The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922-1945, Revised Edition

Some say these are dark days for democracy. In that context, this is an important book that everyone should read. It's beautifully written, and accessible to any educated reader. More importantly, the message is clear. The Nazis came to power in a way that is understandable to anyone. They didn't trick the German people. While there was violence, that's not what brought the Nazis to power. What happened here could happen to anybody. And some say is.

Hmmm... This is a good book. I recommend it to anyone interested. Here are the highlights:1. His opponents fail to take him seriously.2. The voters of the Republic decide to elect him, even though his ideas are vague and sometimes contradictory. Basically, they decide to trust him, even though he hasn't done anything to earn their trust.3. Everyone assumes that he'll follow the laws, precedents, and prevailing customs. They never think he could assume absolute power. They believe the checks and balances of government will keep his ambition in place.4. The new regime, in just a matter of months ("coup d' etat by installments"), suppresses all forms of opposition, controls the media, and achieves "national unity."5. The new regime declares itself a movement, and justifies its use of control and force over the people.6. Initially, the people find ways to rationalize what's happening in their country. They assume that some loss of freedom is a necessary price to pay.7. By the time most people understand what is happening, it's too late for anyone to do anything about it.8. Moral numbness takes over."There was no real comprehension of what [they] would experience if [he] came to power, no real understanding of what [the movement] was.....Each group saw one or the other side of [the movement], but none saw it in its full hideousness. Only later did this become apparent, and even then not in the same degree to everyone. The problem of [the movement] was primarily a problem of perception.... "

In "Nazi Seizure of Power" Allen gives us a well-researched and enlightening study of mankind's most repressive and cruel regime in history, down to the lowest level. His overarching thesis here is that the common belief that Hitler came to power on a national level is a misconception, and that without ardent supporters on the local level the Third Reich never came to be. This is an expansion of Allen's dissertation at, I believe, Michigan, and he conducted this research by perusing through Nazi records of the South Hanover-Brunswick "Gau," which had been classified as "uninteresting." (The revised edition uses these) He also utilized several local newspapers and interviews of about a dozen men and women who had been present in the town of Northeim during the Nazi rise to power and administration.Although the book is definitely targeted toward an academic audience (I read it in my junior history workshop), and a working knowledge of German history is useful, anyone with more than a casual interest in history will find this monograph enlightening. Allen himself says that because studies on the Third Reich are usually conducted at a broad, national level, it usually scares some readers away. Due to the fact that this title concentrates on a shorter span of time (it really is more of 1930-1935 than it is 1922-1945) and a smaller cast of characters, it is much easier to digest.Allen describes the intricate propaganda system that was employed and fine-tuned at the local level in Northeim, which based success on profits at meetings and used an elaborate social reinforcement system to appeal to the locals. He also describes in vivid detail the electioneering and the violence that accompanied it in the town between the SPD and Nazi party to detail his belief that further radicalization moved more of the townspeople to the extreme right. Another one of his cornerstone theses is that the highly stratied and divided social structure of the town, as well as rampant militarism, religion, and nationalism, were crucial prerequisites in the Nazi seizure of power. The NSDAP's promise of using extreme measures to eliminate disunity and address the effects of the Depression went a long way in ensuring their victory. Allen says that the townspeople really did not know what they were getting themselves into, and it wasn't til shortly after the Nazis consolidated power in the town that they realized this was in fact not what they had hoped for.This is not only a study of history, but also a study in the fallibility of human nature, and how the weaknesses of the masses can be exploited by using pointed and finely tuned propaganda. Allen demonstrates that the Nazis knew exactly what to say it and when to say it, and in doing so, won the support of two in three citizens of Northeim. There is much to be learned from this book, and it is so much more than facts or statistics; in the "Nazi Seizure of Power," we learn that something as shockingly terrifying as the Nazi dictatorship can happen anywhere given the right circumstances and the right message. My only complaint about this book is that it is no longer in print.

L'engrenage et la mise sous silence et terreur du ville où plus personne n'ose parler sauf pour dénoncer son voisin

Sehr gutes Buch. Grundlagenforschung aus der Nachkriegszeit. Hier erfährt man, wie die Nazis eine Stadt erobert haben. Auch Historiker erfahren hier noch Neues.Wehret den Anfängen!

Great book for those interested in Hitler and how he became the Früher of Germany, a democratic state. Allen uses a typical, and in my ways untypical, of Germany during the depression and how that affected their views upon the Nazi party and Hitler.