Republic, back to an era when power was vested in the old aristocracy and structures of the pre-war days. These were men deeply nostalgic for the autocratic conservative values of the Prussian state. And to be honest, much of the population of Germany felt similar, they were sick of the chaos of their new democracy. However, autocratic violent populism was not limited to the right, the Weimar Republic was also a reaction to the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks just across the border in Russia, after they led a populist worker's revolt, and then seized power, and so the speedy establishment of the Republic, and many compromises to get it set up, often these were a reaction to the terrible massacres and brutality happening in the new Soviet Republic.
Is this seizure of power and collapse of democracy about to happen in North America? It doesn’t feel like it, but these movements seem to be getting into motion around the world right now, whether it's the kleptocracy of Russia, right wing nationalism in Hungary and Europe or so called socialism in Venezuela or Nicaragua. So, maybe it’s worthwhile checking in with the details of how the Nazis grabbed total power.
Some similarities with modern days that are constantly mentioned are that the Weimar Republic, by the end of it’s short run, was a political and economic mess and in that mess, there was the fragmenting of discourse and society into deeply divided camps with no collaboration or discussion happening between them. Also, that the Nazis created a culture war of brutal, evil proportions and when they took power very quickly, the Nazis made their ideology of cultural purification into law. Hitler brilliantly seized all the reins of government, essentially using executive orders to remake the government in his image and then took control of every cultural space in Germany, shutting down other voices and other ideas. The Nazis made street violence into a public display of power with their paramilitary wing taking to the streets.
And finally, they immediately attacked the other branches of government. Branches that could balance out the president’s power, specifically the judiciary.
So those are some things that people cite when saying we are in times that resemble the Weimar Republic’s collapse. Let's take a look in more detail at what happened at the end of the Weimar Republic, what the situation was, what had happened to the democracy that had been so painfully created in 1918/19, and what Hitler did when he was given power.
The Republic lasts about 14 years. It is never stable and lurches from one catastrophe to another. Those catastrophes start with aftermath of the first world war, where a sizable percentage of the male population had died or been wounded, while at home starvation because of the British blockade had swept across the general population, then immediately after the war, the Spanish influenza sweeps across Germany and the world, shortly after that, hyperinflation destroys the value of German money to a point where having several million marks still means you can't buy enough food to survive, then there's a short period of stability in the mid-20’s before the depression hits, and Germany is one of the worst hit countries, since American banks were bankrolling the new economic prosperity, and when the depression hits they call in their loans, businesses collapse and a huge percentage of the population is once again out of work and on bread lines.
In the leadup to Hitler’s election, the government is essentially deadlocked. Sessions of the legislature became shouting matches between uniformed Communist and Nazi deputies. The political groups are in hugely opposing camps. In 1932 the Reichstag met for only a few days, breaking up in chaos. By the late ‘20’s there are paramilitary organizations under the wing of every political party being used to either attack or defend. Street fighting was common, each party had their own uniform, and the Nazis differed from the other parties mostly in their willingness to use extreme violence, and their brilliant strategies of how they would use and publicize that violence. The population is completely traumatized and sick of the political infighting.
Germany's Weimar political system made it difficult for chancellors to govern with a stable parliamentary majority, and successive chancellors instead relied on the president's emergency powers to govern. In 1931 the Nazi Party altered its strategy to engage in perpetual campaigning across the country, even outside of election time. From 1931 to 1933, the Nazis combined terror tactics with conventional campaigning – Hitler criss-crossed the nation by air, while SA troops paraded in the streets, beat up opponents, and broke up their meetings.In the final elections, the Nazi party like many others at the time is using language that portrays its enemies as absolute enemies of the German state, and is creating a culture war both in its lying invention of a Jewish deep state, and also in its creation of pure German values and genetics, or at least pure according to the Nazi party, and vilifying those who don't live up to those values.
The Nazis were incredibly effective at manipulating public opinion. When a young party activist was murdered, they turned him into an icon for their movement and an official martyred saint for Germany. Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, who became a propaganda symbol following his murder in 1930 by two members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Wessel first joined a number of youth groups and extreme right-wing paramilitary groups, but later resigned from them and joined the SA, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. He rose to command several SA squads and districts. On 14 January 1930, he was shot in the head by two Communists
Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel
Wessel's funeral was widely publicized in Berlin, with many of the Nazi elite in attendance. After his death, he became a propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany. A song for marching for which he wrote the lyrics was renamed the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Horst Wessel Song"), and became the official anthem of the Nazi Party. After Adolf Hitler came to national power in 1933, the song became the co-national anthem of Germany.
So, Hitler takes total power essentially in the first 100 days of his rule staring in January 30th of 1933. At the July 1932 federal election, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag, yet without a majority, but still, democratically elected, although the support for the Nazi party is actually shrinking at that moment, since they gain a smaller amount of the vote then the previous election. The Nazis end up as the largest party in a multi-party government.
Then Hindenburg, an elderly retired field marshal of the old Imperial regime, who was the president and had the power to make ministerial appointments, well, he wanted to force through a series of austerity measures. To claim these were okayed by the government, he and his advisors appointed Hitler, as chancellor at the head of a coalition government on 30th January 1933. Essentially, they handed him the keys to the country. In the evening of January 30, the day he is appointed, the victorious Nazis staged a massive four hour torchlight parade through Berlin with around 30,000 uniformed Storm Troopers (SA). As many as 1 million Berliners turned out.
