The useful idiots of the right
BarcelonaThe French historian Johann Chapoutot has plunged into Weimar Germany to see who made Hitler's rise to power possible. He examines it in detail in The Irresponsible Ones (Angle Editorial, translated by Andreu Gomila). Now that we see, here and everywhere, how so many people buy into the fatalistic and enraged narrative of the far-right ("our own people first"), this reading is well worth it. The parallels are so obvious they are chilling. It is a book that emotionally recalls, and provides all the historical context for, The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke's icy film.Michael Haneke.
The author says, describing what the Nazi party (the National Socialist German Workers' Party) was doing in 1932: "They are racist and anti-Semitic, they want to regenerate the German nation and they imitate a very convenient social justice discourse to win votes." Where it says "anti-Semitic" substitute "anti-Muslim" and where it says "German nation" substitute "Catalan nation," and there we have it. If then, almost a century ago, there was the specter of Soviet communism (and of the Spanish Republic), now the bogeyman is "the invasion of immigrants," the fear of poverty and cultural difference, fears wrapped once again in a primary and visceral identity discourse.
Hitler did not rise to power by magic or by a sudden collective madness. The conservative and liberal right-wing parties, a large part of the business and banking sector (embracing the windfall of rearmament), intellectual elites, high-ranking officials (judges, police, army), and the rentier and landowning aristocracy, along with impoverished peasants, opened the doors for him. Support for the Nazis also came from the sensationalist press magnate Alfred Hugenberg, a precursor to Rupert Murdoch or Silvio Berlusconi, but with a solid intellectual background. He came to own 26 newspapers himself and to disseminate articles from his ultranationalist, reactionary, and racist editorial line in 1,600 publications. Furthermore, he controlled German film production.
The Weimar Republic, born in 1919, had a liberal, democratic, parliamentary, and social constitution. It was a hope amidst extremism and after the punitive Treaty of Versailles. But that rule of law was gradually destroyed from within and from above, step by step, with abundant connivance, while the economic crisis fueled radicalism. Many chose to sacrifice democracy in exchange for a strong leader whom they believed they could control from the shadows.
Hitler did not come to power democratically
"The centre-left brought the far-right to power", writes Chapoutot, who emphasizes refuting that Hitler came to power democratically. In reality, the Nazi party never even reached 38% of the vote before Hitler was appointed chancellor by decree in 1933. They gave him power. Chapoutot describes that decisive historical moment as "suicide of a republic" to say the least, or "outright murder". Are we now in a similar process? What does Donald Trump represent today?
Weimar soon became a presidential regime, headed by Hindenburg, the embodiment of the Prussian gentleman, obsessed with blocking not only communists but also social democrats. To achieve this, he did not hesitate to abuse power and allow government by decree, bypassing parliamentary channels. Theorized by Carl Schmitt, a kind of presidential direct democracy emerged.
In the summer of 1930, the grumpy old man Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag and called elections: the SPD emerged weakened but remained the leading party (24.5%), the centre-right governing party declined to 14.8%, the communists rose to 13%, the conservative right fell to 7%, and other sister parties also collapsed. The Nazi party, the NSDAP, rose from 2.8% to 18.3%. At that time, Hitler was not even a German citizen yet: he acquired citizenship on February 26, 1932.
The SPD continued to support a right-wing government as the lesser evil, even though the unshakeable chancellor Brüning implemented a very harsh austerity policy with bloody social cuts (Keynes would not publish his key work until 1936). Then, successively, came a rapid decline with the cabinets of Franz von Papen, Kurt von Schleicher, Hitler-Papen, and finally Hitler alone. It was the beginning of the end.