53 DAYS. Timothy W. Ryback’s book describes how Adolf Hitler through manipulation of the constitution of the German Republic transformed a democracy into an authoritarian state. For followers of Hitler’s playbook Mein Kampf it would come as no surprise. What is shocking are the similarities evoked by historian RyBack to threats to democracy currently taking place in America.

It is uncanny to read the 1930s impressions of Hitler of Theodor Heuss. Heuss was an avid pro-democracy Reichstag delegate with the German State Party.

Hitler, Heuss claimed, was possed of an oversensitive vanity that was quick to detect any perceived insult or disrespect, along with an insatiable need to be the center of attention, always, anywhere, everywhere. He not only claims, but demands, that nothing happens without him.

Hitler maneuvers and gets himself appointed Chancellor and almost immediately declares war on the press, banning newspapers critical of the new government. He coined the term fake news castigating any publication that opposed his policies. Eventually, 171 out of 190 social democratic newspapers were shuttered. Beginning in 1933 he used radio to further his campaign to destroy the democratic Weimar Republic. Within the Weimar constitution there existed the Enabling Act which if approved would dissolve the Reichstag and establish Hitler’s authoritarian rule.

On March 23, 1933, 53 Days after Hitler was named chancellor of the German Republic institution of the Enabling Act was approved with Hitler receiving an eighty percent mandate. In that moment by a legislative act The Weimar Republic ceased to exist and Adolf Hitler held supreme power.

History tells the results of that vote.

The detail in Ryback’s research and writing furnishes the reader with the details of Hitler’s ability to manipulate individuals, the courts and the constitution itself.