Hi, for those of you that don't know me yet, I'm the lead author of this series and the author of this episode. Now, as you will, or have just seen, this episode covers an event of earth-shattering magnitude in human history. An event that is often misunderstood and glossed over. The reason for that is not that there is anything controversial, or stupendously new with what we're documenting here. The simple fact is that its just too detailed and too complicated to cover in general history studies, especially in secondary school. The level we get into here is usually only covered in specialized lectures at college or university level. Tons and tons of books have been written on the topic and yet, many misconceptions remain. It was my goal to dispel some of the many misunderstandings that abound about how Hitler finally seized power. One of the chief myths is that Hitler was elected. As the video shows, that is not what happened. So you might ask yourself; how come the vast majority of Germans finally rallied behind him? Because they did, there's no question. But you see, that happens _after_ he seizes power and it will be the topic of our next episode on Germany that covers the Nazi consolidation of power. It was also my goal to cast some more light on a topic that has been weaponized in political debate in recent years: the level of Socialism in the German National Socialist Worker's Party. I hope that I have laid the latter one to rest, but I fear that the comment section will still be full of politically biased nonsense on this topic. It's quite tiring for our community managers to answer that misrepresenting alt-right trope over and over again. And we won't stop you from posting it, even if it's nonsense. Instead we will try to patiently answer, but think fifteen times about posting 'Nazis were Socialists, duh!' or "Dude, Nazis are left-wing, duh!' out of respect for us. What we will not tolerate is that you post links to any of the clown videos by non-historians that try to perpetuate that myth. We are a team of _actual_ historians. We have no interest in 'pinning' Naziism on anyone. We also have no interest in 'pinning' Socialism on anyone. Nor should you, if you have any interest whatsoever in understanding history. Revolutionary Socialism, Communism, Fascism and Nazism have all brought down a lot of suffering on humanity - if we are supporters of freedom and democracy we need to learn from that. Throwing them all in one bucket and dumping it on our perceived political opponents is not learning, it's obfuscation, confusion, and destruction of education. So respect humanity, respect history and don't take part in that kind of nonsense. Also I will again post our rules, respect them: ⚠️ *RULES OF CONDUCT* STAY CIVIL AND POLITE we will delete any comments with personal insults, or attacks. AVOID PARTISAN POLITICS AS FAR AS YOU CAN we reserve the right to cut off vitriolic debates. HATE SPEECH IN ANY DIRECTION will lead to a ban. RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, OR SLAMMING OF MINORITIES will lead to an immediate ban. PARTISAN REVISIONISM, ESPECIALLY HOLOCAUST AND HOLODOMOR DENIAL will lead to an immediate ban.
So if i'm correct Nazism is not a socialist party. It was a mixture of both Right wing and left wing politics combined, with a big part of ultranationalism.
@@Kriegter It was, until Hitler threw out Strasser, as of that moment the left wing bits were more or less totally gone. They stayed tricky though as you'll see in our next episode. They even created a fake universal union to replace all the unions they banned to make people _think_ they were pro-working class. Then they more or less handed that fake union to the industrialists and let them erode most of Germany's worker protection and insurances.
@@TimeGhost I also thank you for the subtitles it makes me sad that the hearing impaired cannot enjoy all the great entertainment on RUclips but they can enjoy this one thanks to your kindness. God bless you. 😉
I don't think we can show enough appreciation for people who will go at this length to open our hearts, minds and brains. Thanks to them, I'm beginning to see and get an understanding of and on how polital evil starts. We shouldn't put anything ahead of morals at any cost because corruption of the heart is disease without cure. No wonder the wonder the Bible is steadfast about guarding the heart because our hearts and minds are the foundations of not just who we are but what we'll become and finally the kind of society we establish. When you witness your neighbour being violated and you do nothing about it, because of some false sense or belief in whatever cause or ideology, whether it be religion, political and so on, then you are by far worse than those carrying out the abominable and nefarious practice
So, I tell a few of my friends or coworkers, when they ask me how my weekend was, that I spent a lot of it learning about the Nazis. The common response is, "Are YOU a Nazi??" People just can't wrap their head around why I'd want to learn about something so depressing, lmao We must understand history, lest we repeat it. I think that's a quote but I don't know who said it.
It's interesting to read about the political atmosphere in Germany prior to Nazi power. The failure to form a coherent centrist government, political polarization on both left and right, street violence, and the attempts of extremists from both sides to discredit democracy. Hopefully we can learn to read the signs and recognise the breakdown of democracy as it occurs
Many Germans did not want democracy. They associated it with defeat in war, economic instability and war reparations. They were the core audience of the Nazis.
Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That’s why it’s important that people like us watch these videos and read books like the Bible.
The vanilla game with the DLCs provides political focuses for other parties. It's also possible to fail if you choose to side with Hitler and have low national stability and begin a civil war with the loyalists I think.
We decided not to let RUclipss policy influence our use of Historical names, symbols, pictures or otherwise 'advertiser-unfriendly' material. We won't present a sanetized (and thus revised) version of history just because we want ad revenue.
You're probably never going to read this, but I'll comment anyway, to boost the algorithm. Indy you are one of the best, most honest and most informative history youtubers out there and I love you for it. Your collaboration with Sabaton is the coolest thing ever and I found your role as Lawrence of Arabia just great. Keep on keeping on Indy.
Indy, starting the Yugoslavia episode: today, I am touching a live wire. Indy, starting the episode about how Hitler came to power: no dramatic intro. :)
@@spartacus-olsson well, of course, things are generally clearer about Nazis compared to the Balkans history and for Balkanic people it is more common to quarrel on daily basis, compared to civilised, polite and non-agressive German and Western European culture. But it is generally taken less offensive and frustrated.
My first thought is "oh shit, one of the three incandescent light bulbs in the background is burned out." My second thought is, "Once again they have surpassed the Ivy league schools in the U.S. in teaching history. "
why thank you - the light bulb as been fixed for the next shoot... we debated it for a bit, but someone convinced Astrid it was cool with broken lightbulbs when the world is breaking...
Write your elected officials! RUclips enjoys the benefits of being a "public" platform while actually editorializing the content through monetization and demonetization.
To quote Big Ben, “a republic, if you can keep it”. Hitler and Stalin both in power at the same time! A lousy time to be a European ! Great episode, both in content and presentation!
A very good read on the topic is Sebastian Haffner - Defying Hitler: A Memoir. Recently read it myself again and is very, very chilling and describes many of these event from the perspective of a regular person living in Berlin
This may be the best series you have done in terms of information most of us (well me) didn’t already know. Kudos on an informative, insightful, well organized and easily understandable explaination of these events!
@Debiele AapIt's part of RUclips's rights as a corporation to include or exclude content or give content creators the ability to do the same. Make a RUclips channel and I will watch your video
I have heard a ot of arguments that goes something like "Germany was the first country to be occupied by the Nazis", I would actually like to hear Spartacus Olsson comment on that. To me personally it sounds similar to the the "clean Wehrmach myth".
Well, it's not quite as insidious as the 'clean Wehrmacht myth' but it's most certainly taking things a tad too far IMHO. Germany was not occupied. At least a third of the population supported the Nazis in 1932. This enabled them to come to power. After that they gaslighted a large portion of the population (the majority) into following them. That people are to some degree 'victims' when they have been gaslighted is intellectually understandable, but by liberal democratic standards morally unacceptable. That might be a somewhat pompous point, but it's an essential one in relation to your question. There is no moral ambiguity whatsoever about the victimhood of a people occupied by the might of war. That being said there is a scale of grayness here too - what about Austria? What to do about French collaboration? And so on... For that I can only advice you to stay tuned as we cover those complex and indeed very challenging topics in the coming years.
