The History Nut Podcast

Even within a dictatorship control is never absolute. Despite the regimes immense control over society, opportunities for opposition and resistance existed. After the war, many Germans justified their passivity and inaction against the regime by claiming protest was impossible. In this episode we will show how this cosy view is not supported by the evidence. There was a rich tapestry of opposition...

In the March elections of 1933 the Nazis only won 44% of the votes: the majority of Germans had rejected Hitler and his Party. Within a few years following the takeover of power, however, Hitler had become the central figure of Germany's national redemption and revival who could depend upon a huge wellspring of genuine enthusiasm and popular acclaim. What Ian Kershaw calls 'the Hitler Myth...

Nazism is synonymous with terror and repression. The brutality of the regime was one of its defining legacies; yet, has too much emphasis been placed on the role of terror in subduing 'ordinary Germans'? The terror-police complex was undoubtedly a highly significant and frightening aspect of the regime for those who were its targets. Most Germans, however, were not political or racial targ...

PART 2 The nature of leadership is essential if one wishes to understand power and its structures within a dictatorship. The nature of Hitler's leadership has drawn unparalleled attention from historians since 1945, and shows no signs of abating even 80 years after his suicide in the  Führerbunker.   There have been a number of significant contributions to the historiography of Hitler's le...

PART 1 The nature of leadership is essential if one wishes to understand power and its structures within a dictatorship. The nature of Hitler's leadership has drawn unparalleled attention from historians since 1945, and shows no signs of abating even 80 years after his suicide in the  Führerbunker.   There have been a number of significant contributions to the historiography of Hitler's le...

Hitler's indecisiveness throughout the SA crisis was indicative of his leadership throughout the Third Reich. Once he had resolved to act, however, his response was often ruthless and without compromise. The Night of the Long Knives, or the Blood Purge, was an event of multiple layers of symbolism and significance. Not only did it signal the end of the SA as an influential group within the Par...

Although the Enabling Act had effectively removed all constitutional constraints on Hitler's regime and had laid the foundation of the 'legal' dictatorship, there still remained the simmering challenges from within the movement itself. Since the late 1920s the SA had proven to be a focal point of insubordination and deviation from Hitler's strategies and priorities. Hitler's ne...

The Enabling Act was passed with a combination of pressure and persuasion. Although violence and intimidation was evident from the very beginning of the regime, the targets in the first 6 weeks of power were widely considered to be legitimate. Indeed, the assault on the political left and democratic liberalism more broadly, was supported by much of the population and provided a mandate for the Ena...

The Law for the Removal of Distress from People and Reich, commonly referred to as the Enabling Act, was the foundation stone of the Nazi dictatorship. The law granted Hitler and his government legislative powers without the checks and balances of parliamentary procedure, fatally undermining the remnants of democracy and ushering in the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination). Just how did Hitle...

The arson attack on the Reichstag marked a decisive turning point in the history of Germany. Although Hitler had formed powerful alliances to help establish his new government, he was still hemmed in by constitutional constraints and lacking in sufficient popular support to initiate fundamental change.  The facts of the fire were quickly discarded in favour of a conspiracy that exploited and profi...

Nazism was in many ways an 'anti-' movement. It made a name for itself in the Weimar years as being a movement that rejected the many political, social and cultural developments of the age. It was not surprising, therefore, that the new Nazi government claimed to be surrounded everywhere by enemies, opponents and antagonists. Perhaps more surprising, and highly significant, was the rush by...

Welcome to season 2 of the 'History Nut Podcast'! The Nazi dictatorship did not emerge immediately on Hitler's appointment in January 1933. There were a series of limits and constraints on Hitler's power and manoeuvrability that stood in the way of his plans to establish a dictatorship. Some of these limits were part of a deliberate ploy by elite groups to control and use Hitler; yet, within a sho...

