184: The Rise of Adolf Hitler: From Failure to Führer of Nazi Germany or the Third Reich

“There will be no more mercy now; anyone who stands in our way will be butchered.” This is the story of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. A dropout. A failed applicant to Vienna’s prestigious Academy of Fine Arts. A decorated but low-ranking soldier who attempts to overthrow the state and is convicted of treason. But only a decade or so later, he’s the nation’s leader. Not just the Chancellor, not even a “mere” president. He’s Germany’s dictator. The “Führer.” How on earth does such an underwhelming man rise to such an overwhelming position of power? With virulent nationalism, rabid antisemitism, fearmongering, and violence in an economically panicked, democracy-doubting, and defeated Germany. This is the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Reich. ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com https://www.htdspodcast.com/ and go deep into episode bibliographies https://www.htdspodcast.com/bibliography and book recommendations https://www.htdspodcast.com/book-recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community https://www.facebook.com/groups/257926761619618/ get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette https://www.htdspodcast.com/newsletters-1 come see a live show https://www.htdspodcast.com/live-shows get HTDS merch https://htds-team-shop.fourthwall.com/ or become an HTDS premium https://htds.supercast.com/ member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part ofAudacy media network. https://www.audacy.com/ Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? ContactAudacyinc.com https://audacyinc.com/contact

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Greg Jackson?

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• 0:45Greg Jackson?

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• 1:08Greg Jackson?

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• 1:53Greg Jackson?

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• 2:39Greg Jackson?

  It's 8:00 in the evening, November 8th, 1923. We're in Munich, which is the capital of the Bavarian Free State within Germany's Weimar Republic, at one of the city's largest beer halls, the Bürgerboykeller. Every seat is taken as 3,000 people, including government officials, influential conservatives, and plenty of average citizens, swig their beer and listen to Bavaria's general state commissioner, Gustav Friedrich von Kahr, speak about the future of Bavarian politics. But this night is about to take a far more dramatic turn than the state commissioner realizes. Tell you what, let's step into a quieter adjoining room, grab a Bavarian brew, and I'll fill you in on the situation.

• 3:24Greg Jackson?

  Here's the deal: 1923 has been a year of crisis for Germany, a crisis rooted in 1919's Great War-ending Treaty of Versailles. Per the treaty, Germany owes France, Belgium, and Britain massive reparations, and to pay, the defeated nation's new Weimar Republic resorted to printing cash. Well, this caused inflation, so Germany stopped making payments. But in January, France and Belgium answered by sending troops to occupy Western Germany's mighty industrial region, known as the Ruhr. The Ruhr's populace then refused to work. The Weimar Republic blessed their civil disobedience, but this state-sanctioned passive

• 4:08Greg Jackson?

  resistance strike only kicked Germany's inflation into hyperinflation. As in, people's life savings became worthless overnight, and workers' daily pay was worthless by the end of a shift. The government polled its support for passive resistance and declared a state of emergency on September 26th, but that hyperinflation has continued. In fact, the exchange rate between the US dollar and the German mark, which was $1 to 4 marks and change before the war, is now $1 to 4.2 trillion—yes, with a T—4.2 trillion marks. This economic crisis emboldened the far-left's communists.

• 4:49Greg Jackson?

  Entering the state governments of Thuringia and Saxony, they envisioned a Marxist revolution in October. But as German Chancellor Gustav Strezzemann used his emergency powers to boot them from office and put down their insurrection in Hamburg, the communists' so-called "German October" didn't lead to revolution. It led to scores of dead and wounded. Meanwhile, the crisis has also inspired the far-right's nationalists, including the man speaking in this very Munich Beer Hall tonight: Gustav Ritter-Vankar. Yes, despite his appointment as state commissioner with near-dictatorial powers over Bavaria due to it likewise declaring a state of emergency on September 26th, he too wants revolution:

• 5:34Greg Jackson?

  a nationalist dictatorship. He and his triumvirate have advocated for this openly. Inspired by Benito Mussolini's recent march on Rome, they want to march on Berlin. But Gustav's toned down his rhetoric in recent weeks, as it's become clear that his northern allies aren't willing to take the first step. Ah, but Adolf Hitler is willing. In fact, he has to act. See, Adolf's not only the leader of the 50,000-strong Nazi Party, but the alliance of German nationalists and paramilitaries known as the German Combat League, the Deutsche Kampfbund. And after months of tough-talking speeches at rallies blaming Germany's ills

• 6:16Greg Jackson?

  on Marxism, pacifism, democracy, and, you guessed it, the Jews. He must act, or lose control of his violent followers. But that's a problem, since Gustav's iced him out of late. Or it was a problem. Because this triumvirate versus Kampfbund situation is ending tonight. And on that note, let's return to the hall. Oh, and don't forget your Seidel, or, uh, Bierstein.

• 6:47Greg Jackson?

  It's now 8:30 PM. Gustav's likely in the middle of denouncing Marxism, when suddenly, the Beer Hall's doors fly open. The heavy-set, mustachioed commissioner falls silent as he and his audience of 3,000 watch steel-helmeted Nazi stormtroopers enter and set up a machine gun. As they do, a man in a trench coat with two pistol-wielding bodyguards advances. Stepping on a chair, he begins addressing the room. But the excited and scared chatter drowns him out. No problem. He pulls his Browning pistol and fires into the ceiling. Terrified silence envelops the hall as 3,000 sets of eyes turn toward the man in the trench coat.

• 7:33Greg Jackson?

  A 30-something man with brown hair and a toothbrush mustache. Yes, this is Adolf Hitler. He announces that the Bavarian State Government is deposed and makes the State Commissioner and his two other triumvirate members, Army or Reichswehr commander General Otto von Llose and Bavarian State Police Chief Hans von Seizer, join him in a nearby room. As they exit, Hermann Göring assures the room that, despite the guns, all is fine. They're all on the same nationalist side. Besides, he adds, "You've got your beer."

• 8:11Greg Jackson?

  Now speaking privately, Adolf apologizes to the triumvirate, but explains that he had to do this, and that they have to carry out this revolution with him. Adolf envisions a new Reich with him at the head, but the three of them beside him. And this, he says, is do or die. In fact, if they fail, his pistol has four bullets: three for my collaborators, and the last one for myself.

• 8:40Greg Jackson?

  Leaving the triumvirate to ponder the situation, Adolf returns to the hall. He addresses the 3,000 attendees, assuring them that they are on the same side. Tonight's actions, he says, are aimed at... The Berlin Jew government and the November criminals of 1918. And as Adolf continues, he whips the hall around, magically transporting the crowd from fearful captives to frenzied supporters. He calls upon them to assure the triumvirate that they support him. And as they do so, with furious acclamation, as his ally, great war general Erich Ludendorff, arrives. And as the triumvirate gets on board and joins him on stage,

• 9:24Greg Jackson?

  the toothbrush-moustachioed nationalist wraps his rhetorical masterpiece by dramatically proclaiming: Either the German revolution begins tonight, or we will all be dead by dawn!

• 9:41Greg Jackson?

