By Alan Singer
In Berlin, near remnants of the wall that once divided the city between East and West, the Topography of Terror Center documents
the Nazi Party rise to power and the collapse of democracy in Germany
during the 1930s. The shift from democracy to dictatorship took less
than 18 months, from January 1933 to August 1934. The exhibit is
powerful and frightening account of the past and a lesson for the
present and future about the fragility of democracy.
In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was allowed to form a parliamentary government by President Paul von Hindenburg although
his Nazi Party only held only a third of the seats in the German
Reichstag or Parliament. Conservative politicians and corporate leaders
thought they would control Hitler and exercise power through him.
Socialist leader Kurt Schumacher dismissed Hitler as their “Dekorationsstück” (decoration).
But Fascist groups marched through the streets in torch lit parades
celebrating Hitler’s new position as Chancellor and the Nazi’s Machtergreifung, seizure of power.
A month later the Reichstag building was destroyed by a suspicious fire
and Hitler received unprecedented emergency power. Civil liberties were
suspended, political opposition was silenced, and Germany started to
slip into dictatorship. In August 1934, with the death of von
Hindenburg, Hitler was both Chancellor and President, the unchallenged
German Führer. Troops and officers in the German military and civil
servants were required to swear an oath of loyalty, not Germany or its
Constitution, but to Hitler.
Click here for the full article.
Source: DAILY KOS
No comments:
Post a Comment