I have read two volumes by Timothy W. Ryback on this subject but in reverse order. Whereas I read 53 DAYS first, I suggest initially reading TAKEOVER.

TAKEOVER is an in depth examination of the step by step crusade by which Hitler took over control of the Weimar Republic and became absolute dictator of the democracy that had been established after WWI.

By 1932 the Weimar Republic was in economic and social chaos. The draconian restrictions placed upon the German people by the Treaty of Versailles had led to high rates of unemployment and civil unrest. Ryback outlines in exacting detail how Hitler seized upon these circumstances to begin his campaign to replace the German Republic with an autocracy.

Through Hitler’s National Socialist party he began the campaign to takeover the German government. The irony is that Hitler accomplished his goal through the very democratic process within the Weimar Constitution. Though his National Socialists Brown Shirts were deliberately intimidating there was not a revolution or an outright government overthrow. Hitler had learned a bitter lesson from his failed PUTSCH of the 1920s which resulted in his imprisonment.

In reading both of Ryback’s books the reader realizes the fragility of a democracy. Hitler became president through a forced constitutional transition and almost immediately the assassination of those who had stood in his way began.

The Ryback books are a stark reminder of the famous Benjamin Franklin quote in 1787. When the Constitutional Convention wrapped up in Philadelphia Franklin was asked, “What kind of government they had created? ” Franklin’s reply A Republic if you can keep it.