@@spartacus-olsson Thank you very much for your answer! I am really impressed by you and your fellow Time Ghost members dedication and willingness to answers me and my fellow commenters questions.
Yours is an excellent channel - and this may be your best video ever. It is both educating and puts in perspective many of the current trends in our political life in Europe. The end of the video is just brilliant. Thank you for this. Please let Indy and Spartacus know how much I appreciate this video.
Completely unrelated, but what was Indy drinking? I don't think I've ever seen this topic covered in as much detail on RUclips. Amazing job as always, people! Keep it up!!
Fascinating episode from start to finish. I must say that, while I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent person, there was SO MUCH information given that I will have to (most willingly) watch it a second and perhaps even a third time to take it all in. Salute to Indy, Spartacus and the rest of the team for their tireless efforts to provide an honest and unbiased presentation of a very complicated time in history.
Your excellent work episode by episode is giving light to an era full of complicated,controversial and dark event's.A big thank u to all the team for the magnificent work that you have done.
This is the first video I've commented on as I'm playing catch up with this series but after the two last episodes I have to say how amazing your work is. Explaining how the currents running through the world at the time shaped what was happening, how people thought they were in control when it was all moving away from them. This whole series is amazing and should be shown in school.
It's amazing how you guys have improved your writting as this series has developed especially when you are covering stuff that might not be as exciting as a war for example and it's not so "mainstream" as other topics. it's very hard to keep it interesting and not boring but you guys manage to make it interesting congrats!!!
Well, thank you! Though we believe that the interwar period and all its machinations and political drama is not one bit more "boring" than the world wars.
The last months of political maneuvering before Hitler became chancellor did surprise me as you promised! I hope you don't mind me asking, but will there be another 1933 German episode? I hope to hear more about the politics behind the 1933 Enabling Act (there was an interesting opposition politician that pushed for it named Ludwig Kaas) and the first one party election later in the year. And Indy has a really magnetic personality!
@@yannickg6904 First of all, it was not to make space for "gender roles", whatever the hell that means, it was specifically to switch focus to more modern history. Second of all they drew back the proposal after public backlash, especially from academics and teachers. Your source is shit.
I always wondered “why would they ever make Hitler chancellor? What were they thinking?”. I never knew until now it’s because the SA and SS were too powerful to stop by that point. Very educational
Just checking through old comments to check for nasty stuff, and I stumbled upon this warming compliment! Thanks, man, we'll make sure to keep you historically satisfied! Sorry for the late answer though...
There's so much in this episode I've had to watch it multiple times to digest it all. It may be one of your best ever, and has earned you a new Patreon subscription. :-) I do want to give Indy props for his delivery of this line in particular: "... the Geheime Staatspolizei - GE-STA-PO! ..." Literally gave me chills.
I'll say big thanks as well, because I actually just sort of came up saying it like that on the fly- loads of coffee- just to drive home a word everyone knows, but no one knows what it's from. Nice to be appreciated.
God bless you. This is wonderful, especially with your moral revelation and analysis on the dangers of trying to get the right thing by doing the wrong thing. It always backfires. I hope we can learn more from this that the end does not justify the means when you try to use evil and deceive yourself that good will come out of it.
Indy Neidell and time ghost team, this is your best video, not only the acting of Indy is flawless but also the information given and images. Please, I beg you, add Portuguese subtitles for me to show in classes here in Brazil
Even at this late hour, things could have gone very differently. Hindenburg needed to be just 5-10 years younger. Hindenburg was by far the most popular figure in Germany. He despised Hitler. But he was very old and slipping in and out of dementia. What he should have done, and probably would have if he'd been more vigorous, was realize the dangers of the situation, shut down parliament and rule by decree, essentially a military dictatorship but under his own personal rule. The Reichswehr would have stayed loyal. The SA and communist paramilitaries wouldn't have been a threat, because many of their members - WWI veterans - were more loyal to Hindenburg than to Hitler or anyone else. He could have strengthened the military and ruled until the economy had improved enough to deradicalize the political situation.
@Spartacus Olsson It was immediately apparent to me that you are actual historians rather than random producers of videos simply regurgitating stock footage and wikipedia information. I was reminded of many of the highly engaging lectures I enjoyed in my college days from professors who would tell a fascinating story drawn from their years of study and contemplation of real historical sources. I've been hooked on the channel since I ran across it about a week ago. BTW, where might I have seen Indy in the past? He's seems very familiar somehow, but that could just be because of his great lecturing style with it's humorous bent. Keep it up! I wish I could afford to join up now, but I'll be watching! Thank you!
Roughly a fifth if the nazi's indistrial output in 1943 was making gaskets for the Furherer to blow. You can trust this statistic because you reqd it from a rando online. 😋
As a German, who has been involved in this topic for about 35 years in his spare time, I have never seen such a good and comprehensive summary of the events surrounding Hitler's "Machtergreifung". Would you be able to publish a German version or at least the script? Great job, guys.
Those Reichswehr horror scenarios made me think: why didn't officials react sooner to the armed paramilitaries running in the streets? You'd think that with things like the Kapp and the Beer Hall Putsch still in recent memory, police and military would be concerned about partisan militias? Did they just not have the resources to break up these groups or did they view the anti-communist violence somewhat favorably?
All political parties had militias, enforcers etc. Even in the quieter and more stable periods rivals would try to break up their meetings, or they would try to break up others' meetings. This reflected the civil war just below the surface that was going on. Then the Depression hit and the violence increased. The police and military could barely keep a grip on the situation and may not have wanted to - some of them sympathised with the Nazis and disliked the Weimar Republic that they were supposed to be serving.
At the time armed militias had become just another everyday thing in the madness that was late Weimar. The Nazi militia was not the first militia formed (the Communist militis had it's root in the chaotic years of the foundation of the republic and so did several right wing militias),but at this point in time certainly the biggest. Even the democratic leaning parties had militias to defend themselves like the Reichsbanner (SPD) and Jungdeutscher Orden (democratic righ wingers and nationalists) and even the monarchist Stahlhelm. Weimar was just filled with militias at this point.
i can be wrong here, but the german army wasn't allowed to inforce anything on "civilians" on own soil. (At least after WW2 that was the case, and it might have already been that way after WW1. (One of the reasons the hostage rescue attempt during the terrorist attacks at the Munich olympics in the 70's took such a tragic path...)
This really should be the story of a political drama, so many twists and turns as well as highly important for public awareness. I saw a great BBC documentary with certain bits silently acted out with a voice-over.
This popular historical misconception has bothered me for decades! Thank you for taking the bold step to set the record straight in the public mind. Your content is always excellent.
Hi Sparty and the Time Ghost team, In this episode there is much discussion of the shadow structure of local, regional and federal government that Strasser put in place in Germany which was then used by the Nazis as soon as they had seized power. Any form of government structure, whether local or national, requires considerable and consistent funding in order to operate to any level of efficiency. Who or what funded the Nazi shadow government structure, both before coming to power and after? This isn't clear to me. Without funding I can't see how they could have done it.
Wow Indy, you outdid yourself with this one! It's important that people today know this stuff. Hopefully we can say in truth, Never again! Yet, as an American, I'm worried.
top notch discussion as always. absolutely the best history channel on youtube. it's good enough to be included in a university setting in parallel with required reading.
Keep fighting the good fight for history, Indy and Spartacus! The fact that you draw so many insomniac keyboard warriors and foil hats is evidence that you are sorely needed. 👍👏
Perhaps you can add to the Druze Rebellion in Lebanon in the 1920s led by Mohammed Al-Atrash, who was one of the first to spouse a separation of the church and state.