  Adolf's revolution is proceeding perfectly. Until it isn't. His brown shirts and other kampfbund paramilitaries meet with mixed success, then begin failing outright to take over their government, railroad, and media targets. Adolf goes to personally check on one failure, and in his absence, General Erich Ludendorff makes a critical error. He trusts the triumvirate is really with him and Adolf, and lets them leave the Beer Hall. Big mistake. At 2:55 a.m., Reichswehr commander, General Otto von Llose, makes it known via the radio that he, the triumvirate, and their combined police and military forces oppose this coup.

• 10:23Greg Jackson?

  As morning dawns and despair washes over the Nazis and their allies, Erich Ludendorff suggests they march into central Munich with the hope that they'll inspire the people and armed forces to rally behind them.

• 10:38Greg Jackson?

  It's now a little past 12 noon, the next day, November 9th. Bystanders both jeer and cheer as Adolf and some 2,000 men from his Kampfbund approach Munich's large open square known as the Odeonsplatz. They're armed, some with weapons taken from the state police that they overpowered at the Ludwig Bridge. They lucked out there, though. Police sympathies with their cause eased that first fight, but now, they're about to contend with a much larger police corps. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out, but from which side? No one knows. All that we know for certain is that the Kampfbund breaks, and after a few minutes of furious

• 11:20Greg Jackson?

  shooting, the only would-be nationalist revolutionaries still at the Odeonsplatz are either wounded or dead.

• 11:43Greg Jackson?

  Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

• 12:03Greg Jackson?

  Adolf Hitler had hoped to take over the Bavarian state government, and from there, to goose-step in the boots of his fascist role model, Benito Mussolini, by marching on Berlin, just as Il Duce marched on Rome last year, as we know from the last episode. Instead, Adolf's Beer Hallputz, as his "November 1923 Insurrection in Munich" is known, was a failure. It left 18 dead, four police officers and 14 members of the Kampfbund, dozens wounded, and landed Adolf in prison for high treason. Nonetheless, he manages to end Germany's democracy and emerge as the nation's dictator over the next decade or so. How on earth does that work? Well, that's what we're here to find out.

• 12:48Greg Jackson?

  Today is the tale of Adolf Hitler's rise and his brand of fascism, commonly known as Nazism. Let me start by noting that Adolf’s Nazism differs from Benito’s version of fascism in Italy. Now, I won’t redefine fascism, as we did that at length in the last episode, but I’ll remind you that a challenge in defining fascism is that: As a form of extreme nationalism, it emerges uniquely in every nation it infests. Thus, we’ll see commonalities, as Adolf’s brand of fascism will be every bit as nationalistic, militaristic, expansionist, authoritarian, dictator-worshipping, and Marxist-hating,

• 13:27Greg Jackson?

  as Benito’s fascism, but Nazism will also be uniquely German and uniquely reflect Adolf himself. That’s going to make Nazism, that is Adolf’s National Socialism, and yes, I’ll explain his intentional use of a Marxist term in his nationalist movement, uniquely and incredibly antisemitic. In short, the Nazis will cast the Jewish people as their ultimate scapegoat, blaming them for Marxism and every ill suffered by the German people, and therefore, the ultimate enemy. That note or definition of Nazism made, let me clarify further that, will only begin to interrogate Adolf’s antisemitism today. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of it in this episode,

• 14:10Greg Jackson?

  but the Nazi regime’s hatred for the Jewish people is such a deep chasm of darkness with such large ramifications to come, that it deserves its own episode. It will be our next one, in fact. That delineation will give us the time we need today to witness Adolf’s evolution from uninspiring Austrian artist to Bavarian/German soldier of the Great War, and from there, into the leader, or Führer, of a fringe far-right nationalist party that ultimately exploits interwar Germany’s dire economic conditions, painful political polarization, and apathy, if not disdain, for the democracy of the Weimar Republic to become that republic’s chancellor and cause of its death in 1933.

• 14:54Greg Jackson?

  We’ll then see how, with the help of men like Hermann Göring, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler, the chancellor solidifies his power over the next year to become the dictator, the Führer of the Third Reich, or Reich, also known as Nazi Germany. Finally, we’ll end our tale in 1935, with the disturbing brilliance of the Nazi propaganda machine as we attend the Berlin premiere of the Adolf glorifying film, The Triumph of the Will. It probably goes without saying that some of the tales ahead are unsettling. But please indulge my reminding you of that, and that they're also important, as they help us all recognize the dark places people, and indeed, whole societies can go.

• 15:37Greg Jackson?

  So, if you're ready to face this first chapter of the insidious rise of Adolf and Nazism, let us begin. And we do so by meeting the Hitler family in 19th century Austria. Rewind.

• 15:55Greg Jackson?

  In early 1876, Johann Nipumuk Hiddle, or Hütle, to use another variation of the careless ways family names get recorded in this era, took three witnesses with him to a notary office in the small Austrian town of Waitro. There Johann Nipumuk officially declared that his foster son, Alois Schickelgruber, is in fact his nephew. That although Alois has carried his deceased mother's family name of Schickelgruber through nearly four decades of life, the long-hidden identity of his father is none other than Johann Nipumuk Hiddel's brother Johann Georg Hitler. Hmm, an odd record to set straight this late in Alois's life.

• 16:38Greg Jackson?

  Might it have something to do with inheritance tax? No matter, three witnesses do the trick. The record is updated, and still in this era of careless spelling, the notary writes Alois's new last name not as Hiddel or Hütle, but Hitler. Nearly forty-year-old Alois does indeed take the new last name of Hitler. And following the death of his first wife, then second, he makes his mistress Clara Pultzel his third bride. They marry in 1885. Four years later, on April 20th, 1889, Clara gives birth to their fourth child and first that will live past infancy on the second floor of an inn in Braunau, Austria. That child is Adolf Hitler. Ironic, isn't it?

• 17:23Greg Jackson?

  Young Adolf Hitler, the future German nationalist who will obsess over "racial purity" and heritage, owes his own family name to a misspelled alleged clarification of his grandfather's identity. And I say "alleged" because this entirely questionable situation only makes historians wonder: was Johann Georg really Alois Hitler's father? Or was it perhaps Johann Nepomuk, using his dead brother's name to legitimize his own son with his sister-in-law even if she wasn't his sister-in-law when she gave birth to Alois back in 1837? A third paternal path that some have wandered down is speculating that Alois's father,

• 18:06Greg Jackson?

  that is Adolf's grandfather, was Jewish, but historians consider that one untenable. The fact is, we'll never know exactly who Adolf's grandfather was, only that his family name change from Schickelgruber to Hitler was most unfortunate. As more than one of his biographers have joked, "Herr Schickelgruber would likely have elicited only laughter." The mystery continues as we consider Adolf's youth. This is because the narrative-crafting Fuhrer will later order documents about his childhood destroyed, leaving us mostly with sources that historian Richard Evans calls "highly speculative, distorted, or fantastical."

• 18:48Greg Jackson?

