Lecture 6: The 1930s: Persecution, Reconstruction, Expansion

1. Preliminary
   • Panel on "The Unmasking of Hate in America," tonight, 7pm, Multicultural Center
   • Journals due
   • Web bulletin board at ez-college.com
   • Last week's discovery of Schindler's original list
   • read Heck!!
2. The Ups and Downs of the Weimar Republic
   • Two faces: healthy state or weak state? strong with "Achilles' heels"?
   • variants and sub-variants of the German "special path" (Sonderweg)
     • The Good: Nazism as a "driving accident" or "factory accident" (apologists vs. Fritz Fischer)
     • The Bad: "delayed nation," "failed revolution" (Marxist)
     • The Ugly: deep roots from "Luther to Hitler" (William Shirer)
3. The Nazi "Seizure" of Power
   • Electoral politics and the Weimar political system: exploiting tolerance
   • Skillful use of violence
   • Contingency and good luck
   • Success breeds success
   • Trial and error as method

   [we only got up to here; the following will be at the start of L7]

4. Three intertwined themes of the 1930s
   • political: reconstruction, expansion and the path to war
   • antisemitic: the persecution of the Jews
   • racial nationalism: The Volk community