A history podcast dedicated to examining the global history of the 1920s and 30s in order to explain the causes of World War II, both large and small. As you might imagine, there’s a lot of ground to cover just to contextualize how the conflict got so out of control. If you love historical deep-dives and play-by-plays of nations in way over their collective heads, this is the show for you. Best niche history podcast out there! PROTIP: If you’re a new listener and are hopelessly confused by me bouncing from topic to topic, the scope of this show has kinda gotten away from me over the years. I have included an index of miniseries in the description of Episode 1 to provide a guide for what I’ve covered so far.
Episodes
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
With his own micro-party on hand, Hitler became able to devote his time to his true calling: making a nuisance of himself. And it worked too, as his public persona brought him an expanded group of underlings and the interest of larger figures in the ultra-right scene of Munich.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Kershaw, Ian Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris W.W. Norton & Company, Inc 1998
- Toland, John Adolf Hitler, Volume 1 Doubleday & Company Inc 1976
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday May 30, 2021
Sunday May 30, 2021
The end of WWI left Hitler an aimless soldier without a cause to fight for, but his ability to work a crowd began to emerge while investigating micro-political parties as part of an army assignment. Before long he had gotten himself signed up for a little group that would eventually be called the Nazis, and he got to work building a life for himself in politics.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Kershaw, Ian Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris W.W. Norton & Company, Inc 1998
- Toland, John Adolf Hitler, Volume 1 Doubleday & Company Inc 1976
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday May 23, 2021
Sunday May 23, 2021
The misadventures of young Hitler continue in the big city of Vienna. And by misadventures I mean he lands in a homeless shelter once the money he got from his family ran out. But it won't be the end of him, and he'll eventually eke out an impoverished life first in Vienna, and then later Munich, before finding a greater purpose to his life in being a soldier during WWI.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Kershaw, Ian Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris W.W. Norton & Company, Inc 1998
- Toland, John Adolf Hitler, Volume 1 Doubleday & Company Inc 1976
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday May 16, 2021
Sunday May 16, 2021
It's finally time I covered the early days of Hitler and the Nazi party. I'm actually kind of proud that in a podcast about the context for how WWII happened that I haven't had to focus on them for thirty episodes. But it's finally time to introduce the bad guys, and just what they were doing in their more modest days, before they made their successful bid to control Germany. These next two episodes will focus on Adolf Hitler's early life and the remainder of the series will cover him as leader of the Nazi Party in the 20s. They're both modest stories, and in a sane world would not be worth telling. But we all know how it all turned out, so here are the early years.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Kershaw, Ian Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris W.W. Norton & Company, Inc 1998
- Toland, John Adolf Hitler, Volume 1 Doubleday & Company Inc 1976
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday May 09, 2021
Sunday May 09, 2021
The years of 1924-29 represented a kind of golden age for Weimar Germany, and as a consequence not as much happened compared to the five years previous, so I'm compressing it into a single episode. But as relatively nice as those years were, they were also deceptive. All the problems of the past had only been papered over, not solved. Material conditions improved enough to encourage people not to try and overturn the republic, but fell short of making them identify with it. So when the next big crisis came around, Germany would be just as divided and vulnerable as ever.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Evans, Richard The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin Books, 2003
- Peukert, Detlev The Weimar Republic Suhrkamp Verlag am Main, 1987
- Weitz, Eric Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy Princeton University Press 2007
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday May 02, 2021
Sunday May 02, 2021
Germany's slide into chaos continues this week as all those ultra-right types festering in Bavaria decide the moment had come to overthrow the government. For those on the up and up with early Nazi history, this should be familiar to you as the Beer Hall Putsch. But there's also some light at the end of the tunnel as everyone realizes the crisis could not continue, and with the help of a few leadership changes in Europe there appeared hope of a long-term settlement. Bonus, I do a little recap of these very, very tumultuous five years for Germany and what they would mean for the nation in the future.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Evans, Richard The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin Books, 2003
- Peukert, Detlev The Weimar Republic Suhrkamp Verlag am Main, 1987
- Weitz, Eric Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy Princeton University Press 2007
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Just as Germany got its internal problems papered over (momentarily), a really big international one popped up. Going all-in on a world war and losing left Germany with a gargantuan reparations bill that they were unable to pay. Both because they didn't have the money, and just as importantly, because the Germans deluded themselves into thinking they shouldn't have to pay it. Cue a French military incursion into the single most important economic zone in the country, a resulting economic crisis, and a legendary bout of hyper-inflation.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Evans, Richard The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin Books, 2003
- Peukert, Detlev The Weimar Republic Suhrkamp Verlag am Main, 1987
- Weitz, Eric Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy Princeton University Press 2007
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
In the aftermath of the Kapp Putsch, things finally quieted down for Weimar Germany. The Freikorps started to be wound down and the Left found itself in a period of transition, so the time of revolution and counter-revolution faded into the background for a time. But with this new state constantly being at odds with itself, the problems never really went away, they just stayed in that background. And just as things got quiet, the Entente started making noises that would spark a fresh round of national crisis.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Evans, Richard The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin Books, 2003
- Peukert, Detlev The Weimar Republic Suhrkamp Verlag am Main, 1987
- Harman, Chris The Lost Revolution, Germany 1918 to 1923 Haymarket Books 2017
- Weitz, Eric Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy Princeton University Press 2007
- Jones, Nigel The Birth of the Nazis Constable & Robinson Ltd 2004
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
With the 1918-19 Revolution crushed, the victorious Ebert government probably thought it had some space to start picking up the pieces. Well, think again, because the Freikorps were actively hostile to the new government that they saw as little different than the revolutionaries. Almost from the moment the first dust settled, those groups started plotting against the new state.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Evans, Richard The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin Books, 2003
- Peukert, Detlev The Weimar Republic Suhrkamp Verlag am Main, 1987
- Harman, Chris The Lost Revolution, Germany 1918 to 1923 Haymarket Books 2017
- Weitz, Eric Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy Princeton University Press 2007
- Jones, Nigel The Birth of the Nazis Constable & Robinson Ltd 2004
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com
Sunday Apr 04, 2021
Sunday Apr 04, 2021
Bavaria is a region of Germany that had always kept some distance from the larger nation, and maintained its own identity (and at the time even their own monarch) within the Empire. This independent streak continued into the German Revolution of 1918-19 as events there happened concurrently but separately with what was happening nationally, with the region almost breaking away.
Bibliography for this episode:
- Evans, Richard The Coming of the Third Reich Penguin Books, 2003
- Peukert, Detlev The Weimar Republic Suhrkamp Verlag am Main, 1987
- Harman, Chris The Lost Revolution, Germany 1918 to 1923 Haymarket Books 2017
- Weitz, Eric Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy Princeton University Press 2007
- Jones, Nigel The Birth of the Nazis Constable & Robinson Ltd 2004
Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@gmail.com