@@TimeGhost I am saying that what you have given in these last few episodes is important, detailed, and requires some careful thought. It is very good.
"... by embracing conspiracy theories and populist positions. Ideas they knew were false, anti-democratic, and not even workable solutions." This sounds so familiar, but I'm having difficulty remembering who this reminds me of.
Well I guess that is parliamentary democracy for you, you do not vote for a head of government, you vote for representatives that will elect a head of government for you, often after complicated negotiations. It is not often parliamentary democracies is ruled by majority governments and even more seldom by one-party majorities. Of course it does not hurt to have an army of political mobsters on your side.
Weimar Germany had a two-fold system. The populace directly voted for president, which is why the great war hero von Hindenburg was president. There were also parliamentary elections, but parliament had but one role. propose laws and vote on them. these laws would need to be brought to the president for him to sign them, and he had veto powers. The president named the chancellor, the head of government, which was usually the leader of the strongest party in parliament, but not always (like Hindenburg tried to keep the nazis out of government, but the social democrats and the conservatives couldnt get a functioning government working). My history teacher used to say "the Germans wanted a little Kaiser as their president", fitting, since most definitely didnt want the monarchy to disappear. and having a head of state with a firm grip on the country was thought necessary. also, not really connected, but when hitler whilst being chancellor assumed the role of president as well, the american president sent him a message protesting this grab of power. Hitler answered "why do you care? arent you also the head of state and government?" This anecdote may or may not be incorrect, I just recalled it from my old history lessons.
@@henrik3291 I do not know, I would assume it falls under the government's duties, thus the chancellor and his cabinet. propably approved by parliament, maybe not.
This was awesome. My wife makes me watch Bill Mahr while serving breakfast and he had Ben Shapiro and Nance on and Nance said that Hitler was Democratically elected and I told my wife that was not true of course she does not believe me and gave her the TIME GHOST TREATMENT. Thanks, Indy for the Victory.
Thank you for this very insightful and detailed documentary on Hitler´s rise to power. As rightly stated below by the author, german people rallied behind Hitler, but that was only after he had seized power. As someone who´s lived in a non-democratic nation, I know for a fact that dictators can be "popular", there´s something about people accepting dictators, even rallying behind them, because dictators have a lot of power, they instill fear and respect on their people, and often know how to mix nationalism and demagoguery to remain in power forever.
I think it's misleading to say that Von Papen was of the Zentrumpartei, as you say in the beginning. He became chancellor on June 1 1932, and on June 3 stepped out of the party. His government was supported just by the conservative DNVP and DVP, not by the (more centrist) Zentrumpartei.
To Indy and Spartacus...... you gents are truly amazing in your research and detailed analysis of this critical point in world history! I often have told my boys that “The best education you receive will not be confined to a classroom. I learned more outside of the school house walls than I did in.” 😎👍🏻
Strasser wasn't a leftist and he didn't have a faction. Strasser and his allies' ideas were like those of the populist right, they did want to change some of the details of the structure of capitalism, but they did not want to tear down the whole structure. There were no factions in the Nazi Party, because everyone acknowledged the essential nature of Hitler's leadership, the Bamberg incident was really just an attempt by Strasser to capture Hitler away from the 'Munch Bigshots' and remind him of the alleged true philosophy of Nazism. Once Hitler clearly sided against Strasser, Strasser simply gave way. When he left the Party, there was no faction to leave with him. Even when Otto Strasser left to form the Black Front he only took a tiny number of people with him.
Yeah, that's what I think. To me, socialism seems all about requiring the individual to be subservient to the community in all things (in practice this means subservience to the state power structure). The Nazis were all about that. That they didn't consider themselves leftists, and hated more honest socialists, is irrelevant.
@@Fairfax40DaysforLife "socialism seems all about requiring the individual to be subservient to the community in all things".You are right, that just makes sense to you, not a good definition of socialism. In this definition a theocratic state, such as Israel, which has compulsory military service could be socialist as well.
Just came across this channel and this episode. My hat off to the people that must have put in a tremendous amount of work to make this video. Also, the presentation is outstanding! Good consistent volume, a clear voice with the proper intonations when needed, and a well written and absorbing story-line! Great job, thank you, I look forward to watching more of these very educational, and timely(!!) videos! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
@@TimeGhost good to be on board :-) .... nothing better than looking back into history and learning important lessons. As a newbie walking through this visual 'Ship of History', I'm still trying to figure out the significance of the 3-bulb lamp over Indy's shoulder... In some videos it's on the left side over his right shoulder, in some it's on the right side of the frame. Sometimes two bulbs are lit, sometimes all three are lit... First thought was that maybe it was a subtle indicator of the episode's sequence... but that doesn't seem the case. It doesn't seem to be code, as the light bulbs don't change 'on' or 'off'. Surely an appropriate Enigma (without the necessary keyboard).... ;-)
It really would make Hitler less careful in his actions. He would try to remilitarize the Rhineland, annex Austria and occupy Czechoslovakia by 1936. And if that sounds unrealistic, keep in mind, he thought that Germany didn't lose ww1.
Perfectly Fine no, he stilld need that time to militarize his country and to at least semi prepare it for war, as he cant be sure that eg britain will stay neutral after he occupies checkoslowakia. for the same reason, he also needs to build uo a functioning non democratic regime, that takes time, and then he has to indoctrinate the people. thats at least 5 years id say
It would have made him more confident though, which could have actually had more dire consequences down the line. We saw what he did when he was being cautious at first, however it's also likely that if the Western powers had stepped in earlier we could have avoided everything.
Incredible video, I've seen it several times now and I can say that you gus did an amazing job in presenting and explaining this very complex subject in a way that is concise and understandable. It really put all the pieces together for me as to how the Nazis came to power amidst a chaotic political environment. I do have one question though, about Eugen Ott's war game study. How was this carried out and how did he arrive in those conclusions? What is a war game even? Thanks for the great content!
I think it would be amazing content for someone (or a few of you guys) from the TimeGhost channel to debate TIK history (also a WW2 historian) on how socialist/"left wing" the NAZI's (National Socialist German Workers Party) was. You both have very different opinions on where the NAZI's align on the old political left vs right line. I think using the fact that the NAZI's were racist doesn't show the NAZI's were right wing since any party both left and right wing can be racist. So from there it becomes a matter of proof of what the NAZI's did during their time in power to either put more power into the government or take power away from the government. I think that is where a great debate/video would be born.
That's not how ideologies work. The Bolsheviks were super anti capitalism, but the New Economic Policy under Lenin was more capitalist than Russian feudalism. Reality is made up of three things: Ideology (ie, the ideals) Actions (ie, when happens in practice) and Propaganda (how both are expressed to the masses) Lenin explained his actions as necessary temporary actions to ensure the future of Communist Russia. Furthermore, Nazism is known to be Third Positionism (I don't know why that's confusing), a set of ideas that create a privileged race or nation that deserves state support versus non-privileged races or nations that deserve state violence. This is directly anti International Communism AND Capitalism, both of which are ideally set on some sort of equality (either the equality of all workers regardless of race or nation, or the equality of all individuals regardless of race or nation). Racial Capitalism (USA, most notably with slavery but also in general such as the razing of black wall street to undermine black individuals their economic interest.) and Racial Communism (the Khmer Rouge regime were notably Khmer nationalists who hated other racists no matter how communist they were) are also directly against the basic ideology of either capitalism or communism and yet exist. Or even Racial Theocracy, Christian or Muslim states that abhor Christians or Muslim people of the wrong racial or national background (Spain in the Middle Ages made this a thing by saying that converts to Christianity still had "Impure Blood" unlike white European Christians and brought it to the 20th century with Franco's Falangists) So what I'm saying is that academic debates are just fundamentally limited due to the complexity of how states work.
