In "Nazi Seizure of Power" Allen gives us a well-researched and enlightening study of mankind's most repressive and cruel regime in history, down to the lowest level. His overarching thesis here is that the common belief that Hitler came to power on a national level is a misconception, and that without ardent supporters on the local level the Third Reich never came to be. This is an expansion of Allen's dissertation at, I believe, Michigan, and he conducted this research by perusing through Nazi records of the South Hanover-Brunswick "Gau," which had been classified as "uninteresting." (The revised edition uses these) He also utilized several local newspapers and interviews of about a dozen men and women who had been present in the town of Northeim during the Nazi rise to power and administration.
Although the book is definitely targeted toward an academic audience (I read it in my junior history workshop), and a working knowledge of German history is useful, anyone with more than a casual interest in history will find this monograph enlightening. Allen himself says that because studies on the Third Reich are usually conducted at a broad, national level, it usually scares some readers away. Due to the fact that this title concentrates on a shorter span of time (it really is more of 1930-1935 than it is 1922-1945) and a smaller cast of characters, it is much easier to digest.
Allen describes the intricate propaganda system that was employed and fine-tuned at the local level in Northeim, which based success on profits at meetings and used an elaborate social reinforcement system to appeal to the locals. He also describes in vivid detail the electioneering and the violence that accompanied it in the town between the SPD and Nazi party to detail his belief that further radicalization moved more of the townspeople to the extreme right. Another one of his cornerstone theses is that the highly stratied and divided social structure of the town, as well as rampant militarism, religion, and nationalism, were crucial prerequisites in the Nazi seizure of power. The NSDAP's promise of using extreme measures to eliminate disunity and address the effects of the Depression went a long way in ensuring their victory. Allen says that the townspeople really did not know what they were getting themselves into, and it wasn't til shortly after the Nazis consolidated power in the town that they realized this was in fact not what they had hoped for.
This is not only a study of history, but also a study in the fallibility of human nature, and how the weaknesses of the masses can be exploited by using pointed and finely tuned propaganda. Allen demonstrates that the Nazis knew exactly what to say it and when to say it, and in doing so, won the support of two in three citizens of Northeim. There is much to be learned from this book, and it is so much more than facts or statistics; in the "Nazi Seizure of Power," we learn that something as shockingly terrifying as the Nazi dictatorship can happen anywhere given the right circumstances and the right message. My only complaint about this book is that it is no longer in print.
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Popular Highlights in this book
The Nazi answer to the problem of class division was to abolish its expression by force.Highlighted by 111 Kindle readers- The Fuehrer reached the pinnacle of power because his followers were successful at the lowest level, at the base.Highlighted by 104 Kindle readers
- It was the depression, or more accurately, the fear of its continued effects, that contributed most heavily to the radicalization of Northeim’s people.Highlighted by 101 Kindle readers
About the author
Eerily familiar to a reader in the U.S. in 2016
I had the great pleasure of studying under Dr. Allen at the University of Missouri in the 1960s. I still remember some of his lectures fairly well. For one course, a required text was the first edition of this book. Wretched student that I was, I read it through with relish (something that I did not do with many of the other books required of history majors then and there). Now, fifty odd years later, I read it again and with renewed interest - and worry. The forces that Hitler managed and manipulated to bring him to power in Germany in 1933 were eerily familiar to a reader in the United States in 2016. The Demagogues are not the same, but the message is. And it is so because it appeals to the same widespread sense of disconnection and disaffection in the population. Our country was once great, but has been allowed to crumble by the weaklings in our government. The Others have brought things to this awful pass. Our so-called leaders won't deal with them but I will. Only I will. I will make us great again. Other nations will fear us, as they should. Now, I'm not suggesting that this is a "repeat" of history. It's more of a rhyme. The checks and balances in our system will almost certainly prevent the rapid rise to supreme power that Hitler managed. I do not see any U.S. Congress passing anything like the Enabling Acts of 1933. But the ethos that demagogues represent is alive and well in America.
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Top reviews from other countries
- sandra whiteReviewed in Canada on February 20, 2017
Great book for those interested in Hitler and how he ...
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