An opening
Tony Blair is back. After almost a decade out of politics, the controversial former New Labour UK Prime Minister is taking tentative steps to be involved, albeit not directly. Blair’s intention to contribute more to the political debate is welcome because his is a persuasive voice of the centre. If you can’t forgive him for […]
Speeding Nazis
Pervitin was a shopping staple in Nazi Germany. And it propelled the Blitzkrieg of 1940 when Nazi troops occupied six countries in the first nine months of World War II. Pervitin was a methamphetamine. It fuelled the German army. It fuelled the civilian population’s happiness. This is the proposition promoted in Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany […]
Check fail
If there is one phrase that describes the United States Constitution, it is checks and balances. So concerned were the founders that the power of government had to be restrained, checks were imposed at every level – even on the people. It is why the President is not directly elected. The Electoral College is a […]
Bullet dodged
Eighty years ago this weekend, the uncrowned British King Edward VIII abdicated. “I have made this, the most serious decision of my life, only upon the single thought of what would, in the end, be best for all,” he said in a radio broadcast on 10 December 1936. It was the best decision for all […]
Portend for Jews
The violence against Jewish people in Germany on 8 and 9 November 1938 was an omen of annihilation. What became known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Crystal) wasn’t the first European Jewish pogrom. But it was the first that was not only sanctioned by the government of an advanced industrialized country but unleashed and abetted […]
Fateful day
The most tumultuous day in German history would have to be 9 November 1918. Some historians refer to it as Schicksalstag (Day of Fate). On that day in: 1989, the Berlin Wall, that had divided Germany since 1961, fell. 1938, there was a state-sponsored pogrom against Jews throughout Germany, Reichskristallnacht, The Night of Broken […]
Successful failure
The Nazi’s coup attempt in Munich in November 1923 failed but it succeeded in creating a national profile for its leader Adolf Hitler. He was a provincial Bavarian politician before the coup attempt; after he was a national right-wing identity. The ill-thought out coup plans were inspired by Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini’s successful overthrow […]
Crisis deepens
The last free election in the whole of Germany for 58 years was on Sunday, 6 November 1932. There were elections in West Germany in August 1949 and the unified Germany in December 1990. The November 1932 election for the legislature (Reichstag) was the fourth that year. The first round of voting to elect the […]
Duplicitous dealing
Global conquest had always been the goal of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. But his public pronouncements were the opposite. He was proclaiming his desire for peace right up to Britain and France’s declaration of war on Germany in September 1939. Hitler told a meeting of military leaders on 5 November 1937 the use of force […]
First step
The first steps to establish a progressive liberal democracy in Germany after the Great War were taken on 28 October 1918. The constitution was changed to transfer power to the Reichstag (legislature). The major parties supported it. They felt it would encourage a period of calm needed to negotiate an armistice and peace treaty.