HITLER'S REVOLUTION | 2005-06-04
The reason that there are so many books about Hitler, not just the Nazis, but about Adolf Hitler himself, is because he stands out in history as a one-man show. Historians know that the Nazi Revolution could not have occurred without this unique personality.
So historians and Nazis keep asking, "What was there about Hitler that made this revolution?"
What, to use the colloquial phrase, did Hitler have going for him?
He certainly had talent. Even Churchill wryly admitted, "he was great man, if evil can be called great."
Concentrating on Hitler personally it is easy to miss what Hitler "had going for him."
Hitler had Germany's defeat in World War I and the Allies insane drive to destroy Germany out of spite and greed. He had the wild German inflation in 1923. In 1933 he had the greatest and deepest Depression the world had ever experienced, with Germany suffering most because of the impossibly high reparations imposed upon them.
He had a stupid Communist Party. In 1933 the Nazis and the Communists between them held a majority in the Reichstag. No government could be formed which did not include either the Communists or the Nazis. If they had been reasonable, the Communists might have prevented the Nazi takeover. But they demanded power, so Hindenburg had no choice but to make Hitler chancellor.
The Nazi Party almost disappeared in the late 1920s. But when the tide of history rolled in, Hitler was ready for it.