I can see where you come from, but the classic left/right spectrum is not about giving more or less power to the government, it is defined along social and economic lines. Otherwise an Anarchist would be an extreme right winger, and I doubt Anarchists and people who call themselves right wingers would see any common ground between them. Anarchists and Socialists do love to fight, but most of them will agree that they both seek similar goals even though the other one is completely misguided in how to acjive them.
@@wuugaa6776 No I agree that is why I don't think the classic left/right spectrum is useful anymore. Because when you actually look into what each party or ideology wants it doesn't make complete sense putting any party really on the left or right unless you are just talking modern politics like between the American left(democrats) and right(republicans). But what I am talking about is a debate between TimeGhost and TIK on how Socialist or how un-socialist the NAZI party was. TIK gives many examples in many of his videos on how the NAZI party should be considered a socialist part (left wing for what most people say). And it is not like TimeGhost is punching down or something in such a debate as TIK has about the same amount of follower as TimeGhost does (20k less) and he does put sources into his video for everything he says. So it would be a incredibly interesting debate for me and I think many other people to see on who is actually right in this matter (of how Socialist the NAZIs actually were).
Trying to debate TIK on these issues is pointless, since he has shown time after time that he is too wrapped up in his own political beliefs and unable to take criticism to actually absorb any counter argument. He has no idea what socialism is, and simply goes with the tired old trope "government doing stuff is Socialism" libertarian fantasy.
This is probably the most important episode in the entirety of y'all's work. It strings together the fundamental flaw of the German political way. We democratic societies must not allow boring topics, such as separation of powers, checks & balances and executive law be considered boring because....they're not.
There is no "German" political way. Present-day Germany is very different precisely in checks and balances (and has a mixed proportional representation voting system) comapred to the Weimar Republic era Germany, and differs even more from the empire under Wilhelm and from the nazi regime. Then there were East and West Germany - also fundamentally different. One a social democracy, the other communism. There are so many different variants of Germany I find it difficult to understand what you mean by "*the* German political way". There is no such thing. Have you watched the entire series?
@@johnny5wd567 I apologize. I should have written "the German political way of that era." The Republic of Rome had that exact same problem with their short-term dictators their Senate endorsed leading up to Julius Caeser. Both Caesar & Hitler used an office that had been established by law and previous office-holders. We shouldn't establish a legal precedent that could have dire consequences when held by someone who is willing to abuse that precedent. If a world leader could do something with their power that is horrific, maybe the office itself shouldn't have that power.
Hi, for those of you that don't know me yet, I'm the lead author of this series and the author of this episode. Now, as you will, or have just seen, this episode covers an event of earth-shattering magnitude in human history. An event that is often misunderstood and glossed over. The reason for that is not that there is anything controversial, or stupendously new with what we're documenting here. The simple fact is that its just too detailed and too complicated to cover in general history studies, especially in secondary school. The level we get into here is usually only covered in specialized lectures at college or university level. Tons and tons of books have been written on the topic and yet, many misconceptions remain. It was my goal to dispel some of the many misunderstandings that abound about how Hitler finally seized power. One of the chief myths is that Hitler was elected. As the video shows, that is not what happened. So you might ask yourself; how come the vast majority of Germans finally rallied behind him? Because they did, there's no question. But you see, that happens _after_ he seizes power and it will be the topic of our next episode on Germany that covers the Nazi consolidation of power.
It was also my goal to cast some more light on a topic that has been weaponized in political debate in recent years: the level of Socialism in the German National Socialist Worker's Party. I hope that I have laid the latter one to rest, but I fear that the comment section will still be full of politically biased nonsense on this topic. It's quite tiring for our community managers to answer that misrepresenting alt-right trope over and over again. And we won't stop you from posting it, even if it's nonsense. Instead we will try to patiently answer, but think fifteen times about posting 'Nazis were Socialists, duh!' or "Dude, Nazis are left-wing, duh!' out of respect for us. What we will not tolerate is that you post links to any of the clown videos by non-historians that try to perpetuate that myth. We are a team of _actual_ historians. We have no interest in 'pinning' Naziism on anyone. We also have no interest in 'pinning' Socialism on anyone. Nor should you, if you have any interest whatsoever in understanding history. Revolutionary Socialism, Communism, Fascism and Nazism have all brought down a lot of suffering on humanity - if we are supporters of freedom and democracy we need to learn from that. Throwing them all in one bucket and dumping it on our perceived political opponents is not learning, it's obfuscation, confusion, and destruction of education. So respect humanity, respect history and don't take part in that kind of nonsense. Also I will again post our rules, respect them:
⚠️ *RULES OF CONDUCT*
STAY CIVIL AND POLITE we will delete any comments with personal insults, or attacks.
AVOID PARTISAN POLITICS AS FAR AS YOU CAN we reserve the right to cut off vitriolic debates.
HATE SPEECH IN ANY DIRECTION will lead to a ban.
RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, OR SLAMMING OF MINORITIES will lead to an immediate ban.
PARTISAN REVISIONISM, ESPECIALLY HOLOCAUST AND HOLODOMOR DENIAL will lead to an immediate ban.
Yes, this period is overshadowed by the world wars.
Blessed Sparty
So if i'm correct Nazism is not a socialist party. It was a mixture of both Right wing and left wing politics combined, with a big part of ultranationalism.
@@Kriegter It was, until Hitler threw out Strasser, as of that moment the left wing bits were more or less totally gone. They stayed tricky though as you'll see in our next episode. They even created a fake universal union to replace all the unions they banned to make people _think_ they were pro-working class. Then they more or less handed that fake union to the industrialists and let them erode most of Germany's worker protection and insurances.
@Gretownzu ahh yes the nazi politics people that Spartacus literally just pointed out
I don't think you really get props for it often, but thanks for the subtitles, it shows how much you care about and work on these episodes.
Thanks a lot! That is rarely mentioned indeed. But it's my pleasure!
@@TimeGhost I also thank you for the subtitles it makes me sad that the hearing impaired cannot enjoy all the great entertainment on RUclips but they can enjoy this one thanks to your kindness. God bless you. 😉
I don't think we can show enough appreciation for people who will go at this length to open our hearts, minds and brains.
Thanks to them, I'm beginning to see and get an understanding of and on how polital evil starts.
We shouldn't put anything ahead of morals at any cost because corruption of the heart is disease without cure.
No wonder the wonder the Bible is steadfast about guarding the heart because our hearts and minds are the foundations of not just who we are but what we'll become and finally the kind of society we establish.
When you witness your neighbour being violated and you do nothing about it, because of some false sense or belief in whatever cause or ideology, whether it be religion, political and so on, then you are by far worse than those carrying out the abominable and nefarious practice
@@TimeGhostf1q😅
So, I tell a few of my friends or coworkers, when they ask me how my weekend was, that I spent a lot of it learning about the Nazis. The common response is, "Are YOU a Nazi??" People just can't wrap their head around why I'd want to learn about something so depressing, lmao
We must understand history, lest we repeat it. I think that's a quote but I don't know who said it.
George Santayana. I'm glad that you watch and share our videos nonetheless!
That sounds like something a Nazi would say!!!
Joking....
I want to learn about these things so I can better recognize the signs and put a stop to it before it reaches Night of the Long Knives levels.
you could say: "no, i just want to learn how to detect that shit happening again."
@@elvladiskov6174 And of course it is!
The passion and anger at the end was amazing for driving the point of never sacrificing principles or you'll be left with what you swore to destroy.