When the Reichstag government building catches fire a month after his appointment to Chancellor, on February 27th, 1933, Hitler gets Hindenburg to issue a decree suspending civil liberties, allowing Hitler to govern directly using executive orders, in a meeting on the 23rd March 1933, the government approves a transfer of power to Hitler and the cabinet. The “Reichstag Fire Decree for the Protection of the People and State” nullified civil liberties; expanded protective custody; and sanctioned removal of state governments. It was used to imprison anyone considered an opponent of Nazism and suppress publications unfriendly to the Nazi cause.
So, there’s the “Malicious Practices Act” of March 21 and the “Enabling Act” of March 23. There’s a mass purge of left wingers, intellectuals, liberals and Jews from the civil service on April 7, six days after a nationwide boycott of businesses owned by Jews, when the Hitler regime enacted the “Law for Restoration of Professional Civil Service,” which purged all Jews as well as those German citizens considered disloyal from civil service and teaching positions. On April 25, the “Law Against Overcrowding Schools and Institutions in Higher Education” severely restricted academic admission of non-Aryans. A few weeks later, an “Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy,” : established the framework for the implementation of eugenics. Within a month, the sterilization law was passed.
Extra judicial executions begin across Germany with communists, leftists, judges, lawyers all being targeted by Nazi stormtroopers, the private, paramilitary wing of the Nazi party. Hitler’s arch henchman Goering is appointed Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, and one of his first acts is to shut down any opposing voice, whether that is journalism, political parties, or in the arts, immediately shutting down most cultural institutions until they can be staffed by Nazi party sympathizers.
Goering on trial, shortly before his suicide to avoid execution
Artists, performers, musicians are sent to what are called re-education camps, however which turn out to be the first concentration camps. Places of unbelievable brutality where many of those cultural workers never leave.
The Stormtroopers arrest and imprison 100,000 of his opponents, mostly on the left, in concentration camps in the first months of his rule. The first official concentration camp, Dachau, opened on March 23, only three months after they take power, and it was designated by Himmler as “for political prisoners” to restore calm to Germany. Many Social Democrats and “intellectual instigators,” were murdered shortly after arrival.
In a major push to consolidate more power, the Hitler regime enacted laws putting all government operations and social organizations under Nazi control. As a result, state parliaments not under Nazi control are dissolved, political parties critical of Nazism were abolished, Jewish and Social Democratic officials are fired, and all cultural and judicial institutions were aligned with Nazi ideology or destroyed.
May Day 1933 was declared to be by The Hitler regime a “Day of National Labor”.
The next day, the Nazis outlawed all free trade unions and integrated all German workers into a newly created German Labor Front. By May 9, day 100 of the Hitler dictatorship there was no democracy or viable open opposition left in Germany; any resistance was driven underground or in exile. The fascist regime of terror proceeded triumphantly with a massive book burning on its 101st day in power. By July 1933, Germany was a one-party state and the Hitler salute was official policy for the whole civil service and a highly advisable action for the average citizen in all social contexts.
So, there’s a super crazy brief summation of last days of the Weimar Republic. And before that a list of reasons that why people are drawing parallels between that and the current political situation around the world.
I’m trying so hard not to editorialize in these podcasts, and just let the Weimar Republic speak for itself for y’all to draw your own conclusions. I can see how people are concerned about some of the parallels, however, I would also point out that the Weimar Republic only exists for 14 years, so the democratic process, the idea of a constitutional government and that idea of the separation and balance of powers was very, very new. Every adult alive in Germany in 1933 could remember a time when the Kaiser had been in power, and many of them remembered it as a pre-war time of stability and prosperity, which in many ways it was, since pre-first world war Germany was one of the most prosperous, innovative countries in the world. Hitler did not attempt to shrink the Federal government, but rather the opposite, massively increasing the power of the central government with new organizations often having absolute powers. Hitler also ruled with the support of around 2 million ideologically pure storm troopers to enforce his agenda. Finally, the population in late Weimar Germany was literally shell-shocked by the various nightmarish catastrophes they had lived through. Not like that excuses them for supporting a nightmare regime, but it might go some way to explaining it.
So, some parallels are there, because as I might have mentioned before, I believe the Weimar Republic helped give birth to the modern world. Thanks for listening. Hit subscribe or follow if you want to know when the next episode appears. I don’t have any advertising budget for this show or really a budget at all, I’m just some obsessed singer repurposing an old microphone, so if you leave a review on your app, or hit the star button, it really encourages the podcast to be found by other listeners, or just forward a link to a friend, that’d be great. I’ll put images for this episode onto my website: bremnersings.com.
Next, I’m hoping to talk about the extraordinary but almost unknown Count Harry Kessler next, who is behind the scenes in almost every political movement and artistic creation happening between the wars, but that’s going to involve getting through a couple of big biographies first. And who am I to discuss Weimar? Well, I’m not a sociologist, a political scientist or an historian. I’m an obsessive artist. A singer, play-write and cabaret performer who has been obsessed with the arts and music of the Weimar republic all my life. I’ve recorded three albums dedicated to the music of this time and particularly the music of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. In the next month or so, I’ll be putting out an album of Berlin Cabaret Song, written mostly in the 1920’s. If you want to listen to them, just search for Bremner Fletcher Duthie in any music streaming site, and you’ll find all my albums. And if you want to know more about my work, see the images from the period, or suggest a specific Weimar subject for an episode, check out bremnersings.com
Join me next time for another walk through the amazing creative madness of 1920’s Germany.