How could it have happened? The fundamental question about Nazism that continues to haunt Germany

Leading German historians confront the nation's enduring central dilemma: whether the rise of Nazism was an inevitable historical catastrophe or a preventable political failure. | Contesto: cronaca

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• How could it have happened? The fundamental question about Nazism that continues to haunt Germany

Contesto

Three of Germany's most prominent historians have simultaneously published new works grappling with what one calls 'the question of all questions' for the nation: whether the catastrophic rise of the National Socialist dictatorship and the horrors of the Holocaust were an avoidable historical aberration or an inevitable culmination of deeper forces. Heinrich August Winkler, Götz Aly, and Peter Longerich, each with decades of scholarly authority, are returning the fundamental 'how could it have happened?' to the center of public and academic discourse, challenging what some see as a settled narrative. Heinrich August Winkler, author of the definitive 'The Long Road West,' examines the fragility of the Weimar Republic in his new volume. He argues that while profound structural crises created fertile ground, the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933 was not a historical necessity. Winkler meticulously reconstructs the political miscalculations, the failures of democratic parties to form stable coalitions, and the deliberate choices of conservative elites—particularly Paul von Hindenburg and his circle—who believed they could 'tame' Hitler by bringing him into government. His analysis suggests a series of contingent moments where different decisions could have altered the course of events, placing significant blame on the established political and military aristocracy for handing power to the Nazis. In contrast, Götz Aly, known for his work on the economic motivations behind the Holocaust, takes a broader, more sociological view. He probes the deep-seated resentments and widespread complicity within German society. Aly's research emphasizes how the Nazis successfully channeled popular grievances—stemming from national humiliation after World War I, economic desperation during the Depression, and a pervasive sense of cultural decline—into a potent, hate-fueled political movement. His work implies that while the specific timing of the Nazi takeover was contingent, the underlying susceptibility of a significant portion of the German populace to authoritarian, racist solutions created a volatile condition that made a disaster of some kind highly probable. Peter...

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Categoria: cronaca