My apologies for not following through on the eval yet. I temporarily skipped the second paragraph and completed the third paragraph. The opening paragraph seems inconsequential to the central idea, in my opinion. Since school is out until January, I'll try to address one or two paragraphs per day/evening. Portions of this essay are rather complex and require some time. I have access to much research material.
But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.
Indeed, Hitler was not "elected" by majority vote. There were two presidential elections in early 1932. No candidate captured a majority of the votes at the first election on March 13, although Hindenburg came the closest at 49 percent. Therefore, a second election was held on April 10th. Over 83 percent of the eligible voters turned out at both polls. The second election resulted in Hindenburg winning re-election and, at the age of 84, collecting 53 percent of the popular vote.
Hitler wasn't a popular choice of the people and, as a matter of fact, considered an extremist by many Germans at that particular time. "The Social Democrats mobilized the various phases of their movement into a so-called Eiserne Front, which adopted as one of its slogans, 'Not for love of Hindenburg, but to defeat Hitler.'" There was concern among many Germans back then that if Hitler were elected, a dictatorship would ensue.
Reference: Childs, Harwood L.(Princeton University), "Foreign Governments and Politics: The German Presidental Election of 1932"; The American Political Science Review, Vol. 26, No. 3. (Jun., 1932), pp. 486-496
Elections for the German Reichstag, which in this case was comparable to our U.S. Congress, were held on July 31, 1932. The NSDAP captured 37.4 percent of the vote and increased their number of seats from 110 to 230. Social Democrats took 24.3 percent and lost 3 seats to 133. Communists and Center both captured 14.3 and 12.2 percent of the vote, respectively. The largest gains were, however, by the NSDAP.
Reference: Jerome G. Kerwin, "The German Reichstag Elections of July 31, 1932"; The American Political Science Review, Vol. 26, No. 5. (Oct., 1932), pp. 921-926.
Another Reichstag election followed in November of 1932 that resulted in the NSDAP losing some seats. The reason for this temporary loss of support can be traced to Hitler's refusal in joining a coalition that supported the government.
From a standpoint of continuity, the German Chancellory was a qualified catastrophe during the early 1930s. First, Heinrich Brüning served in the position for just over two years before resigning. Following Brüning was Franz von Papen who served for just over six months. Papen was replaced by Hindenburg with Kurt von Schleicher. Schleicher lasted a scant 7 weeks before Papen convinced Hindenburg that Hitler should be appointed to the post. Schleicher was a "monarchist" or aristocrat. Brüning worked as a university professor in the US after fleeing Germany, by the way.
We should remember that the period after the end of WWI until 1933, when Hitler assumed power, was one of enormous unrest in Germany. Aside from the humiliation invoked by the Treaty of Versailles, hyperinflation, unemployment and the Great Depression; German Communists and National Socialists continually battled each other politically and, in some cases, physically, during the 1920s and early 30s, particularly in Bavaria. The German Communists received considerable support from Stalin's USSR and were the largest communist party outside of the Soviet Union at that point in time.
re: "reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state". We must also remember that this "southernmost state" is Austria, Hitler's birthplace. Germany annexed Austria in 1938. It was in pre-WWI Vienna that Hitler cultivated much of his early political and social ideology.
I assume that this "secret society with an occult-sounding name" refers to the
Thule-Gesellschaft or "Thule Society". Actually, I perfer "Thule Association" in this context. Hitler was not a member of this "society", but rather intimately associated with many key members. The "Thule Gesellschaft" was founded in late 1918. Some influences of the Thule-Gesellschaft can be traced back to 1912.
A few principle core Thule members were: Dietrich Eckart (a publicist), Karl Haushofer (political scientist and former Brigadier General during WWI), Wilhelm Frick (member of the war cabinet after 1939), Rudolf Hess (#3 in the Third Reich chain of command), Julius Streicher (published
Der Stürmer, the propaganda paper), Alfred Rosenberg (minister for occupied countries in the east after 1941) and Hans Frank (Governor-General of Poland from 1939 on). With the exception of Hess; Frick, Streicher, Rosenberg and Frank were executed after the Nürnberg war crimes trials. Old man Hess was incarcerated at Berlin-Spandau under joint US/USSR/British/French jurisdiction for more than 40 years until his death in 1987. He survived them all.
The Thule Society is largely considered as extremely anti-communist. In fact, seven Thule members were shot by communists on April 30, 1919.
It has been argued by some scholars that the DAP was heir to the ideological traditions of the rabidly anti-semetic Thule Society, as well as the expansionist goals of big business and military expressed by other groups. Hitler and his associates more or less consolidated these ideologies into the NSDAP. It should be noted that a dagger, not "skulls and human bones", symbolized the society.
Wikipedia says the following about Thule: "The Thule Society has documented ties with the Skull and Bones Society, of which George W. Bush is a member." "Skull and Bones", the Yale association, was founded in 1832. I have not seen any "documented ties" with the Thule Society. This is not to say that a such connection doesn't exist.
References:
Zoller, Regina, "Thule-Gesellschaft"; <
http://www.relinfo.ch/thule/info.html>, Switzerland, 1994 (in German)
Phelps, Reginald H., "'Before Hitler Came': Thule Society and Germanen Orden"; The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Sep., 1963), pp. 245-261
Hatheway, Jay, "The Pre-1920 Origins of the National Socialist German Workers' Party"; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 29, No. 3. (Jul., 1994), pp. 443-462
In evaluating this paragraph, the author is correct in many of his assertions regarding Hitler's rise to power in the government. The biggest problem I have with the paragraph is whether or not the "secret society" he refers to is actually the
Thule-Gesellschaft. If so then I think he may believe a bit too much in some of the so-called "occult authors" who have written extensively on this subject.
The obvious question for the reader is if an objective parallel between both leaders can be drawn. In other words, I can't/won't comment about Bush, but rather verify the validity of the author's allegations concerning Hitler. If new and relavent material surfaces, like that found in my two previous posts, I'll include it.
<edit>Let me add two points that I left out. Hitler did not attain German citizenship until 1932, before the presidential elections. Hindenburg, the Reichspräsident, was originally intended to be a figurehead in the government. However, he ruled by decree because of the political landscape so prevalent at the time.</edit>