Month: January 2022

269: Chancellor Hitler

Mark Podcast
Adolf Hitler stands at a window in the Reich Chancellery the evening of January 30, 1933, just after taking office, as a crowd on the street below cheers.

The year 1933 opened with Hitler and his Nazi Party seemingly no nearer to political power than they had been a year earlier.

But 89 years ago today, on January 30, 1933, after a few right-wing nationalist politicians struck a deal with Hitler, a coalition government took office with Hitler as chancellor.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony No. 6 in F major
Composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Recording used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

268: A Private from Bohemia

Mark Podcast
German party workers campaign outside a polling place in Berlin during the July 1932 election. Left to right: two NSDAP stormtroopers, then Centre Party, SDP, KPD, DNVP, and People’s Party. (Photo: Deutsches Bundesarchiv.)

Germany held four national elections in 1932: two rounds of Presidential elections, and then two Reichstag elections. The Nazi Party competed vigorously in each one, and in a number of state elections, but while it racked up impressive support, it never translated into a majority.

Hitler’s unwillingness to compromise with other parties made it difficult for the Nazis to form coalitions, even when they won the largest share of the vote. By the end of the year, they seemed no closer to power than they had been at the beginning.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Intermezzo No. 2
Composed in 1898 by Johannes Brahms.
Performed by Markus Staab, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

267: The Brown Battalions

Mark Podcast
Horst Wessel, shortly before his death. (Photo: Bundesarchiv)

The dramatic result of the 1930 German federal election was that the NSDAP, the Nazi Party, was now the second-largest in the Reichstag and thus a major player in German politics.

But being a major party is not the same thing as participating in the government. The NSDAP, like the Communists, stubbonly refused to join any coalition, unless the party leader, Adolf Hitler, was made chancellor.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Prelude to Act III from Lohengrin
Composed in 1848 by Richard Wagner.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

266: After Hitler, Our Turn

Mark Podcast
Ernst Thälmann, chair of the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, the Communist Party of Germany or KPD.

The last years of the 1920s saw an upsurge in support for both the German Communist Party (KPD) and the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).

Although they had different reasons, the two parties shared a strategy of refusing to enter into coalition with other parties, as is the norm in parliamentary democracies. But as these parties grew in representation in the German Reichstag, it became increasingly difficult for the other parties to put together a majority coalition.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Overture to Egmont
Composed in 1810 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.