Third Reich Charisma and Community

This book shows how a charismatic leader preyed on ordinary Germans yearning for stability in a time of economic, political and social crisis. It goes on to give a complete and up-to-date analysis of The Third Reich; its implications for and place in history.

THE THIRD REICH: Charisma and Community

Martin Kitchen

ISBN: 978-1-4058-0169-0

The twelve years of the Third Reich cast a dark shadow over history and fierce debates still rage over the reasons why the regime survived for so long.

What was the secret of Hitler’s extraordinary popularity? What was the appeal of National Socialism? Why did the German people stay loyal to the Reich even when it seemed that all was lost?

In this impressive and often disturbing new work Martin Kitchen shows us how ordinary people can fall prey to fanatical, irrational, even apocalyptic ideas in times of seeming desperation. In exploring such key concerns as the role of ideology in National Socialism, the cooption of elites, the descent into war over ‘race and space’ and the culminating horror of the holocaust, Kitchen compares Nazism to a ‘secular religion’ whose charismatic leader retained enormous power over the minds and bodies of an entire population even when the military and economic basis of its appeal began to erode.

Nazi Germany continues to fascinate because of its extraordinary radicalism as well as its strange and deadly mixture of the modern and the atavistic. The Third Reich: Charisma and Community is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand the destructive lure of charisma and power.

Martin Kitchen is Professor of History at Simon Fraser University, Canada and the author of numerous books and scholarly articles on German and European history including Nazi Germany at War (Longman, 1994), Europe Between the Wars (2nd extended edition, Longman, 2006) and A World in Flames: A Concise History of the Second World War in Europe and Asia (Longman, 1990).

The twelve years of the Third Reich casts a dark shadow over history. Fierce debates still rage over many of the hows, whys and wherefores of this perplexing period.

Leading expert on German history, Martin Kitchen, provides a concise, accessible and provocative account of Nazi Germany. It takes into account the political, social, economic and cultural ramifications, and sets it within the context of the times, while pointing out those areas that still defy our understanding.

This lively account addresses major issues such as the reasons for Hitlers extraordinary popularity, his hold over the German people even when all seemed lost, the role of ideology, the cooption of the elites, and the descent into war for race and space, culminating in the horrors of the holocaust.