Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power

Historian Ryback (Hitler’s First Victims) presents a riveting blow-by-blow account of the six months leading up to Adolf Hitler’s January 1933 appointment as Germany’s chancellor. Describing a nation in disarray, Ryback notes an “epidemic of murder sweeping the country” at the hands of partisan paramilitaries. Meanwhile the Nazi party, though it had just claimed the largest share of votes in July 1932 elections, was short of an overall majority. The tempered win led to Hitler entering the “rarefied” orbit of Kurt von Schleicher, “the ultimate Berlin power broker” who worked toward securing Hitler the chancellorship, convinced it would “lure the National Socialist leader away from the ‘all or nothing’ faction of his movement.” As Ryback illustrates, this scheme faced multiple obstacles. Germany’s president Paul von Hindenburg, concerned for democracy, refused to appoint Hitler. Then, November elections saw the Nazis lose two million votes from July, causing “fissures in party leadership.” By the end of the year, Hitler was viewed by some as “a man with a great future behind him.” In Ryback’s propulsive narrative, the quick turnaround—brought about by multiple small compounding vagaries of breaking news, personality quirks, and political horse-trading—that resulted in Hitler being appointed chancellor by Hindenburg at the end of January makes for a chilling climax. It’s a dire and remarkably astute depiction of how fickle and contingent the forces of history can be. (Mar.)