The Coming of the Third Reich

Richard J. Evans’s Coming of the Third Reich, first published in the UK in 2003, is the first in a trilogy of nonfiction narrative histories covering the entire history of the Nazi Party’s rise and its rule over Germany, along with the later series installments The Third Reich in Power (2005) and The Third Reich at War (2008). A historian of 19th and early 20th-century Germany, Evans focuses on how the social and political circumstances in Germany— from German unification in 1870 to the Weimar Republic of the 1920s and early 1930s—enabled the Nazis to come to power. Evans also argues that the rise of the Nazis was not inevitable.

This guide is based on the 2004 Penguin Books edition published in the United States.

Content Warning: This guide discusses racism, religious discrimination, and death.

Summary

For Evans, the story of the rise of the Nazi Party truly starts with Otto von Bismarck. As Chancellor of the Kingdom of Prussia, Bismarck led efforts to unify Germany in 1871, forging an empire ruled by the old Prussian monarchy from what had previously been a loose collection of German states. By the late 19th century, there was a German tradition of liberal ideas, but Bismarck’s aggressive foreign policy and oppression of dissenting groups like Catholics and socialists left a legacy of militarism and authoritarianism, as well as a “myth of the dictatorial leader” (13).

World War I and the 1918–1919 revolutions, which led to the abolition of the German monarchy, deeply unsettled German society for generations. Expectations that Germany would receive generous peace terms even after its defeat because the country was never occupied proved incorrect. Under the Treaty of Versailles that concluded World War I, Germany was subjected to harsh peace terms. This gave rise to the idea that Germany was unfairly treated and even that it should have won the war. Instead, it was betrayed by groups at home, such as socialists and Jews. Such beliefs fueled far-right groups like the Nazi Party, who capitalized on the idea that the “true” German nation was being undermined by political and racial enemies from within. As Evans notes, “Without the war, Nazism would have never emerged as a serious force…” (59).

After the revolutions of 1918–1919, the government that came to power was democratic—the Weimar Republic. While Evans argues that the Weimar Republic was more stable than some historians depict, it was weakened by the fact that there were delegates on the political right and the left who never accepted it as a legitimate form of government. This widespread belief meant that “for most of its existence [the Weimar Republic] never enjoyed the support of a majority of the deputies in the Reichstag” (445). In addition, the Republic never gained much support among Germany’s conservative civil service, judiciary, and military, and it gradually lost the backing of large businesses. Additionally, the Weimar Republic faced severe economic crises while struggling to meet its reparation payments to the victorious Allied powers. First came the hyperinflation crisis of 1923, which saw prices, especially those of food, increase more than any other European country. Then came the Great Depression, which caused an unemployment crisis that drew young men to extremist political movements like Communism and Nazism. These economic challenges fueled nostalgia for the German Empire, increased support for the Nazi Party among the hard-hit northern rural areas, and radicalized parts of the electorate while the moderate parties, who were the bulwark of the Weimar Republic, declined.

Despite Germany’s democratic government, strong economy, and liberal society, extremist nationalist, antisemitic and eugenicist movements gained mainstream traction. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis made inroads with moderate conservatives and the middle classes. The Nazis promised “Idealism, patriotism and national unity would create the basis for economic revival” (245). By the 1930s, the brownshirts, Nazis’ paramilitary supporters, were engaged in violence on the streets of Germany against the Communists, but Hitler and the Nazi leaders distanced themselves from the rampant violence. Despite their growing support, major parts of the electorate—such as urban workers in labor unions and Catholics—did not support them in large numbers. As a result, the Nazis never achieved a majority in elections for Germany’s national legislative assembly, the Reichstag. Nonetheless, Hitler was appointed Chancellor after backroom attempts by dominant conservatives like President Paul von Hindenburg to preserve their majority and create a more authoritarian government. Hindenburg and others believed Hitler could be easily controlled. Instead, Hitler began remaking the German government in the Nazis’ image, committing actions with a shroud of legality that were nonetheless against the Weimar constitution. He purged not only the government but also major professions and civic organizations across Germany of political dissidents, members of other political parties, and Jews. To keep their jobs or their organizations, many people pretended to be loyal to the Nazis.

Hitler sought not only political supremacy but also cultural control. Exploiting existing tensions over “Weimar’s radically modernist culture” (133), the Nazis attacked foreign music styles like jazz and modernist art while asserting control over the media, including the new communications technology of the radio. Jewish artists and writers, those insufficiently loyal to the new regime, or those with styles the Nazis opposed lost jobs and positions. Many of them left Germany altogether, to the detriment of German culture. By exercising such heavy-handed control over Germany’s political, legal, and cultural structures, Hitler began shaping a regime based around race.