  Some aspects, like his love of drawing and cowboy westerns, or his leadership over a gang of six-year-olds, we can entertain, but others, like Adolf's claim about growing up impoverished, are demonstrably lies. After all, his father, Alois, is an ambitious man, building a successful career as a customs bureaucrat for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It's his work that takes their small family to Passau in the German Empire in 1892, where some say that Adolf adds the lower Bavarian accent to his native Upper Austrian German. But while the Hitlers are solidly middle-class, and Alois is able to retire in the quaint village of Leonding, just outside Linz, Austria, in 1898,

• 19:33Greg Jackson?

  home life is complicated for Adolf, his two older half-siblings and younger siblings, or "sibling", as little Edmund dies from the measles in 1900. Adolf and Paula are now the only surviving children that Clara Hitler has brought into the world. Alois is at best distant toward his children, at worst abusive. He's quick-tempered, prefers bee-keeping to spending time with the kids, and he gets frustrated that Adolf, whom he wants to follow in his professional footsteps, performs terribly at school. Conversely, Clara Hitler is the doting mother. Understandable, she has lost four of her six children. Adolf will later say of his parents: "I had honored my father, but loved my mother."

• 20:17Greg Jackson?

  On January 3rd, 1903, Alois dies. No longer pressured by his father, Adolf does even worse in school, and at 16 years old in 1905, drops out. For the next two years, Adolf lives in an apartment in Linz with his mom, sister, and an aunt, doted and waited upon as he draws, paints, and enjoys Richard Wagner's operas with their heroic depictions of a mythic and glorious German past. Adolf will later describe these two indolent years as being "like a beautiful dream." In fact, Adolf's interest in art has really taken off. He dreams of becoming a famous artist, but that means studying. Does he dare go away to study while his mother is suffering from breast cancer?

• 21:03Greg Jackson?

  For her part, his mother Clara is likely glad to see her aimless dropout and unemployed son find a path. Whatever the family discussions are, Adolf decides to go for it. He'll apply to the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts.

• 21:21Greg Jackson?

  It's an unspecified day in September 1907. We're in the Austro-Hungarian capital of Vienna, where an 18-year-old Adolf Hitler, lugging his paintings and drawings, is just stumbling onto the open space of the Schillerplatz. And that's when he sees it. Looking past the impressive statue of Friedrich Schiller, he takes in a three-story building, the upper two levels of which are covered with niches, each housing a breathtaking, godly sculpture. Yes, this is the Academy of Fine Arts. And as he ascends its steps toward the columned entrance, Adolf is sure that this is but his first step to a glorious career that will launch him to artistic greatness. All that remains is to pass the exam...

• 22:06Greg Jackson?

  a cake lock. Sitting with 112 other candidates inside the Academy, Adolf's brush glides across the canvas. Is he painting "The Expulsion from Paradise" of Adam and Eve? Perhaps "Cain Killing Abel"? Both are options, among a few others. But whatever his subject, Adolf has three hours to paint his masterpiece. And it works out. While 33 of the other candidates are booted, Adolf is invited back for round two tomorrow, at which point, the paintings he brought will be examined. All is going just as the confident Austrian expected. Adolf returns the next day with his portfolio, but this is as far as his application goes. The examining professor concludes that his examples have,

• 22:51Greg Jackson?

  quote, "inadequate few heads", close quote. Adolf presses for more feedback, and the rector tells him that he really doesn't have the chops to be an artist. There's no feeling in his soulless work. But his urban scenes are proficient, so he should consider architecture. Maybe, but that would be a lot of work for a dropout. Deflated, the formerly-confident artist will later recall that this rejection "struck me as a bolt from the blue". And future generations will long wonder if the whole world would have been better off if the Academy had accepted him.

• 23:31Greg Jackson?

  Wörst News bringt Adolf zurück zu seiner Mutter am Bett in Linz. Ende Oktober muss Dr. Idua Bloch dem Teenager sagen, dass sein Brustkrebs terminiert ist. Adolf bleibt am Bett seiner Mutter bis 21. Dezember 1907. Die Verluste schlagen ihm hart. Wie er später erinnert: “Ich habe niemanden gesehen, der so traurig mit traurig ist.“ Eine Theorie über Adolf’s raschem Antisemitismus lässt später positiv darin erkennen, dass er Dr. Bloch, der jüdisch ist, für seine Mutter verantwortlich ist. Aber das bleibt nicht auf. Adolf ist tatsächlich dank dem Doktor’s besonderen Pflegebedarf dankbar und wird sicherstellen, dass er besonderen Schutz erhalten wird, wenn die Nazimaschine in 1938 in Österreich anexiert.

• 24:15Greg Jackson?

  Aber jetzt, im Dezember 1907, ist Adolf wieder rüttellos. Er ist zurück in Wien und lebt aus seiner Mutter und seiner Tante Geld, während er leicht lebt und ein zweites fehlendes Versuch an der Akademie für feine Kunst macht. Ende 1909 ist er verloren, wohnt ein günstiges Zimmer in einem Männerheim, essentiell ein Zelt, und wird für die erste Mal in seiner Leben arbeiten. Der fehlende Kunststudent kopiert Postkarten, die lokale Viennese Architektur auf canvas zeichnen, dann verleiht er sie.

• 24:45Greg Jackson?

  Ist das, wenn sein Antisemitismus anfängt? Er wird später davon ausgehen, dass er sicherlich zu antisemitischen Ideen in Wien in den Zeitungen erwischt hat. Herr Carl Luger ist sehr antisemitisch. Diese Einflüsse verstärken die frühere Einflüsse des deppendes antisemitischen deutschen Nationalisten Georg Riedervon Schunurer, der sich lieber sehen würde, dass die ethnisch deutsche Austria ihre multiethnische Austro-Hungarische Reichweite mit dem deutschen Reichweiten vermischen würde. Diese Idee ist nichts Neues. Sie können sich das Großdeutsche Vision des deutschen Nationalismus erinnern, von Episode 128. Aber es zeigt, wie übiquitär Antisemitismus in Adolf’en frühen Jahren ist.

• 25:28Greg Jackson?

  Nichtsdestotrotz hat Adolf noch einige jüdische Kenntnisse. Die Schäden seines Antisemitismus sind noch zu kommen. In May 1913 Adolf leaves Vienna for Munich. The capital of the Bavarian Kingdom within the German Empire, Munich fits much better with Adolf's ideas of a germanically pure life, even if that life still consists of little more than a cheaply rented room and painting architectural scenes. Yet, that life is briefly interrupted. Adolf's failure to register for military service in his native Austro-Hungarian Empire has caught up with him. Fearing jail time, he reports to Salzburg, Austria, where he's quickly deemed too weak to serve. He returns to Munich, deeply embarrassed.

• 26:13Greg Jackson?

  But in 1914, the Great War gives the dropout, failed art student and never-to-be architect what he's always lacked: purpose. Accepted into the Bavarian Army, he fights at the Battle of Ypres that first year. He will otherwise serve as a trench messenger. Not that this is without risks. He's wounded in 1916 and twice decorated for bravery. Ironically, his second award, the Iron Cross First Class, is thanks to the recommendation of a Jewish officer. And as you may recall from episode 147, Adolf is hospitalized after a gas attack, though scholars believe his temporary blindness is likely psychological. Either way, it's while hospitalized

• 26:56Greg Jackson?

  with the rest of the gas-attacked 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry in November 1918 that Adolf learns of the war-ending armistice and that a revolution ending the German Empire, the Second Reich, is underway. Corporal Hitler is devastated by the news. He feels betrayed, and he's not alone.

