S2E5 The Nazi Rise to Power and The Consolidation of Power, 1918-1938

This talk follows the cultural, economic, social and political impediments under which the Weimar Republic in Germany was born in 1918 and how the nearly constant assault of the conservative right wing upon a form of government it never accepted created opportunities for the extremist Nazi Party to take advantage of political paralysis, economic chaos, social panic and cultural despair to use democratic structures to come to power, establish a dictatorship, and increase popular support among Germans for the Nazi agenda. It will focus on Nazi use of traditional, conservative, populist and nostalgic themes to present a palatable program for non-Nazi members of the upper and middle classes that cut across traditional cultural cleavages in Germany, including religion, region, social class, gender, age, the rural-urban divide and the military-civilian divide. Key issues include revision of the post-World War I treaty system, destruction of the perceived leftist threat to Germany, stabilization of the economy, and restoration of self-esteem and solid German values to social and cultural life. Finally, it explores the Nazi presentation of WWII in terms that made it possible for non-Nazis to participate willingly in perpetrating Nazi crimes.

Bio: Dr. Peter Black was the Senior Historian and Director of the Division of the Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from 1997 until his retirement from federal service in January 2016. Previously, from 1978 until 1997, he served as a staff historian and (after 1986) as Chief Historian for the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice. Since January 2016, he has been active as an independent historian/consultant, whose most important client is the USHMM, in particular the Division of the Reference Historian.

Educated at the University of Wisconsin (BA: 1972) and Columbia University (Ph.D in 1981), Dr. Black has held various teaching positions at George Mason University, Catholic University, American University and Columbia University.

Watch the video here.