Principles aren't just silly ideas to be used for rhetoric. They are what keep society from plunging into a fiery abyss.
@@nathanseper8738 very true
Evangelicals should keep this in mind. They were instrumental in bringing Bismarck and Hitler both to power.
Not everyone did. Go read "Alone in Berlin".
@@johnrobinson4445 Jesus Christ.
It's interesting to read about the political atmosphere in Germany prior to Nazi power. The failure to form a coherent centrist government, political polarization on both left and right, street violence, and the attempts of extremists from both sides to discredit democracy. Hopefully we can learn to read the signs and recognise the breakdown of democracy as it occurs
Centrism is impotent in this regard
thebraunable.....i see it much simpler. The Weimar was there to loot the wealth, the public said f that and revolted.
Its very French
Yeah, kind of sounds like Portland, Oregon
Many Germans did not want democracy. They associated it with defeat in war, economic instability and war reparations. They were the core audience of the Nazis.
Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
That’s why it’s important that people like us watch these videos and read books like the Bible.
Honestly, these between two wars episodes are more interesting than the war itself. Good job; so well and deeply covered.
Thanks Meki! Glad you like them.
Whoa, that was a lot to digest. Going to have to watch a second time.
That's why I like this channel.
Brainlet
@@decem_sagittae FOAD
@@Mondo762 lmao double digit IQ guy is mad
Fake newz
Oh wow! A 3 way civil war if the Nazis don't gain power. This ought to be a mod in HOI4 for a 1930 start date.
The vanilla game with the DLCs provides political focuses for other parties. It's also possible to fail if you choose to side with Hitler and have low national stability and begin a civil war with the loyalists I think.
There is in fact a Hoi4 mod that starts in 1930. :)
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1541508799
3 side, meh, sounds too vanilla, let's make it 4 or 5 way.
@@joluoto Isn't china a thing in HOI4 or you missed the waking the tiger DLC?
3-way civil war? What is this, Kaiserreich?
I really do prefer these longer episodes to the 10 minute shorts.
Sign that TimeGhost History has enough support on Patreon? Using the word Hitler instead of a cat in a helmet.
It'll never be enough funding
There are pictures on the internet of cats who look like Hitler. Maybe they could have used one of those instead?
We decided not to let RUclipss policy influence our use of Historical names, symbols, pictures or otherwise 'advertiser-unfriendly' material. We won't present a sanetized (and thus revised) version of history just because we want ad revenue.
@@TimeGhost you got my patreon support right there !
@@TimeGhost because of this, I became a supporter.
Thank you for covering something so glossed over in grade school!
You're probably never going to read this, but I'll comment anyway, to boost the algorithm.
Indy you are one of the best, most honest and most informative history youtubers out there and I love you for it. Your collaboration with Sabaton is the coolest thing ever and I found your role as Lawrence of Arabia just great. Keep on keeping on Indy.
Right on!
wow this channel is an actual treasure trove of historical discussions. big thank you’s to you and your team for this content!
Thank you!
Indy, starting the Yugoslavia episode: today, I am touching a live wire.
Indy, starting the episode about how Hitler came to power: no dramatic intro.
:)
Well, to be frank the lack of civility under videos about the Nazis is never as bad as when we touch on events in the Balkans, or Turkey.
@@spartacus-olsson pls nuke us lol
@@spartacus-olsson well, of course, things are generally clearer about Nazis compared to the Balkans history and for Balkanic people it is more common to quarrel on daily basis, compared to civilised, polite and non-agressive German and Western European culture. But it is generally taken less offensive and frustrated.
@@spartacus-olsson Thanks frank.
The Balkans is still a very hot place even today compared to the relative calm of the now wholly democratic Europe.
My first thought is "oh shit, one of the three incandescent light bulbs in the background is burned out." My second thought is, "Once again they have surpassed the Ivy league schools in the U.S. in teaching history. "
why thank you - the light bulb as been fixed for the next shoot... we debated it for a bit, but someone convinced Astrid it was cool with broken lightbulbs when the world is breaking...
@@spartacus-olsson very apropos, I like it.
Demonetization: Ah Shit, here we go again
RUclips: we are simple people. We see history, we don't give them money.
TimeGhost Army: i Hope you will monatize our vid...
RUclips:NO
@@diegocondepineiro8909 time ghost history again: Well I guess we will use OUR OWN SITE. SIKE
@@Kriegter i see that you are a German as well
Write your elected officials! RUclips enjoys the benefits of being a "public" platform while actually editorializing the content through monetization and demonetization.
To quote Big Ben, “a republic, if you can keep it”.
Hitler and Stalin both in power at the same time! A lousy time to be a European !
Great episode, both in content and presentation!
John Hall
Ben Franklin wouldn’t have liked this but considering it was Europe I doubt he’d have been too surprised
A very good read on the topic is Sebastian Haffner - Defying Hitler: A Memoir. Recently read it myself again and is very, very chilling and describes many of these event from the perspective of a regular person living in Berlin
I read a Haffner book during school. was very interesting. A great writer.
@@Apokalypse456 what shocked me how nobody took it all that seriously at first, knowing where it ended up
after this series would y'all ever do a gilded age/victorian era time before the 1st world war?
ooof i got chills at the end of the episode. keep doing this please i am a fan since The Great War episodes and love ur vids
This may be the best series you have done in terms of information most of us (well me) didn’t already know. Kudos on an informative, insightful, well organized and easily understandable explaination of these events!
thank you for your kind words!
Best episode yet, which is bitterly sweet.
"who is a congenital liar" History may not repeat but it sure does..... wait, it actually DOES repeat...sometimes.
When the rhyme is so perfect it’s no longer a rhyme
When you said _APPRENTICE_ I had a real *Star War’s Sith* vibe which seems all very appropriate!
This kind of content keeps me on RUclips. Super interesting stuff!
Thanks!
I love your Videos,they are so interesring and i can learn so mich from them.
Thanks!
The speech and it's passion at the end of the video is simply amazing. It is always summed up amazingly and you are at a cliff hanger each time
Of course it's not neutral, but that would be pretty dry, but their emotional bias is founded on many arguments and sources
@Debiele Aap I'm sorry for your loss
@Debiele Aap Posting hatred of Jews, does that.
@Debiele AapIt's part of RUclips's rights as a corporation to include or exclude content or give content creators the ability to do the same. Make a RUclips channel and I will watch your video
@Debiele Aap I'm really interested what is the overall topic where they failed?
Had to watch twice to understand everything, which I think I do now. Certainly worth it and very interesting.
I have heard a ot of arguments that goes something like "Germany was the first country to be occupied by the Nazis", I would actually like to hear Spartacus Olsson comment on that. To me personally it sounds similar to the the "clean Wehrmach myth".
Well, it's not quite as insidious as the 'clean Wehrmacht myth' but it's most certainly taking things a tad too far IMHO. Germany was not occupied. At least a third of the population supported the Nazis in 1932. This enabled them to come to power. After that they gaslighted a large portion of the population (the majority) into following them. That people are to some degree 'victims' when they have been gaslighted is intellectually understandable, but by liberal democratic standards morally unacceptable. That might be a somewhat pompous point, but it's an essential one in relation to your question. There is no moral ambiguity whatsoever about the victimhood of a people occupied by the might of war. That being said there is a scale of grayness here too - what about Austria? What to do about French collaboration? And so on... For that I can only advice you to stay tuned as we cover those complex and indeed very challenging topics in the coming years.
@@spartacus-olsson Thank you very much for your answer! I am really impressed by you and your fellow Time Ghost members dedication and willingness to answers me and my fellow commenters questions.
