Do you consider the rise of the Nazis in Germany post WW1 as something of a deterministic outcome, almost inevitable in some form, or more of a confluence of perfect coincidences that is very unlikely to have happened E.G. it’s fair to predict there’d be a nationalistic backlash from losing WW1 then the Versaille treaty “humiliations” mixed with nationalistic generals lying to push their failures and losses on “traitors”. But for it to be National Socialism rather than some hyper nationalistic monarchist group or nationalistic republicanism, requires the inspiration of Italian Fascism and the massive anti communist fears caused by the rise of the Soviets, also ironically kind of caused by Germany tooLikewise, the ideology of Nazism specifically seems to require the unique history of Germany and even individuals like Hitler. Without them, would we really see some proto nazism in an altered form arise instead? Or not?
>>18472339Just some of the factors to make Nazism possible when it should have been crushed early on in normal circumstances>the entente’s refusal to actually cripple Germany due to Britain and America not wanting to do this, and then them refusing to enforce their treaty demands on Germany once Germany actually violated them for the same reason, not wanting Germany to become too weak, both for economic reasons and fears of soviet encroachment >historic anti semitic values in central and Northern Europe. While mostly gone in official capacities are strong enough in culture it wasn’t difficult to make them official as they once were in the past>germany was a first world nation, advanced in technology and bureaucracy in a way that is basically required for the kind of racial autism they tried to enforce to begin with. If you didn’t already have a few generations of files of peoples ethnic groups it’s kind of a non starter to suddenly try to enforce racial laws unless you just decide measuring skulls is good enough to tell a Jew from a gentile Likewise, one interesting aspect I find is how the Catholic parts of Germany were the most anti Nazi (for fairly obvious reasons). While it seems to me, the massive drop in religious belief in Europe following the devastation of WW1 is part of allowed fascism and communism to even thrive, people replaced their “failed” gods with the state and mythical men in one form or another. Himmler and the SS even indulging in “racial spiritualism” and such nonsense
>>18472340Plus just as an added factor, although I’m not sure how much this adds to the likelihood of Nazism specifically rather than just a hardline nationalist revanchist party >internal state forces like the judiciary and generals were extremely in favour of nationalistic politics. Partially as ways to deflect blame from themselves and thus maintain power e.g. Ludendorff. As a result you had stuff like Hitler being sentenced for the beer hall putsch attempt and given a laughable sentence for essentially attempting treason via a coup >the various Freikorp militia groups who brought stability to the regions of Germany by operating as paramilitaries, essentially becoming the precursor to the SS in the idea of a non state controlled military backing political parties and fighting communist and other dissidents
>>18472343Getting back to the Catholic opposition to the Nazis, I always find Aktion T4 interesting in this context. Because A) it’s one of the only times it became public knowledge that the Holocaust was happening and you had to take part in some formB) doctors literally made Hitler put out a letter saying they had his backing because it was illegal by the law T4 like a lot of the racial cleansing laws was also malleable as fuck. Often seeming to just ignore obvious deformities or disabilities if it was convenient or they happened to be the son of a local party secretary etcTo give an example, I’ve always found the story of Jurgen Habermas interesting, he’s a philosopher who actually died age 96 earlier this yearHabermas was born in Düsseldorf, Rhine Province, on 18 June 1929.[6] He was born with a cleft palate and had corrective surgery twice in childhood.[7] Habermas later argued that his speech disability made him think differently about the importance of deep dependence and of communication.[8] Until his graduation from grammar school, he grew up in a staunchly Protestant environment in Gummersbach (near Cologne), where his grandfather Friedrich Habermas [de] had been the director of the local seminary. His father, Ernst Habermas [de], who was executive director of the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce [de], joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and advised it from 1939A teenager during World War II, Habermas joined the Deutsches Jungvolk, a junior section of the Hitler Youth, at his father's instigation,[9] and rose to the rank of Jungvolkführer (leader), which allowed him to remain in this formation beyond the age of 14. He organised first aid training as part of medical corps service. From August 1944, his detachment operated anti-aircraft guns against the Allied advances on the Siegfried Line. He narrowly avoided being drafted into the Wehrmacht at a closing stage of the war, shortly before the arrival of American troops near his home.[
