The German Dictatorship. Karl Bracher.

Why this blog?

The purpose of this blog is to summarize interesting ideas in books I have read. You are invited to contribute summaries of books that you have read. So far I have summarized some 62 book.

The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure and Effects of National Socialism.
Karl Dietrich Bracher
New York: Praeger Publishers. 1969, 1970.

This book attempts to answer the following questions: Why did the Weimar Republic fail? How did Hitler succeed in taking power? Has National Socialism been truly defeated or does it survive in Germany today?

Was National Socialism a specifically German phenomenon, the peculiar product of German history and the defects of the German character?

Bracher first identifies and distinguishes and then weaves together the various strands that went into the making and unmaking of the Nazi dictatorship: the Austrian background; the German state tradition; the rise of the NSDAP; the personality of Hitler; the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic; the "legal revolution" of 1933; the roles of the bureaucracy, the army, business and the church; the organization of the totalitarian state; the murder of Jews; appeasement by the West; the war, domestic opposition and resistance; the collapse; and the heritage of National Socialism in the two postwar Germanys.

Bracher's conclusion? "The German dictatorship has failed, but German democracy has not yet been secured."