Yours is an excellent channel - and this may be your best video ever. It is both educating and puts in perspective many of the current trends in our political life in Europe. The end of the video is just brilliant. Thank you for this. Please let Indy and Spartacus know how much I appreciate this video.
Completely unrelated, but what was Indy drinking?
I don't think I've ever seen this topic covered in as much detail on RUclips. Amazing job as always, people! Keep it up!!
Fascinating episode from start to finish. I must say that, while I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent person, there was SO MUCH information given that I will have to (most willingly) watch it a second and perhaps even a third time to take it all in. Salute to Indy, Spartacus and the rest of the team for their tireless efforts to provide an honest and unbiased presentation of a very complicated time in history.
Thank you - a very motivating and welcome comment!
Your excellent work episode by episode is giving light to an era full of complicated,controversial and dark event's.A big thank u to all the team for the magnificent work that you have done.
thank you
Astonishing episode! Great work team, you guys made "house of cards" plot look as silly as "friends"
This is the first video I've commented on as I'm playing catch up with this series but after the two last episodes I have to say how amazing your work is. Explaining how the currents running through the world at the time shaped what was happening, how people thought they were in control when it was all moving away from them. This whole series is amazing and should be shown in school.
Thanks!
I was supposed to go out on a date in 10 mins... nevermind.
That's a compliment! Thank you!
lol same
@@spartacus-olsson I adore your work! I wouldn't miss it for anything!
@@AntoniMage
You could perhaps have watched this episode with your date?
If he/she doesn't understand then clealy wasn't the right person for you
It's amazing how you guys have improved your writting as this series has developed especially when you are covering stuff that might not be as exciting as a war for example and it's not so "mainstream" as other topics. it's very hard to keep it interesting and not boring but you guys manage to make it interesting congrats!!!
Well, thank you! Though we believe that the interwar period and all its machinations and political drama is not one bit more "boring" than the world wars.
The last months of political maneuvering before Hitler became chancellor did surprise me as you promised! I hope you don't mind me asking, but will there be another 1933 German episode? I hope to hear more about the politics behind the 1933 Enabling Act (there was an interesting opposition politician that pushed for it named Ludwig Kaas) and the first one party election later in the year.
And Indy has a really magnetic personality!
We will cover more of the Nazi power consolidation in our 1934 episode on Germany.
Hey Indy, one of your lightbulbs is burned out.
May Indy have good luck finding a matching replacement bulb for his vintage era lamp.
@@Somewhat-Evil amen
ikr?
Just found this channel and I got to say, I'm LOVING it. Thanks for the content and keep making these fantastic videos.
This should be watched in every high school world history course.
This is the enthusiasm with witch the class should be conducted in the first place.
Unlikely to happen...
www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/ancient-history-0012647
You should watch Europa The Last Battle.
@@yannickg6904 Doesn't that article say it was just proposed, and also considered 'controversial'? I wouldn't panic just yet
@@yannickg6904 First of all, it was not to make space for "gender roles", whatever the hell that means, it was specifically to switch focus to more modern history. Second of all they drew back the proposal after public backlash, especially from academics and teachers. Your source is shit.
This is seriously my favourite content on youtube. Can't get enough of it, love all the episodes.
I always wondered “why would they ever make Hitler chancellor? What were they thinking?”. I never knew until now it’s because the SA and SS were too powerful to stop by that point. Very educational
Thanks again for your great work. The best thing about this video is that you could use the word 'prorogue' and we all knew what it meant. 8-)
Great job,as always,thank you.And may the force be with you..always : )
Glad to support his channel. I know my small pledge will go to good use. Thanks to Indy and the team for their excellent work.
Just checking through old comments to check for nasty stuff, and I stumbled upon this warming compliment! Thanks, man, we'll make sure to keep you historically satisfied! Sorry for the late answer though...
18:52 a short but absolutely fitting description of those 3 it seems. Obviously Strasser knew his "friends".
"called for new elections .... citing 'stuff.'" greatest quote in this series by far.
Simple amazing!
Amazing work!!
Very good video! Perhaps the definitive video representation of these events.
You get an upvote for that title alone.
There's so much in this episode I've had to watch it multiple times to digest it all. It may be one of your best ever, and has earned you a new Patreon subscription. :-)
I do want to give Indy props for his delivery of this line in particular:
"... the Geheime Staatspolizei - GE-STA-PO! ..."
Literally gave me chills.
Thanks!
I'll say big thanks as well, because I actually just sort of came up saying it like that on the fly- loads of coffee- just to drive home a word everyone knows, but no one knows what it's from. Nice to be appreciated.
God bless you.
This is wonderful, especially with your moral revelation and analysis on the dangers of trying to get the right thing by doing the wrong thing. It always backfires. I hope we can learn more from this that the end does not justify the means when you try to use evil and deceive yourself that good will come out of it.
Thank you John, we appreciate your kind words.
Indy Neidell and time ghost team, this is your best video, not only the acting of Indy is flawless but also the information given and images. Please, I beg you, add Portuguese subtitles for me to show in classes here in Brazil
Even at this late hour, things could have gone very differently. Hindenburg needed to be just 5-10 years younger. Hindenburg was by far the most popular figure in Germany. He despised Hitler. But he was very old and slipping in and out of dementia. What he should have done, and probably would have if he'd been more vigorous, was realize the dangers of the situation, shut down parliament and rule by decree, essentially a military dictatorship but under his own personal rule.
The Reichswehr would have stayed loyal. The SA and communist paramilitaries wouldn't have been a threat, because many of their members - WWI veterans - were more loyal to Hindenburg than to Hitler or anyone else. He could have strengthened the military and ruled until the economy had improved enough to deradicalize the political situation.
@Spartacus Olsson It was immediately apparent to me that you are actual historians rather than random producers of videos simply regurgitating stock footage and wikipedia information. I was reminded of many of the highly engaging lectures I enjoyed in my college days from professors who would tell a fascinating story drawn from their years of study and contemplation of real historical sources. I've been hooked on the channel since I ran across it about a week ago.
BTW, where might I have seen Indy in the past? He's seems very familiar somehow, but that could just be because of his great lecturing style with it's humorous bent. Keep it up! I wish I could afford to join up now, but I'll be watching!
Thank you!
Thank you for your support!! (Check the Great War channel for Indy)
@5:57 Hitler "blows a gasket". Perhaps a running scorecard could be used to tally all the gaskets blown by Det Failüre during his reign.
Make one wonder, was it the Autrachy and having no more reubber, that led to increasing loss of gaskets?
wed run out of screen space...
There's a Subaru joke in here somewhere
Roughly a fifth if the nazi's indistrial output in 1943 was making gaskets for the Furherer to blow.
You can trust this statistic because you reqd it from a rando online. 😋
As a German, who has been involved in this topic for about 35 years in his spare time, I have never seen such a good and comprehensive summary of the events surrounding Hitler's "Machtergreifung".
Would you be able to publish a German version or at least the script? Great job, guys.
We're not sure - we might. But thanks anyway!
Those Reichswehr horror scenarios made me think: why didn't officials react sooner to the armed paramilitaries running in the streets? You'd think that with things like the Kapp and the Beer Hall Putsch still in recent memory, police and military would be concerned about partisan militias? Did they just not have the resources to break up these groups or did they view the anti-communist violence somewhat favorably?
All political parties had militias, enforcers etc. Even in the quieter and more stable periods rivals would try to break up their meetings, or they would try to break up others' meetings. This reflected the civil war just below the surface that was going on. Then the Depression hit and the violence increased.
The police and military could barely keep a grip on the situation and may not have wanted to - some of them sympathised with the Nazis and disliked the Weimar Republic that they were supposed to be serving.