• 27:18Greg Jackson?

  Indeed, Germany changes dramatically with the end of the Great War. You can revisit episodes 146 through 150 for the details. But as the Treaty of Versailles imposes a harsh post-war world on Germany, as the Empire is replaced by revolution, flirtations with Marxism, then ultimately parliamentary democracy in the form of the Weimar Republic, the far-right becomes convinced that the Jews and socialists are to blame for the loss of the war and the Empire. This so-called "stab in the back" myth is utterly false, but between the rise of Bolshevism in Russia and the attempt at Bolshevism in the Bavarian capital of Munich,

• 27:58Greg Jackson?

  the Information Office of the Bavarian Military Administration is determined to stand against Marxism in 1919 by rooting out any leftist sympathies among the troops through far-right "re-education" and by gathering intel on political parties in Munich. And this is where Adolf Hitler finds belonging in the post-war world. Having nothing else going for him, he stays in the Bavarian Army, and if he wasn't already sold on the "stab in the back" myth, his "re-education" does the trick. His passionate hatred for Marxism and the Jews is obvious, and he proves a gifted orator. He's soon teaching re-education classes himself.

• 28:41Greg Jackson?

  Adolf's also sent to a meeting of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the DAP, or in English, the German Workers' Party. This small potatoes party was founded on January 5, 1919, by toolmaker Anton Drexler and journalist Karl Harer, their second attempt at a party. It's August 1919 before Adolf is sent to spy, but rather than simply gather intel, he is taken with their anti-Treaty of Versailles nationalist and anti-Semitic goals. He soon joins the party. They later claim he's the small group's seventh member, but in reality, his member number is 555. Though that number is an exaggeration too.

• 29:24Greg Jackson?

  The DAP started counting at 501 to look bigger on paper. His first official speech for the party is on October 16, 1919. It goes so well that he continues to speak for them, particularly as they make a first attempt at drawing a real crowd.

• 29:46Greg Jackson?

  It's 7:15 in the evening, February 24th, 1920. Adolf Hitler is just stepping into Munich's historical beer hall, known as the Hofhäuser. Pushing past patrons, he makes his way to its enormous banquet hall, the Festsaal. And as he enters, he couldn't be happier. A massive crowd, 2,000 by his estimate, fills the space. Some are members of the German Workers' Party, but many are not. Some are even communists. Following the first speaker, Adolf takes the floor. Standing in his army uniform before this rough, slightly inebriated, lederhosen-clad crowd, Adolf feels the pressure, knowing that if he botches this, the German Workers' Party

• 30:30Greg Jackson?

  may shrivel up like so many others have before. So he hits his favorite points, the ones that always prove popular. Adolf attacks the bespectacled politician we met in episode 146, who signed the November 1918 armistice: Matthias Örtzberger, the Treaty of Versailles, and of course, the Jews. To quote Adolf in police notes detailing the crowd's enthusiastic response to his antisemitism: "First, chuck the guilty ones, the Jews, out, and then we'll purify ourselves. Monetary fines are no use against the crimes of fencing and usury.

• 31:12Greg Jackson?

  How shall we protect our fellow human beings against this band of bloodsuckers?"

• 31:25Greg Jackson?

  With the crowd reveling in their shared bigotry, Adolf proceeds to share the German Workers' Party's manifesto. Point 1: The creation of a greater Germany, Großdeutsch, that includes all ethnic Germans. Point 2: The revocation of all Great War treaties. Jumping ahead, Point 4 expressly excludes Jews from German citizenship, and antisemitism is laced through many of the points that follow. Ultimately, the manifesto calls for an expanded, ethnic, antisemitic German nation under a "strong central power, not parliamentary democracy."

• 32:05Greg Jackson?

  Leftists in the room shout down some of his points. Far-right followers fire back. But by the time Adolf's done, the room is largely with him. And later, he'll romanticize this barely noted by the press meeting of February 24th, 1920, and his reading of the party's 25 points as the moment that "A fire was sparked, from whose embers the sword would necessarily come, which would restore freedom and life to the German nation." The Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, that is, the German Workers' Party, marks this allegedly monumental meeting by soon adding "National Sozialistische," or "National Socialist," to the start of their name,

• 32:50Greg Jackson?

  making them the NSDAP. Though you and I will know these so-called "National Socialists" by another abbreviation: Nazis.

• 33:04Greg Jackson?

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• 33:48Greg Jackson?

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• 34:32Greg Jackson?

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• 35:16Greg Jackson?

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• 35:52Greg Jackson?

  HTDS is sponsored by BetterHelp. Thanksgiving looks different for everyone. For some, it's travel, turkey, family, and football. For others, it's just another Thursday. Whatever your tradition, or none at all... I think it's worth pausing to make a little room for gratitude in our busy lives. And maybe giving ourselves permission to rewrite a few of the holiday rules that may actually add to your stress. If the season's expectations and emotions are weighing on you, talking it through with a professional can help. BetterHelp therapists are licensed, experienced professionals with at least three years and 1,000 hours of hands-on experience. A short questionnaire helps BetterHelp match you with a therapist who fits your needs and preferences.

• 36:35Greg Jackson?

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• 37:14Greg Jackson?

  National Socialism. An odd name for a far-right fascist movement that hates socialists, and yet, it's quite intentional. The term nationalism speaks to the far-right, while socialism piques the interest of Marxists, whom Adolf Hitler sees as potential converts. After all, fascism embraces some state ownership, and Adolf still offers an authoritarian state, though his is built on race rather than the proletariat. But even if the Left shows up to a meeting angry, the Nazis don't mind a fight. Adolf has learned from the far-left's communists how to control and intimidate in meetings. Moreover, he has organized squads, which soon develop into the Strömoptalung,

• 37:59Greg Jackson?

  that is, the SA, or Stormtroopers, or even brown shirts. Yes, like Benito's paramilitary, Adolf is also known for the color of its attire. Pulling from other nationalists already using the Hindu sun symbol, called the swastika, as an emblem of the "unconquerable Germanic hero", Adolf also provokes with a flag that depicts this arm-bent cross in black, on a circle of white, and centered on a red banner. It's an eye-catching logo that angers the red flag-waving Left while simultaneously incorporating the three colors of the former German Empire's flag. And indeed, it's not long after he read those 25 points on February 24, 1920,

• 38:42Greg Jackson?

  that the Nazi Party becomes Adolf's Party. Discharged from the army, a month later, he starts giving the Party his full-time attention. By mid-1921, he shouldered out all competition among party leaders, and on August 1 of that year, he reorganizes the Party with himself holding complete supremacy. He is the Nazi Party's leader. It's "Führer", or anglicized, it's "Führer".

• 39:10Greg Jackson?

  Meanwhile, Ernst Hume and Hermann Göring firm up the brown-clad SA, and in 1923, with a party of some 50,000-plus members, the command of a nationalist paramilitary combat league, or Kampfbund, as well as crisis, communist insurrections, hyperinflation, and internal division weakening the Bavarian government and the Weimar Republic, Adolf sees his moment. That November, he launches his Beer Hall putsch to seize the Bavarian government, then pull a Benito Mussolini by marching on the national capital. But as we know from this episode's opening, Adolf's putsch fails, and he's imprisoned for high treason. His sentence is five years. Yes, insane lenience for high treason.

