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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.

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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 

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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.

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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 

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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.

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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.

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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 

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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.

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The Japanese military seized control of Manchuria on a pretext and proclaimed it an independent state. The civilian government in Tokyo reluctantly went along with this.

The League of Nations had been created for exactly this situation: to intervene when a strong country attacked or bullied a weaker one. Now the League faced its first real test.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Edo Lullaby”
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by Wikimedia Commons user Akaniji. Used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 

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

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Ever since the discovery of the eighth planet, Neptune, astronomers speculated about a possible ninth planet. Some, like American Percival Lowell, used mathematical analysis of the orbit of Uranus to trace the undetected planet’s gravitational effects.

In 1930, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, building on Lowell’s work, discovered the ninth planet. Or did he? (This is a special Christmas episode of the podcast.)

(Correction: Clyde Tombaugh received his degrees in astronomy from the University of Kansas. In an earlier version of this episode, I mistakenly said they were from Kansas State University. I apologize for the error, and the podcast and transcript have been corrected.)

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

eDream

Closing Theme 

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The decade of the 1920s began and ended with global economic slowdowns. Between them, Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake.

As Japan struggled with its economic problems and rebuilding from the disaster, right-wing Army commanders took it upon themselves to seize control of Manchuria, which they saw as essential to Japan’s economic and military security.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Kojo no Tsuki” (“Moon Over Desolate Castle”)
Composed in 1901 by Taki Rentaro. Public domain.

Closing Theme 

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By 1929, Chiang Kai-shek had realized Sun Yat-sen’s vision of a united China. But much of “united” China was still controlled by warlords, Communists, and the Japanese. Of these, Chiang regarded the Communists as the gravest threat.

As for the Communists, they were forced to abandon their efforts to foment the revolution through organizing China’s small urban proletariat and increasingly the Party came to accept Mao Zedong’s argument that the revolution would spring from China’s numerous disenchanted rural peasant farmers.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

The Nanjing Decade

“Wa Ha Ha”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing Theme 

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The early stages of the economic collapse appeared in the United States, though the slowdown in international trade (exacerbated by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act) affected everyone.

Then in 1931, bank failures began in Austria and spread to Germany and other countries in Europe and South America, as the overlapping financial crises plaguing the world combined into the Great Depression.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“The Saint Louis Blues”
Composed in 1914 by W.C. Handy. Public domain.

Closing Theme 

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Image courtesy of the German Federal Archive and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Germany was already experiencing an economic recession when the US stock market crashed and new, higher reparations payments under the Young Plan came into effect.

Struggling American banks called in their German loans, further squeezing the German economy. The government chose to respond with tight austerity measures that deepened the suffering of the German people.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Composed in 1824 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Image courtesy of the German Federal Archive and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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At first, it appeared the harm done by the stock market crash could be contained. No banks or businesses failed, and it was hoped that the economic damage would be minimal.

But in the agricultural regions of the United States, the crash plus a poor harvest in 1930 pushed many American farmers, who were already struggling, into bankruptcies. Rural banks in the Midwest and South began to fail, and then the failures spread to New York City and beyond.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Composed in 1824 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 

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