How Hitler and the Nazis came to power in January 1933 has been one of the most significant areas of historiography since 1945. Historiography of Hitler's rise is wide-ranging and, given the nature of the Nazi dictatorship, interpretations have been highly-charged, stridently defended and vociferously attacked by other historians. This podcast cannot do justice to the full breadth of important...

Some historians view Brüning as the 'grave-digger of the Republic', highlighting the role that key governmental figures played in the shift away from democracy. Whilst this view does highlight the growing complacency, arrogance and self-interest of governmental elites in these years, it bears no resemblance to the complete abdication of responsibility from those who wielded power in the ye...

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had profound consequences for Germany. The structural weaknesses within the economy, none more so than Germany's dependence on US credit, revealed just how superficial the 'golden years' had been. The depth of despair wrought by the Depression was immense and accelerated the move away from democracy which provided the situational context necessary for Nazi...

The Bamberg Conference consolidated Hitler's supremacy over the movement. Although divisions and tensions would continue within the Party, particularly within the SA, Hitler's own position would never be truly challenged again. Externally, however, life was very difficult for the Nazi Party. The changing socio-economic conditions after 1924 ushered in an age of recovery and optimism in whi...

In the early years Hitler had often referred to himself as the 'drummer' who was paving the way for the coming leader of the movement. The events of 1923, however, had shown that Hitler was more than a party activist, and he too now realised his leader potential. His grip on the party, however, was not total. Discontent at the failure of the putsch and subsequent restrictions placed on the...

October 1929 in Germany was bookended by two significant moments. The sudden death of Stresemann on 3 October robbed Weimar democracy of its greatest statesman and hope for survival. Less than 4 weeks later the stock market collapsed on Wall Street sending shockwaves around the world. Within days US loans, which had underpinned the German economy, would be recalled sending the economy into freefal...

In many ways the most significant figure of the 1920s was not Adolf Hitler, but Gustav Stresemann. As Foreign Minister from 1923-29, Stresemann followed a policy of  Erfüllungspolitik  ('fulfilment') in which the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were met. His pragmatic approach to diplomacy helped to rehabilitate Germany's international standing, opening the door to greater cooperatio...

With hyperinflation curbed and Hitler in prison, the Weimar Republic looked as though it had weathered the storms of the early years. The influx of millions of US dollars ushered in an age of liberal cultural experimentation and optimism in what has been labelled the 'Golden Years' of the WR. In reality, Germany's economic position remained precarious as it tied itself ever more closel...

The Beer Hall Putsch (Part 2):The failure of the Beer Hall Putsch should have been the end of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Within 10 years Hitler was in power and in the process of establishing a dictatorship. How was disaster turned into triumph, and what does this reveal about the condition of the Republic? Speaker-Rhys Producer-Sam and Toby Music-Sam

The Beer Hall Putsch (Part 1): The failure of the Beer Hall Putsch should have been the end of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Within 10 years Hitler was in power and in the process of establishing a dictatorship. How was disaster turned into triumph, and what does this reveal about the condition of the Republic? Speaker-Rhys Producers-Sam and Toby Music-Sam

The rise of Hitler's status in German politics is reflected in his belief that he could launch a successful putsch against the German government. Throughout 1923 Hitler was emerging as the mouthpiece of the extreme right-wing in Germany, and the unique conditions of the year had further undermined the credibility of the Republic. It was in this context that Hitler launched his putsch. The failure...

Hitler's leadership of the fledgling Nazi Party had brought about important developments in the nature and growth of the party. Yet by the end of 1922 the Party was nothing more than a provincial, albeit loud, extremist political movement. All of this was about to change. As the French and Belgians occupied the Ruhr industrial region and inflation turned to hyperinflation, 1923 would launch Hitler...

Hitler's Vienna experience had provided the foundation for his embryonic worldview, but it was the Great War that turned it into a hardened political philosophy. The defeat in 1918 came as a bitter blow to Hitler but it was the decisive event that turned Hitler to a career in politics.  Speaker-Rhys Producers-Sam and Toby Music-Sam