• 39:53Greg Jackson?

  But let's recall that Bavaria's nationalist politicians have been cozy with Adolf and talked about revolution. They can't have Adolf talking, so they make sure a sympathetic nationalist judge oversees Adolf's and other putsch participants' trials. Sent to a cush prison in Lamsberg am Leich, Adolf welcomes a constant flow of gift-bearing visitors, reads, and writes. Specifically, he writes his autobiography, Mein Kampf, or "My Struggle". As incoherent as a bad social media rant before others edit it, Mein Kampf hits on the imperial, or expansionist, component of fascism, which Adolf frames as the German people needing "Liebensraum", or "living space".

• 40:37Greg Jackson?

  Adolf also elaborates on his antisemitism.

• 40:41Greg Jackson?

  He'll hit this particularly in his later volume 2, but in his view, Marxism is a Jewish idea and the Bolsheviks in Russia are simply the military arm of a Jewish conspiracy. Thus Adolf claims that, once his Nazis sweep Jewish Bolshevism from Russia, they'll have "Liebe des Reichs" for his master race. Mein Kampf doesn't sell well, and it won't until Adolf is in power.

• 41:07Greg Jackson?

  And just how does an incarcerated traitor, whose party is banned, come to power, especially since 1923's government destabilizing hyperinflation is over? Yes, the German economy is booming by 1924. That is in no small part thanks to US Vice President Charles Dase, as we know from episode 156's coverage of the banker VP's Dase Plan, which uses US loans to stabilize Germany even as the latter returns to paying war reparations. Anyhow, it sounds like Adolf's dream of a Benito Mussolini-style rise in Germany is toast. So how does he turn that around? First, Adolf is paroled in December 1924.

• 41:50Greg Jackson?

  That's right, he did less than a year for treason. Second, a sympathetic judge lifts the ban on Adolf's Nazi Party and his newspaper, The Racial Observer, as Bavaria's state of emergency ends in February 1925. Third, he gets the band back together. Although the Nazi Party withered during his incarcerated absence, Adolf quickly rebuilds, and ironically, he's helped by his Beer Hall putsch, particularly because he took the fall for it. He's got hero status among far-right nationalists. Adolf also now understands that his Nazi Party can't ignore legalities. It must compete in elections. Painful for an anti-democratic party, but to quote Adolf's new friend and Berlin organizer,

• 42:35Greg Jackson?

  Joseph Goebbels, or "Dr. Goebbels", as the PhD in literature is often called: "We are going into parliament to arm ourselves with weapons from democracy's arsenal. If democracy is stupid enough to give us free tickets and allowances for this disservice, that is its own business. We will use any legal means to revolutionize the current state of affairs." But even as the party grows its paramilitary organizations within the SA, they add bodyguards for Adolf known as the Schutzstaffel, or SS, in 1925, and reorganize their adolescent indoctrination program, Hitlerjugend, or Hitler Youth, in 1926, and better organize across the nation.

• 43:20Greg Jackson?

  Their democratic aspirations are not working out. The Nazis are a blip on the Weimar Republic's political map without a crisis to push radical politics. They earn between 1.6 and 2.5% of votes in state elections in 1926 and 1927, and only 2.5% in the elections for the Reichstag, or National Parliament, in 1928. Following that embarrassment, they switch from focusing on the working class to rural and middle-class voters, and downplay their antisemitism to push unity through nationalism. This helps, but as we enter the year 1929, the same year that 40-year-old Adolf meets a slender, athletic, 17-year-old blonde working as photographer's assistant in Munich, named Eva Braun.

• 44:04Greg Jackson?

  The Nazis get a leg up, thanks to the Great Depression. Revisit Episodes 170 and 172 if you need a refresher on the stock market crash and the subsequent early Great Depression. But as we learned in 172, the Great Depression spreads to Europe. Germany feels it as the Dauß Plan's successor, the Young Plan, collapses like a financial house of cards without US banks able to continue making loans. In 1930, Germany's unemployment shoots to 15%, about 2 million people. Suddenly, parties saying that the Weimar Republic needs to go, which includes several far-right parties as well as the far-left's communists, are making more sense.

• 44:47Greg Jackson?

  That's even the case as Chancellor Herrmann Müller resigns, along with his fellow social democrats, after failing to win emergency powers in March 1930.

• 44:58Greg Jackson?

  That leaves the great war hero, the former field marshal turned president of the Weimar Republic, 82-year-old Paul von Hindenburg, to solve the crisis. A staunch conservative, Paul makes the center-party chancellor Heinrich Bruning form a government without the social democrats, leaving him without a parliamentary majority. Little surprise then that when Paul makes his own play for emergency powers to bypass parliament through the Weimar Constitution's Article 48 in July, parliament overrides him. Fine, Paul dissolves parliament and calls for new elections. The Nazis jump into action. Led by propaganda head Dr. Joseph Goebbels, they run a nationwide campaign with Adolf theatrically shouting at every event possible.

• 45:43Greg Jackson?

  That September, the Nazis get 18% of the vote, taking them from 12 to 107 seats, making them the second-largest party in the multi-party parliament. Nonetheless, the chancellor wisely excludes the Nazis from his coalition government. Banks closing, unemployment rising, the economy crashing, the Nazis point the finger at communists as the two parties' respective paramilitaries clash, leaving scores if not hundreds dead in the streets between 1930 and 1932. President Paul von Hindenburg responds by banning the Nazis' SA and SS thugs in hopes of ending the bloodshed. Meanwhile, in March's 1932 presidential election, Paul wins 53% of the vote, but Adolf comes

• 46:27Greg Jackson?

  in second with just less than 37%. Parliamentary elections that summer give the Nazis 230 seats, making them not the majority but nonetheless the largest party in parliament. That same summer, Paul asks his thickly mustachioed buddy Franz von Papen to serve as chancellor. A center-party conservative Franz is not a fan of parliamentary democracy. Lifting the ban on the SA and the SS to woo the Nazis, he has sufficient support to use Article 48 in rule by decree. Until November's election, returns a slightly less Nazi parliament that then boots him from power. Ah, but Franz won't go down so easily.

• 47:08Greg Jackson?

  He convinces his dear friend, Paul von Hintonberg, to make Adolf Hitler chancellor. They think that if Adolf is chancellor, and two more of the total 12 cabinet posts go to other Nazis, Franz can serve as vice chancellor and keep the Nazis in check. So convinced, Paul appoints Adolf as chancellor on January 30th, 1933. Yes, Adolf is now chancellor of the Weimar Republic, and for many historians, this is the day that the Weimar Republic dies. After all, with the Great Depression pushing radicalization in a nation where political parties have paramilitaries and democracy is often viewed with apathy, if not outright contempt, Adolf is just one crisis away from killing parliamentary democracy.

• 47:57Greg Jackson?