At the time armed militias had become just another everyday thing in the madness that was late Weimar. The Nazi militia was not the first militia formed (the Communist militis had it's root in the chaotic years of the foundation of the republic and so did several right wing militias),but at this point in time certainly the biggest. Even the democratic leaning parties had militias to defend themselves like the Reichsbanner (SPD) and Jungdeutscher Orden (democratic righ wingers and nationalists) and even the monarchist Stahlhelm. Weimar was just filled with militias at this point.
i can be wrong here, but the german army wasn't allowed to inforce anything on "civilians" on own soil. (At least after WW2 that was the case, and it might have already been that way after WW1. (One of the reasons the hostage rescue attempt during the terrorist attacks at the Munich olympics in the 70's took such a tragic path...)
This really should be the story of a political drama, so many twists and turns as well as highly important for public awareness. I saw a great BBC documentary with certain bits silently acted out with a voice-over.
This popular historical misconception has bothered me for decades! Thank you for taking the bold step to set the record straight in the public mind. Your content is always excellent.
How have i never heard of this channel? entertaining, but non romantic telling of history. Top notch!
I love this program
What an amazing way to finish an amazing video.
Awesome episode. But frightening as we can the effects today
So good documentaries! Bring a lot of historical perspective.
Hi Sparty and the Time Ghost team,
In this episode there is much discussion of the shadow structure of local, regional and federal government that Strasser put in place in Germany which was then used by the Nazis as soon as they had seized power. Any form of government structure, whether local or national, requires considerable and consistent funding in order to operate to any level of efficiency. Who or what funded the Nazi shadow government structure, both before coming to power and after? This isn't clear to me. Without funding I can't see how they could have done it.
Finance came from party memberships and donations from businessmen sympathetic to the Nazis and or afraid of the KPD and SPD.
I really love the "kakelugn" you have in the studio!
Wow Indy, you outdid yourself with this one!
It's important that people today know this stuff. Hopefully we can say in truth, Never again!
Yet, as an American, I'm worried.
top notch discussion as always. absolutely the best history channel on youtube. it's good enough to be included in a university setting in parallel with required reading.
22:30. Tell us how you really feel, Indie.
bravo sparacus and indy! this entire series is bloody brilliant! (and it checks against all of the histories i've read)
Love these shows.
Keep fighting the good fight for history, Indy and Spartacus! The fact that you draw so many insomniac keyboard warriors and foil hats is evidence that you are sorely needed. 👍👏
From 2024 - the situation in the US right now is too similar because of the Rs.
sadly, I agree.
Indie sounded like he was going crazy at the end there, just before the sponsor.
Perhaps you can add to the Druze Rebellion in Lebanon in the 1920s led by Mohammed Al-Atrash, who was one of the first to spouse a separation of the church and state.
Neidell and Olsson, Your earlier episodes were entertaining, but I have woken up in the last four.
Nelson, what are you trying to say?
@@TimeGhost I am saying that what you have given in these last few episodes is important, detailed, and requires some careful thought. It is very good.
Neil Nelson thank you! We do what we can.
"... by embracing conspiracy theories and populist positions. Ideas they knew were false, anti-democratic, and not even workable solutions."
This sounds so familiar, but I'm having difficulty remembering who this reminds me of.
Glenn Lee
Hmmmmm🤔
The democrats have become really weird, haven't they
Mchammershot
Yeah, the Democrats. With their Qanon and “Corona virus was made in a Chinese Lab” bullshit. The Democrats. Sure.
Yeah, you must be thinking of the democrat party.
Your episodes Just keep getting better and better. I am really thankful for being able to learn history in a detailed unbiased way.
10:10 Moment, Barron von Geil? Tolle daß so ein Pornname im Weimarzeit benutzt ist!
LMFAO! 😂 🤣 😅
It's von Geidel.
Should this be German? Lmao
I love the powerful finishes that Indy does for many of these shows. Very emphatic and appropriate.
By the time Papen was chancellor can you really consider him still a member of the Center Patty?
He left the party voluntarily shortly after.
@@sualtam9509 Well he left because he was about to be expelled from the party. Also I think he left it the day before he became Chancellor.
No. He wasn't part of the the center party at that point.
So glad I clicked my way here. Great breakdown of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the ‘Who.’ Gives one an awful amount to think about.
Well I guess that is parliamentary democracy for you, you do not vote for a head of government, you vote for representatives that will elect a head of government for you, often after complicated negotiations. It is not often parliamentary democracies is ruled by majority governments and even more seldom by one-party majorities.
Of course it does not hurt to have an army of political mobsters on your side.
Weimar Germany had a two-fold system. The populace directly voted for president, which is why the great war hero von Hindenburg was president.
There were also parliamentary elections, but parliament had but one role. propose laws and vote on them. these laws would need to be brought to the president for him to sign them, and he had veto powers.
The president named the chancellor, the head of government, which was usually the leader of the strongest party in parliament, but not always (like Hindenburg tried to keep the nazis out of government, but the social democrats and the conservatives couldnt get a functioning government working).
My history teacher used to say "the Germans wanted a little Kaiser as their president", fitting, since most definitely didnt want the monarchy to disappear. and having a head of state with a firm grip on the country was thought necessary.
also, not really connected, but when hitler whilst being chancellor assumed the role of president as well, the american president sent him a message protesting this grab of power.
Hitler answered "why do you care? arent you also the head of state and government?" This anecdote may or may not be incorrect, I just recalled it from my old history lessons.
@@Apokalypse456 What about the state budget then?
@@henrik3291 I do not know, I would assume it falls under the government's duties, thus the chancellor and his cabinet. propably approved by parliament, maybe not.
This was awesome. My wife makes me watch Bill Mahr while serving breakfast and he had Ben Shapiro and Nance on and Nance said that Hitler was Democratically elected and I told my
wife that was not true of course she does not believe me and gave her the TIME GHOST TREATMENT. Thanks, Indy for the Victory.
Thank you for this very insightful and detailed documentary on Hitler´s rise to power. As rightly stated below by the author, german people rallied behind Hitler, but that was only after he had seized power. As someone who´s lived in a non-democratic nation, I know for a fact that dictators can be "popular", there´s something about people accepting dictators, even rallying behind them, because dictators have a lot of power, they instill fear and respect on their people, and often know how to mix nationalism and demagoguery to remain in power forever.
As always, your team has done outstanding work on bringing all these events into a succinct and understandable format.
Why, thank you kindly!
I think it's misleading to say that Von Papen was of the Zentrumpartei, as you say in the beginning. He became chancellor on June 1 1932, and on June 3 stepped out of the party. His government was supported just by the conservative DNVP and DVP, not by the (more centrist) Zentrumpartei.
Isn't the Zentrum conservative? Their ideology was political catholisism after all.
To Indy and Spartacus...... you gents are truly amazing in your research and detailed analysis of this critical point in world history! I often have told my boys that “The best education you receive will not be confined to a classroom. I learned more outside of the school house walls than I did in.” 😎👍🏻
Thanks a lot! And those are some wise words to live by.
Hmm, this doesn't sound good for Germany or Europe. 😉😉😉
damn, nice ending indie. also, you guys gunno do the "night of the long knives"?
Of course! But you gotta wait till 1934
Strasser wasn't a leftist and he didn't have a faction. Strasser and his allies' ideas were like those of the populist right, they did want to change some of the details of the structure of capitalism, but they did not want to tear down the whole structure. There were no factions in the Nazi Party, because everyone acknowledged the essential nature of Hitler's leadership, the Bamberg incident was really just an attempt by Strasser to capture Hitler away from the 'Munch Bigshots' and remind him of the alleged true philosophy of Nazism. Once Hitler clearly sided against Strasser, Strasser simply gave way. When he left the Party, there was no faction to leave with him. Even when Otto Strasser left to form the Black Front he only took a tiny number of people with him.
