John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MIKE WALSH IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Hitler's Germany: More Democratic Than Modern-Day Europe
"AMIDST MUCH TALK of the Brexit Referendum media has little to say about the only European nation that actually practised democracy for the people by the people. Hitler’s Germany not only invited the electorate to participate in running their own country, they did so with considerable success."
Oh, please, this is rubbish.
Yes, referenda were held by the Nazis.
Yes, results in the ninety-percent range were obtained.
But did they mean anything? They meant absolutely no more than votes in the USSR under Stalin.
The Nazis were quite skilled at manipulating people. Dr Goebbels was an early genius at the art of propaganda. And there was a pervasive sense of the Gestapo watching, everywhere, and they did.
No free vote anywhere ever gets results in the ninety-percent range. It just doesn't happen. People in no society are that cohesive about almost any subject.
Hitler, when he actually campaigned and ran for office in elections in the early 1930s, never achieved more than about 37% of the popular vote. His votes before that were significantly less, and he was almost certainly losing momentum after the 37% vote.
Hitler, after being constitutionally appointed Chancellor in 1933, by an aging President Hindenburg desperate and frustrated by the many divisions and fights in Germany during the early 1930s, only achieved his full power with a coup. The Reichstag Fire and new laws that swiftly followed plus waves of arrests were the Maidan event of their day.
After a few years of successful economic recovery and policies which put Germany at center stage again in Europe, Hitler did come to enjoy a period of some popularity, although its extent was never confirmed in any scientific fashion. He was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1938.
When it was clear Germany was going to war again, observers such as William Shirer noted a definite sense of cooling and lack of enthusiasm at mass gatherings.
But the Reich was not a society where one could freely voice opinions outside the views of government. The Gestapo was very active as internal secret police. The first concentration camps (not death camps) appeared early and were filled with German dissenters of many descriptions.
Many of the Nazi's dark internal policies were kept secret, policies like the killing of "subnormal" children and the sterilization of people judged unfit to reproduce, so they did not influence public opinion.