  It's 9:30 at 9, February 27, 1933. The president of Weimar Germany's parliament, that is, the Reichstag, Hermann Goring, is in his office at the gorgeous, baroque, 18th-century-built Reich Palace on the Wilhelmstraße in Berlin. He's working late, not unusual for the Nazi Reichstag president. He's been with Hitler since the early days. A Great War pilot who soared in the Red Baron's Flying Circus, Hermann numbered among the wounded at the Beer Hallputch. He took a bullet to the groin, a wound that led to years of opium addiction. He's cleaner now, functional, and in no small part thanks to the support of his beloved

• 48:39Greg Jackson?

  late wife, Karen, who passed on two years ago. If only she could see him now, in his suit, his black hair slicked back, and president of the Reichstag. But no time for daydreaming. Right now, Hermann needs to focus on next month's elections and ensure that the National Socialists defeat the great enemy, the communists. They must do so if they're to kill parliamentary democracy and move closer to establishing a decidedly nationalist and not Marxist dictatorship.

• 49:10Greg Jackson?

  Suddenly, his work is interrupted with a distressing report. Across the street, the parliament building, the Reichstag Building, is on fire! Throwing on his coat, Hermann races outside to see flames leaking from the Reichstag's glass cupola. The nearly fifty-year-old neo-renaissance home of the German government belches smoke as firefighters strive to stop the inferno within. Worried about family heirlooms in his Reichstag office and the tapestries, Hermann enters the building through an underground tunnel. And that's when the cupola turns crashing damage.

• 49:45Greg Jackson?

  On the other side of Berlin, Adolf Hitler and the deposed emperor's son, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, are enjoying dinner with Dr. Joseph and Magda Gobels when a friend calls with the news. Dr. Gobels doesn't even believe it at first, but soon, he and Adolf are in a car racing to the scene. They find Hermann Goring back in his surviving Reichstag office. The chief of the Prussian secret police, or Chief of the Prussian Gestapo, as it will soon be known, Rudolf Deals, and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen join them, and soon, they learn there's a suspect for this great crime of arson against Germany. Found shirtless and sweaty while trying to flee the burning building, twenty-four-year-old Dutch bricklayer, Marinus van der Lube,

• 50:29Greg Jackson?

  has all but admitted he started the blaze with fire starters and his own shirt in protest of the government's oppression of workers, and he's a communist. Marinus isn't German, nor is he associated with German communists, but no matter. Adolf knows they have more than enough to spin this in the press to their purposes. He calls it a "God-given signal", and predicts that same night: "There will be no more mercy now. Anyone who stands in our way will be butchered." Adolf goes with Dr. Gobels to the Berlin office of the doctor's newspaper, the Volkescher Beobachter, where a new front page is prepared and made as inflammatory as the fire that nearly consumed the whole Reichstag.

• 51:13Greg Jackson?

  And as those papers hit the streets of Berlin the next morning, February 28, 1933, the Heischminister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick, has whipped up a decree called "For the Protection of People and State", commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree. It ostensibly empowers the state to protect and restore order after this act of arson. But in reality, its suspension of all sorts of personal liberties and civil rights, including the freedom of speech and warrants for searches or arrests, gives Adolf the power to sweep up and mistreat his Marxist foes without so much as a pretext.

• 51:52Greg Jackson?

  With Paderborn Hindenburg's consent, the Heistag Fire Decree takes effect that same day. For all intents and purposes, the reign of the Third Reich, or Nazi Germany, has begun.

• 52:10Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is supported by VistaPrint. This podcast is a small business passion project, and seeing our vision come to life offline is cool too, thanks to our expert partner, VistaPrint. On my recent book tour, we were able to order custom, high-quality banners for book readings. It also added a nice professional polish. It also made the events more memorable because readers and I could pose together in front of the banner for selfies to post online. And that's just one of the countless premium products VistaPrint offers to elevate your brand identity. From postcards and posters to tumblers and t-shirts, VistaPrint makes high-end, custom printing accessible to everyone, giving you exceptional quality and results that make every single dollar go further. With real people on standby and seamless tools,

• 52:51Greg Jackson?

  VistaPrint guides you through every step of the process so you always look completely polished. There's a reason over 17 million small businesses trust VistaPrint to elevate their vision. VistaPrint: Print Your Possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at vistaprint.com using code NEW20. Hello, my friends. Professor Jackson here, and I want to tell you about a podcast hosted by a friend of mine, the 11th archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, and it's called In Pursuit Podcast. On this podcast, Colleen explores what we call "The American Experiment" and how, over the last 250 years,

• 53:34Greg Jackson?

  we've learned a lot about what's worked and what hasn't. It dives deep into the lessons that we can learn from America's past to Write the history of America's future. This season, Colleen and her guests explore the trials and triumphs of America's former presidents and first ladies. You'll discover why George Washington willingly gave up power at the end of the American Revolution, how Mary Todd Lincoln had to fight with her own independence in the wake of the Civil War, and what their stories can tell us about America today. New episodes are available every other week. In Pursuit Podcast by More Perfect is brought to listeners by PRX. Learn more at their website, inpursuit.org.

• 54:24Greg Jackson?

  Whether or not the Nazis set the Reichstag fire, they sure made good use of it. The March 5, 1933 election hands them 288 of the Reichstag's 647 seats, or 43.9% of Parliament. It isn't the outright majority that Chancellor Adolf Hitler wanted, but with the 8% taken by its nationalist coalition partners, that makes a majority. Hmm. Still not big enough to guarantee Adolf can get the 2/3 majority vote of the Reichstag's deputies needed to constitutionally amend the Weimar Republic's already-dead democracy, completely out of existence, though. Or is it? The weak old Reichstag fire decree makes it so easy to arrest Marxists, even those elected to the legislature.

• 55:09Greg Jackson?

  Indeed, two weeks after the election, on March 20, Wehrherr puts veteran and Reichsführer SS, or SS commander, Heinrich Himmler, announces the creation of a camp to house communists and, if needed, socialists, particularly either group's paramilitary members. In short, Marxist troublemakers, or really, any other political opposition to the Nazi regime. The camp is just outside the Bavarian town of Dachau. Two days later, on March 22, the first 200 prisoners arrive. Within initial capacity for 5,000, this camp will nonetheless fill quickly. 10,000 Bavarian communists and socialists will be arrested by the end of April alone.

• 55:52Greg Jackson?

  Meanwhile, just one day after this first and later notorious Nazi concentration camp at Dachau opens, Adolf makes his final and biggest Reichstag fire-related power grab. On March 23rd, 1933, as the temporarily displaced legislature, the Reichstag, meets in the nearby Kroll Opera House, the toothbrush mustachioed chancellor gives a two-and-a-half-hour speech in which he claims Germany's dire situation, its need for “moral renewal,” requires amending the constitution to enable the cabinet to make laws. In other words, Adolf wants the Reichstag to hand the executive branch, which is effectively him, their legislative powers.

• 56:33Greg Jackson?

