Abstract

Though often depicted as a rapid political transformation, the Nazi seizure of power was in fact a process that extended from the appointment of the Papen cabinet in the early summer of 1932 through the Röhm blood purge two years later. Across fourteen rigorous and carefully researched chapters, From Weimar to Hitler offers a compelling collective investigation of this critical period in modern German history. Each case study presents new empirical research on the crisis of Weimar democracy, the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship, and Hitler’s consolidation of power. Together, they provide multiple perspectives on the extent to which the triumph of Nazism was historically predetermined or the product of human miscalculation and intent.

Hermann Beck is Professor of History at the University of Miami. He is the author of Conservatives, Bureaucracy, and the Social Question in Prussia, 1815-1870 (1995), and The Fateful Alliance: German Conservatives and Nazis in 1933 (2008).

Larry Eugene Jones is Professor of Modern European History at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. He is the author of German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Party System, 1918-1933 (1988), and Hitler versus Hindenburg (2015).

“This excellent, accessible volume will be of great interest to scholars and informed readers looking to gain new insight into the topic of Hitler’s seizure and consolidation of power.” • Barry Jackisch, University of Saint Francis