WW2

As the allied leaders appeased Hitler in the later 1930s, ACG noted how this played into his hands. “The peace of Munich is a complete victory for Hitler. The Munich pact replaces the Versailles Treaty. Germany has won the [First World] war after all. An unforgettable lesson has been taught to the whole world, namely that nothing can be expected from lawful agreement, arbitration and peaceful negotiations. All that matters is power and might. What you can grab by force and threat is yours by right. It is a lesson that will not be forgotten by the Germans within and without the Fatherland. It will continue to plague the world in years to come.” (p350-351)

The Allies simply needed to call Hitler’s bluff. However, the British and the French gave up on their treaty with Czechoslovakia and tried to pursue peace. Hitler lacked the strength and public support needed to wage a new war. But sadly, his lies won him the extra time he needed. “The great Swedish Chancellor Count Axel Oxenstjerna was right when he said to his son: ‘Don’t you know, my boy, with what little intelligence the world is run?’ Oxenstjerna’s words are as true today as they were 300 years ago.” (p354)

As ACG came to the end of his book, preparing for publication in 1939, he wrote, “At the apex of the German pyramid stands a dictator drunk with success and surrounded by a horde of daring adventurers. He and they live in a world of their own. Germany, they believe and make others believe, has become the hub of the universe. . . . It is a sad commentary on our times that the forces of progress, suffering from a strange malady of inertia and moral paralysis, have permitted a dictatorship to bring limitless misery to millions of people who once were happy.” (p356)

It is pretty sobering to read the final pages, knowing all that was to follow in the subsequent six years of Nazi tyranny. “I have no intention of defending that which can not be defended. I have testified in previous chapters to the all too many sins of omission committed by the democratic state, statesmen and national leaders, and their failure to take timely and energetic action against the enemies of democracy and progress. Yet to arrive at a conclusive answer one must not look around for individual scapegoats. It is necessary to realise the collective responsibility and the collective guilt of the German people; that collective guilt which can perhaps best be explained by the lack of political instinct and political common sense of the Germans.” (p360) As we look at threats to society today, we could soon be writing the same thing of our nation, or of the west.

“If individual guilt and responsibility have to be apportioned, then certainly all those are guilty who allowed things to come to such a pass.” (p365) ACG referred to Reich Chancellor Bruening in 1930 and others who made influential decisions with devastating consequences. But what about a broader view? What about the population, the foreign leaders, community influencers like the church leaders, etc.?

“The longer National Socialism rules in Germany, the greater becomes the danger of a new and all-devastating war. It is the sacred duty of all those within and without Germany to whom justice and law, humanity, democracy and peace are not matters of mere lip service, to co-operate in the fight for the preservation of mankind.” (p368) This is still true today . . . totalitarian, globalist takeover agendas are flagrant, and too many heads remain firmly buried in the sand.

So, to come full circle, common decency dictates that we should not liken anything today to 1930’s Germany. In light of what has happened in recent years and what may lie ahead of us, maybe it would be wiser if we did.

At the height of restrictions during the times of Covid, I made a comment to a friend. His response has stayed with me. My comment made a specific comparison of a contemporary trend with 1930s Germany. He immediately reacted and told me that we should never make such a comparison because it implied that the motives of certain influential people were as evil as Hitler himself. I find censorship to be a huge red flag, and I felt like my thought process was being shut down. A few years later, whether the situation warranted my comment is still up for discussion. Perhaps, over time, we will know. But my interest in 1930s Germany has continued.

What did they know? And significantly, how did they respond during an era of multiplying warning flags?

Recently, I discovered Inside Germany, a book written by Albert C. Grzesinksi [herein ACG] – a member of the Social Democratic Party who helped to found the German Republic after the First World War. Intriguingly, he published the book in 1939 without the benefit of hindsight. After six years of the Third Reich, he wrote without knowing what would unfold in the next six years. The horrors of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, especially the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem,” were eventually revealed to the world. But what about before the war? How did the German Republic become the Third Reich? How did so many accept such a rapid transition from liberal democracy to tyrannical evil? It is a fascinating read. And maybe, a century later, there could be lessons for us as we pray for our world, influence Christians and lead churches in a time of potentially tectonic political shifts.

The German Republic was quite an achievement after the devastation of the Great War of 1914-18. On the 31^st of July, 1919, the National Assembly in Weimer “gave the German people a constitution that was one of the most liberal, progressive and inspiring documents in the history of the world. On the 23rd of March, 1933, the parliament of the same republic passed an empowering act which concentrated all powers in the hands of Hitler, and which wrote finis to German democracy and the liberal republic.” (p357) Strikingly, ACG wrote, “Those two dates . . . mark Germany’s road to Golgotha, the road to the crucifixion of the German people under the Nazi swastika.” (ibid.)

It would be easy to assume that Germany, after WWI, simply rebuilt itself, leading to WWII. Not so. The Germany of 1919 had to be radically changed to become the Third Reich of 1933 and following. “Seemingly by a stroke of the pen, political liberties were achieved which not even the boldest optimists and democratic dreamers of Germany had dared to envision. Germany became a state of, by and for the people; a democratic fatherland dedicated to the needs and aspirations of the working masses.” (p358) And it is that seismic shift from liberal democracy to totalitarian tyranny that intrigues me. How can that happen so quickly? And, if you will indulge a series of posts about Nazi Germany, I’d like to ponder what it might mean for how we preach and influence both church and society in our tumultuous times?