  As Adolf speaks, it isn’t the nation’s flag but a massive Nazi swastika that hangs behind him. It isn’t the nation’s police but armed SA and SS thugs who menacingly fill the opera house and surrounding streets. Nor are the Reichstag’s 81 elected communist deputies here. They’ve fled or been arrested. With assurances that Christianity will be respected and their positions will remain, the conflicted and scared Catholic center party ultimately folds. Only the socialists dare to say no. Thus, with 441 deputies in favor and 94 against, the Reichstag votes for the so-called Enabling Act.

• 57:14Greg Jackson?

  In doing so, the national legislature has voted to make itself pointless, to destroy any remaining semblance of checks and balances, and to drive the nail in the coffin of the Weimar Republic. The next month, April 1933, it becomes legal to fire civil servants for their politics or for being Jewish. A little over 400 judges, prosecutors, and other officials are swept aside. In May, state parliaments are dissolved as Reich governors are established, thereby eradicating any degree of state sovereignty and killing German federalism. In July, all other political parties apart from the Nazi Party are outlawed. Books burn. The Nazi-approved German Labour Front replaces labour unions.

• 57:59Greg Jackson?

  Germans with certain hereditary health conditions are sterilized. All this and more as Adolf tightens the screws through 1933.

• 58:08Greg Jackson?

  Meanwhile, the brown-clad SA is having a grand old time attacking, robbing, and sometimes murdering dissidents and Jews. But are the brown shirts, the very thugs who've been the muscle in this revolution, becoming too powerful? They number three to four million as we enter the year 1934. And their Stabschef Ernst Hohm is spouting off about Adolf's stupid and dangerous advisers. In fact, word has it that Ernst and his SA want a second revolution to purge the nation of non-Nazi elites and to see the SA itself evolve into a genuine militia, a real military. Well, Adolf knows that threatening old-school, right-wing, non-Nazi elites and the German

• 58:50Greg Jackson?

  Army, or Reichswere, is a terrible idea. After all, the Reichswere is the one entity still able to possibly stop him. This second-revolution talk and any threat Ernst and his SA pose all have to end. And shortly after his dismal June visit with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini that we heard about in the last episode, Adolf decides to cut the head off the snake. It's just past 6:30 in the morning, June 30th, 1934, and three cars are pulling up at the Hotel Hanselbauer in Bad Wiese. It's a gorgeous little Upper Bavarian spa town nestled at the foot of the Alps in southern Germany.

• 59:34Greg Jackson?

  But the scenery is the furthest thing from Adolf Hitler's mind as he, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, and an entourage of SS police burst out of their cars and charge into the hotel. Dashing into one room after the next, Adolf and his cronies ripped groggy, hungover, brown-shirt-wearing SA leaders from their beds, all conveniently gathered at this hotel for a meeting with the Heisschancellor. Though this isn't the meeting they expected. Pistol in hand, a frothing, frenzied, raging Adolf charges into Stabschef Ernst Hume's room, declaring to this longtime ally and party builder: "Hume, you are under arrest." Utterly shocked, the brown shirt commander simply answers: "Heil Hitler!"

• 1:00:19Greg Jackson?

  Brezlow's SA Division Chief Edmund Heinis is found in bed with a blond 18-year-old troop leader— that is, an 18-year-old man. Dr. Goebbels takes note, to later make use of this and Ernst's own, barely-secret homosexuality to help justify today's attack in his propaganda.

• 1:00:39Greg Jackson?

  Ernst Hume and his men are arrested and taken to Stadthain Prison in Munich. Adolf marks six of Ernst's men for immediate execution. Without a trial, SS officers seize them, take them outside, and declare: "You have been condemned to death by the Führer. Heil Hitler!" They then gun the six down on the spot. Meanwhile, Dr. Goebbels telephones Reichstag President Hermann Göring in Berlin with the password "Kolibri"— that is, "Hummingbird." With that, Hermann has Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler put his SS officers and Gestapo murder squads in action. They take out brown shirt leaders and Nazi-regime foes, old and new, across the country.

• 1:01:22Greg Jackson?

  As for Stabschef Ernst Hume, he's provided with a newspaper the next day, July 1st, announcing his alleged revolt against Adolf, dubbed "Der Hume-Putsch," and given a pistol to kill himself. But Ernst won't go along with the false narrative. He refuses. So, Dachau concentration camp commander, Theodor Aich, and his deputy, shoot the man dead.

• 1:01:50Greg Jackson?

  Nacht der langen Messer, or in English, "Night of the Long Knives." That's what this Adolf-sanctioned SS and Gestapo murder spree of June 30th through July 2nd, 1934 is called. It certainly curbed any threat the semi-autonomous SA posed, including Stabschef Ernst Hume. About 50 of their brown shirt-wearing leaders met their end, and over the next year, the group's millions-strong membership will drop by 40% as the mighty paramilitary doesn't die but definitely devolves. Nor does the SA, which is now run by Viktor Lutza, continue to house the SS. Instead, the Heinrich Himmler run and Adolf Hitler loyal SS is detached and will continue

• 1:02:32Greg Jackson?

  to evolve into an increasingly powerful and elite Nazi force. But the Night of the Long Knives didn’t just bring the brown shirts to heel. From Weimar Republic leaders to the Bavarian leader whose speech Adolf interrupted with his Beer Hall putsch over a decade ago, as many as 150 others were summarily executed. Still more were put on notice, like Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen, who’s placed under house arrest. And it all pays off. Most Germans are happy, as is the Reichwehr and Adolf’s inner circle, which is pleased to know that Adolf’s, and therefore their power, are in no way threatened by the SA. In fact, the Night of the Long Knives only cements the army’s ties to Adolf and his

• 1:03:17Greg Jackson?

  Nazi machine. Only a month later, on August 2nd, 1934, Adolf’s last step to solidifying his power comes with the passing of the Weimar Republic’s 86-year-old president, Paul von Hindenburg. Even as Adolf publicly mourns the decades-long public servant and war hero of several regimes, he exploits him, saying that “in Paul’s honor, the office of president should be retired.” And it just so happens that Adolf has a new law already prepared: the law on the head of state of the German Reich that merges the president’s powers with that of the chancellor’s. The law takes effect that same day, making Adolf not only the Führer of Nazism, but

• 1:04:00Greg Jackson?

  the Führer und Reichskanzler, or the Führer and Reichschancellor. Adolf is now the dictator that he dreamed of being back in that Munich Beer Hall. In fact, he’s so confident that he lets the German people vote on it in a referendum that same month. With a 95.7% voter turnout, it passes with 89.9% in his favor. Okay, most of Germany is indisputably with him, but did voter intimidation juice that number? Absolutely. The long anti-democratic dictator wouldn’t actually leave this decision up to the people. But you know what pairs well with intimidation? Propaganda. And Adolf has a new film to help with that.

• 1:06:50Greg Jackson?

  Adolf Hitler flew to Nuremberg to review his faithful followers. The film then cuts to the point of view of the airplane in flight. It's exhilarating to see clouds from this view, sweeping past us and below us. So few of us have experienced flying. Then, suddenly, the sun shines through and our heavenly descent toward Nuremberg begins. Slost cause decorate the idyllic town's medieval towers, and the troops below wave while marching in perfect columns. In a show of brilliant camera work, we now cut between the airplane descending and panning views of immense crowds. As the plane lands, this sea of people gives way to a tidal wave of right arms rising at a slight angle and shouts of: "Heil! Heil!"

