The Nazi Seizure of Power first appeared in 1965, written by a college history instructor named William Sheridan Allen. I have always wondered if he wrote it first as his doctoral thesis. It is one of my favorite books. Professor Allen travelled to Germany in order to research the history of a middle-sized town during the Third Reich. He just put his index-finger down on the geographical middle of Germany, and it landed on Northeim in the province of Lower Saxony.

Dr. Allen read from the minutes of 1930s city-council meetings and political caucuses; he read from newspapers and from existing histories for background information on the town, and he interviewed at least twenty of Northeim's leading citizens. They agreed to talk, if Dr. Allen used pseudonyms in place of their names, to give them anonymity, including the name of the town.

For Northeim, Allen called it "Thalburg". He gave the leading Nazi in "Thalburg" the pseudonym "Kurt Aergeyz". The leading Socialist, he named "Karl Hengst". The name "Aergeyz" resembles the German word "Ehrgeiz", which means "ambition" in English. "Hengst", on the other hand, means "stallion". Their names describe pretty well their contentious relationship.

The Nazi Seizure of Power sold well at colleges in the United States, where professors put it on the to-read list for German history courses. It also received attention in Germany, because the premier news-magazine Der Spiegel read it and reviewed it. Unfortunately, Der Spiegel also researched the fictional town "Thalburg" to learn its real name. Spiegel publicized not just its real name but also the names of the towns-people that Professor Allen had tried to protect, which soured his relations with the magazine. At any rate, his book received a German translation, signifying the level of interest that it aroused.

If we want to understand how disunity and conflict can destroy a society, we have to start with pre-Nazi Germany. For one thing, Germany was at a crossroads already, although few realized it at the time. Thanks to the Great Depressionn, Germany was experiencing serious social conflict, which Allen describes up close and personal. As I read through The Nazi Seizure of Power, I found myself interested in the city government of Northeim, which was controlled by the German Socialist Party, the SPD.

(All quotes come from the 1984 edition of The Nazi Seizure of Power.)

page 34: When a Northeimer thought of Marxism, he (did) not think of the Communists. . . . The "Marxist" party in Northeim was the . . . SPD, the Socialists.
That the SPD was a non-revolutionary party . . , and Marxist in rhetoric, probably did not matter to most of the town's burghers. The Socialists carried a red flag. They sang the Internationale. . . . They preached Marxism and class struggle. . . . One never met them socially, yet they were in the City Hall—touchy, aggressive, and demanding. To oppose these radical apostles of equality was of paramount importance in the Depression environment.

Interestingly, Allen writes that the Socialists "were the dominant political force in Northeim." They won 45% of the town's votes, "more than the next three largest parties combined," who had mostly
right-wing agendas but too much individual intention to allow them to join forces. So, effectively,
the Socialists governed as a minority party. The Right really resented this fact.
Professor Allen continued:

page 56: The real leader of Northeim's SPD was Carl Querfurt. . . . He owned a small tobacco shop in the heart of the Old Town. . . . The conservative County Prefect, von der Schulenburg, described him as "a man of great natural talent, but violent; he imparted a violent character to the whole SPD Local."
He had great self-confidence, courage, and presence of mind . . . but could also use refined invective and vituperation.

The Nazi Party also had "violent characters" leading it. "Kurt Aergeyz",  whose pseudonym I have already mentioned, led the Northeim branch of the Party, assisted by "Otto Made" (pronounced like "maw-deh"). "Made" is also a meaningful pseudonym. In German, it means "maggot". That tells us what sort of character he had.

Allen describes Aergeyz as a man with "thin lips, snapping grey eyes, and an embittered but very youthful face". Aergeyz did not hesitate to enrich himself at the city's expense. He also dismissed his political opponents, labor-union leaders, and even members of his own Nazi Party and ran them out of town.

One dismissed-Nazi "Walther Timmerlah" went to his superiors to report Aergeyz's embezzlement of Party funds. The superiors rebuked Timmerlah and made it clear to him that Aergeyz "was just the kind of man they wanted." This upset Timmerlah, an idealistic Nazi who ran a high-end book-shop and cultivated relationships with other prominent writers; but after his dressing down, he left Germany and did not return until after the War. "Otto Made" told Allen he would rather befriend a militant Communist than a "Scheiß-Akademiker" like Timmerlah, a bullshit academic.

My next post will feature more from The Nazi Seizure of Power by William Sheridan Allen.