This is an excellent episode. Thanks!
You're welcome!
National Socialism never had to nationalize the "means of production" since the private owners of those means were under coercion already.
Yeah, that's what I think. To me, socialism seems all about requiring the individual to be subservient to the community in all things (in practice this means subservience to the state power structure). The Nazis were all about that. That they didn't consider themselves leftists, and hated more honest socialists, is irrelevant.
@@Fairfax40DaysforLife "socialism seems all about requiring the individual to be subservient to the community in all things".You are right, that just makes sense to you, not a good definition of socialism. In this definition a theocratic state, such as Israel, which has compulsory military service could be socialist as well.
Just came across this channel and this episode. My hat off to the people that must have put in a tremendous amount of work to make this video.
Also, the presentation is outstanding! Good consistent volume, a clear voice with the proper intonations when needed, and a well written and absorbing story-line!
Great job, thank you, I look forward to watching more of these very educational, and timely(!!) videos! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
What a compliment! Thanks a bunch - glad too have you on board!
@@TimeGhost good to be on board :-) .... nothing better than looking back into history and learning important lessons.
As a newbie walking through this visual 'Ship of History', I'm still trying to figure out the significance of the 3-bulb lamp over Indy's shoulder...
In some videos it's on the left side over his right shoulder, in some it's on the right side of the frame. Sometimes two bulbs are lit, sometimes all three are lit...
First thought was that maybe it was a subtle indicator of the episode's sequence... but that doesn't seem the case.
It doesn't seem to be code, as the light bulbs don't change 'on' or 'off'.
Surely an appropriate Enigma (without the necessary keyboard).... ;-)
It's a mystery to us too, maybe the Time Ghost is trying to tell us something... facebook.com/TimeGhostHistory/videos/749737282190776/
Imagine if he was actually elected
Would be a quite interesting period
Smh
It really would make Hitler less careful in his actions. He would try to remilitarize the Rhineland, annex Austria and occupy Czechoslovakia by 1936. And if that sounds unrealistic, keep in mind, he thought that Germany didn't lose ww1.
Perfectly Fine no, he stilld need that time to militarize his country and to at least semi prepare it for war, as he cant be sure that eg britain will stay neutral after he occupies checkoslowakia.
for the same reason, he also needs to build uo a functioning non democratic regime, that takes time, and then he has to indoctrinate the people. thats at least 5 years id say
It would have made him more confident though, which could have actually had more dire consequences down the line. We saw what he did when he was being cautious at first, however it's also likely that if the Western powers had stepped in earlier we could have avoided everything.
Incredible video, I've seen it several times now and I can say that you gus did an amazing job in presenting and explaining this very complex subject in a way that is concise and understandable. It really put all the pieces together for me as to how the Nazis came to power amidst a chaotic political environment.
I do have one question though, about Eugen Ott's war game study. How was this carried out and how did he arrive in those conclusions? What is a war game even?
Thanks for the great content!
I think it would be amazing content for someone (or a few of you guys) from the TimeGhost channel to debate TIK history (also a WW2 historian) on how socialist/"left wing" the NAZI's (National Socialist German Workers Party) was. You both have very different opinions on where the NAZI's align on the old political left vs right line.
I think using the fact that the NAZI's were racist doesn't show the NAZI's were right wing since any party both left and right wing can be racist. So from there it becomes a matter of proof of what the NAZI's did during their time in power to either put more power into the government or take power away from the government. I think that is where a great debate/video would be born.
That's not how ideologies work.
The Bolsheviks were super anti capitalism, but the New Economic Policy under Lenin was more capitalist than Russian feudalism.
Reality is made up of three things:
Ideology (ie, the ideals)
Actions (ie, when happens in practice)
and Propaganda (how both are expressed to the masses)
Lenin explained his actions as necessary temporary actions to ensure the future of Communist Russia.
Furthermore, Nazism is known to be Third Positionism (I don't know why that's confusing), a set of ideas that create a privileged race or nation that deserves state support versus non-privileged races or nations that deserve state violence. This is directly anti International Communism AND Capitalism, both of which are ideally set on some sort of equality (either the equality of all workers regardless of race or nation, or the equality of all individuals regardless of race or nation).
Racial Capitalism (USA, most notably with slavery but also in general such as the razing of black wall street to undermine black individuals their economic interest.) and Racial Communism (the Khmer Rouge regime were notably Khmer nationalists who hated other racists no matter how communist they were) are also directly against the basic ideology of either capitalism or communism and yet exist. Or even Racial Theocracy, Christian or Muslim states that abhor Christians or Muslim people of the wrong racial or national background (Spain in the Middle Ages made this a thing by saying that converts to Christianity still had "Impure Blood" unlike white European Christians and brought it to the 20th century with Franco's Falangists)
So what I'm saying is that academic debates are just fundamentally limited due to the complexity of how states work.
I can see where you come from, but the classic left/right spectrum is not about giving more or less power to the government, it is defined along social and economic lines. Otherwise an Anarchist would be an extreme right winger, and I doubt Anarchists and people who call themselves right wingers would see any common ground between them. Anarchists and Socialists do love to fight, but most of them will agree that they both seek similar goals even though the other one is completely misguided in how to acjive them.
@@wuugaa6776 No I agree that is why I don't think the classic left/right spectrum is useful anymore. Because when you actually look into what each party or ideology wants it doesn't make complete sense putting any party really on the left or right unless you are just talking modern politics like between the American left(democrats) and right(republicans).
But what I am talking about is a debate between TimeGhost and TIK on how Socialist or how un-socialist the NAZI party was. TIK gives many examples in many of his videos on how the NAZI party should be considered a socialist part (left wing for what most people say). And it is not like TimeGhost is punching down or something in such a debate as TIK has about the same amount of follower as TimeGhost does (20k less) and he does put sources into his video for everything he says. So it would be a incredibly interesting debate for me and I think many other people to see on who is actually right in this matter (of how Socialist the NAZIs actually were).
Trying to debate TIK on these issues is pointless, since he has shown time after time that he is too wrapped up in his own political beliefs and unable to take criticism to actually absorb any counter argument. He has no idea what socialism is, and simply goes with the tired old trope "government doing stuff is Socialism" libertarian fantasy.
@@skabbigkossa The point of a debate is for 2 sides to put their argument forward and for the listeners of the debate to decide who makes more sense.
This is probably the most important episode in the entirety of y'all's work. It strings together the fundamental flaw of the German political way. We democratic societies must not allow boring topics, such as separation of powers, checks & balances and executive law be considered boring because....they're not.
There is no "German" political way. Present-day Germany is very different precisely in checks and balances (and has a mixed proportional representation voting system) comapred to the Weimar Republic era Germany, and differs even more from the empire under Wilhelm and from the nazi regime. Then there were East and West Germany - also fundamentally different. One a social democracy, the other communism.
There are so many different variants of Germany I find it difficult to understand what you mean by "*the* German political way". There is no such thing.
Have you watched the entire series?
@@johnny5wd567 I apologize. I should have written "the German political way of that era." The Republic of Rome had that exact same problem with their short-term dictators their Senate endorsed leading up to Julius Caeser. Both Caesar & Hitler used an office that had been established by law and previous office-holders.
We shouldn't establish a legal precedent that could have dire consequences when held by someone who is willing to abuse that precedent. If a world leader could do something with their power that is horrific, maybe the office itself shouldn't have that power.