• 1:07:35Greg Jackson?

  That builds, then erupts into a thunderous chorus of: "Heil Hitler!" Then, the Fuhrer himself emerges from the aircraft. Following Adolf into Nuremberg, the camera constantly shows Adolf standing tall in his Mercedes, low against the sun to create a halo. It gives a messianic, godlike heel, and Lenny did this on purpose. The director is intentionally invoking Christ's arrival in Jerusalem as she builds the cult of Adolf. We see close-ups of adoring fans, particularly smiling blond children and mothers, and smartly stepping soldiers, whose very steps move in time with an orchestral score

• 1:08:16Greg Jackson?

  that rises and falls to convey triumphant militarism with peace and prosperity all at once somehow. The message is clear: Germany loves their Fuhrer, the Fuhrer loves Germany. To use a phrase often repeated in the film: "One people, one leader, one Reich." Triumph of the Will is the enormous success, and not just for Lenny, who faints when Adolf presents her with a bouquet of flowers and a kiss on the hand. It sells more tickets than any other film in Germany in 1935. It'll go down in history for its groundbreaking editing and camera work, and of course, for its true purpose: for being Nazi propaganda that depicts Adolf as the god he so desperately wants to be.

• 1:09:03Greg Jackson?

  Und so, wir haben die Tod der Weimarer Republik in Deutschland und den Aufstieg Adolf Hitlers dritten Reichs beobachtet. Eine Übergabe, die effektiv am Tag Adolf 1933 als Staatsminister gemacht wurde und in 1934, als er die Macht des Präsidenten abgewandt hatte. Aber Sie wissen, ich würde seine Aufstieg nicht als Triumph der Willen bezeichnen, weil Adolf’s liebste Propaganda es so beschreibt. Er hatte keine eigene Gedanken. Der Welt, in der er wuchs, war entzückt von Antisemitismus und Deutscher Nationalismus. Der Angst und Vertrauen, den er am Ende der großen Kriegszeit empfand, war nicht einzig in der slightest. Er profitierte davon. Er hätte auch nicht geschafft, ohne eine Krise. Es ist schrecklich, wie seine Popularität in der frühen Hyperschutz der Weimarer Republik

• 1:09:48Greg Jackson?

  aufgeweckt ist, aber es scheiterte mehr als seine Artsschulapplikation, als die Daußplanung die deutsche Mark stabilisiert hat. Nur mit der Großen Depression und dem Wiedergang der kranken wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen konnte seine frische, rechtsarmen Politik eine Mehrheit gewinnen, und trotzdem nicht eine Mehrheit Deutschers. Obwohl, Adolf brauchte Hilfe. Er profitierte von der kurzen Erfahrung mit und unterdrückenden Versprechen zu Demokratie. Er profitierte der Bolschewismus, insbesondere nach dem Feuer des Reichs, und er hätte nie das getan, ohne seine Verbündeten, die, wenn Sie den Begriff verzeihen, als hilfreiche Idioten dienen, die traditionellen Eliten wie Paul von Hindenburg und Franz von Papen,

• 1:10:32Greg Jackson?

  die glaubten, dass sie ihn kontrollieren könnten. Und ehrlich, das sind alles Dinge, die wir breit sagen können über den Aufstieg Adolf’s Hero zum Süden, Benito Mussolini. Aber auch als wir den Zufolg des Aufstiegs Adolfes beenden, die vorbereitete Verhandlung mit Italiens Duce und die Gipfel im Namen von Libenzraum, sind ein großes Lied von der Vollumwelt, die das Führer eröffnet, insbesondere gegen seinen ultimativen Schleppfahrer, das jüdische Volk. Nächste Mal werden wir viel tiefer in die Geschichte von Antisemitismus gehen und folgen dieser Geschichte in die zerstörten, glasstrahligen Straßen der 1930er Nazi-Deutschland und die frühen Jahre des Holocaust.

• 1:11:23Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode researched and written by Greg Jackson and Will Keane. Production by Airship. Sound design by Molly Baugh. Theme music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham of Airship. For a bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit htdspodcast.com.

• 1:11:55Greg Jackson?

  HTDS is supported by fans at htdspodcast.com/membership. My gratitude to you kind souls providing funding to help us keep going, thank you. And a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Adam Goran, Ahmet Chapman, Amy and Ross Hensman, Andrew Nissen, Andrew Sherwin, Anna M. Huta, Art Lang, Baby Nico, Bob Stinnet, Bonnie Brooks, Brian Gavigan, Brian Boils, Brian Goodson, Bruce Hibbert, Kayden Hallitz, Charles Clendenon, Charles Starkey, Charlie Majes, Christopher Merchant, Christopher Lyle, Christopher Pullman, Christopher Young, Cody Brown, Colleen Martin, Colin Ferris Pennington, Connor Hogan, Craig Burhost, Dan G., Daniel Beacham, Daniel Lucana, Darren Chambers, Daryl the Kid Lovell, David Rifkin,

• 1:12:40Greg Jackson?

  Dean Heiser, Donte Spencer, Donald Moore, Eli Edwards, Elizabeth Chris Janson, Ellen Stewart, Ernesto Franco, Ernie Lomaster, Ethan Lowery, Ethan Thompson, G2303, Jeffrey Nelson, George J. Sherwood, Gareth Griffin, Gina Johnson, Gordon Garwood, Henry Brunges, Holly Hamilton, Jake Gilbreth, James Bledsoe, James Blue, James Schlender, Jarrett Zangora, Jeffrey Moots, Jennifer Minjioni, Jennifer Ruth, Jessica Poppin, Joe Dobis, John Booby, John Frugal Dugal, John Huber, John Mesmer, John Oliveros, John Radlevich, John Schaefer, Jonathan Schaaf, Jordan Corbett, Joseph Curry, Joshua Steiner, Julian Wright, Justin

• 1:13:21Greg Jackson?

  Tolman, Karen Bartholomew, Carl Freedman, Carl Romer, Ken Culver, Kim R., Kimberly Pruitt, Kristen Kraft, Kyle Decker, L. Paul Gorin. Laura Norman, Lawrence Newbauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark D. Worrell, Mark Ellis, Marsha Smith, Mason Glenn, Matt Siegel, Michael Longus, Michael Sullivan, Nick Caprell, Nicholas Powell, Owen W. Sedlak, Paul Huguenroth, Philip May, Randy Keen, Rich Ruckel, Rick Brown, Rob Dravovich, Robert Shelton, Rock Gay, Ryan Fogelman, Sam Holtzman, Sarah Prescott, Sarah Traywood, Scott Hurst, Shane Smith, Shannon Hoagland, Sharon Thezen, Sean Baines, Sean Collins, Stacy Ritter, Steve Williams, The Creepy Girl, Thomas Churchill,

• 1:14:03Greg Jackson?

  Thomas Matthew Edwards, Thomas Sabbath, Tim and Sarah Turner, Todd Curran, Tom Bestofka, Travis Cox, Walter M. Ames, Wesley McKee, William Durham, William Curry, William Thompson, and Zach Jackson. Join me in two weeks, or I'd like to tell you a story.