Takeover

Hitler's Final Rise to Power

By: Timothy W. Ryback

Narrated by: Richard Attlee

From the internationally acclaimed author of Hitler’s Private Library, a dramatic recounting of the six critical months before Adolf Hitler seized power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin

In the summer of 1932, the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse. One in three Germans was unemployed. Violence was rampant. Hitler’s National Socialists surged at the polls. Paul von Hindenburg, an aging war hero and avowed monarchist, was a reluctant president bound by oath to uphold the constitution. The November elections offered Hitler the prospect of a Reichstag majority and the path to political power. But instead, the Nazis lost two million votes. As membership hemorrhaged and financial backers withdrew, the Nazi Party threatened to fracture. Hitler talked of suicide. The New York Times declared he was finished. Yet somehow, in a few brief weeks, he was chancellor of Germany.

In fascinating detail and with previously un-accessed archival materials, Timothy W. Ryback tells the remarkable story of Hitler’s dismantling of democracy through democratic process. He provides fresh perspective and insights into Hitler’s personal and professional lives in these months, in all their complexity and uncertainty—backroom deals, unlikely alliances, stunning betrayals, an ill-timed tax audit, and a fateful weekend that changed our world forever. Above all, Ryback details why a wearied Hindenburg, who disdained the “Bohemian corporal,” ultimately decided to appoint Hitler chancellor in January 1933. Within weeks, Germany was no longer a democracy.

Well worth understanding this period of disaster for democracy.

This gave a blow by blow detailing of the events leading to Hitler getting the German Chancellorship. It was a close run event with the Nazis teetering on falling popularity and finances. It goes to show how a determined demagogue can overcome democracy, and thus has relevance today— both to see the similarities and differences from various leaders in the current arena.

Review comments by FOOLS

Excellent book. I also read Hitler's Thirty Days To Power, Jan 1933. Both recommended. However, many of the review comments for this book by people with TDS are laughable: comparing Trump and his action to Hitler, of course. They're morons!

Too close to the bone

Thoroughly researched and meticulously documented but flows readily through complicated events bearing harrowing similarities to the current situation in the USA.

Not Inevitable

Hitler could have been stopped. Ryback makes it very clear that Hitler could have been kept from power.

Scary

This book was very intriguing and scary because of the parallels to what is going on now in the U.S., politically. When we think there’s no chance of someone like Hitler coming to power again, look around and you’ll see a current politician using these same strategies and “tricks” to gain power. It happened once and it could happen again. I took this book as a warning to what can happen when you sit idly by, not vote, or believe the propaganda that non-centrists push.