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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Focuses on the Weimar Republic, 10 Mar 2004
This is the first installment in a promising new series on the Third Reich by Richard Evans. In this book, Evans examines the Weimar Republic and the many factors that led to the rise of Hitler and his populist National Socialist Party. Far from being a foregone conclusion, Evans shows the many vacillations in German politics during the interwar years and how for a brief while, the Weimar Republic appeared to be on the road to recovery. However, by constantly overriding the parliament by using the Enabling Act, chancellors set the stage for eventual dictatorial rule, as Germany went through violent economic upheavals.Evans does a great job of outlining the various political parties and the antagonisms that developed after WWI. He notes the ideological origins of the Nazis in the German Nationalist Party, which refused to let go of its venerated image of Bismarck. Evans strips the veneer off this image to show how badly the Nationalists, and later Hiter, interpreted Bismarck. He gives a lot of attention to the Center and Social Democratic Parties which formed the consensus in the Reichstag, and illustrates the rise of the Communist Party, which became the whipping post of Nationalists and Nazis as the threat of Soviet expansion grew. Evans gives special attention to the plight of the Jews, but notes that Germany would have been the last place one would have expected such a virulent form of anti-Semitism to emerge. Jews were for the most part integrated in German life prior to WWI, and continued to enjoy a relatively unfettered life through most of the Weimar period. But, the rise of the Nazi party in the rural regions would cast the Jew in an increasingly unfavorable light. One can't but hold out hope throughout Evans' engaging narrative, as he shows how Germany struggled to hold onto representative government during the Weimar Republic, but as Hitler changed his tactics and drew on an increasingly Populist base, he appealed to the German longing for Bismarck, especially in the wake of the Depression of 1929. It was between 1929 and 1933 that the Nazis saw their biggest gains in Parliament. Even still the Nazis failed to gain a majority, but used the Enabling Act to establish dictatorial control.
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