Hitler's Thirty Days to Power: January 1933 [Hardcover]

Henry Ashby Turner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996

A history of the fateful month that gave rise to the most destructive leader of the 20th-century. Henry Ashby Turner provides an account of the events that culminated in Adolf Hitler's taking power in January of 1933. He shows how luck, political intrigue, and the personal weaknesses of Hitler's more powerful, traditional conservative opponents paved the way to his Chancellorship. Turner also seeks to re-establish the importance of individual actors in the unfolding of historical events.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Yale historian Turner (German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler) here subjects to microscopic examination the fateful 30 days before Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Although many of the facts are known, this study reveals that the Nazi dictator did not come to power as the result of "impersonal forces." The slender, analytical volume indicates that rather, at a time of mortal peril for Germany?and the world?intrigue was the order of the day in Berlin. Turner follows the machinations of the principals?Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher; conspirator with Hitler and former chancellor Franz von Papen; President Paul von Hindenburg?to demonstrate how they all played unwittingly into Hitler's hands, believing they could control him once he took office. Turner concludes that far from being inevitable, there was a "high degree of contingency" and not a little luck in the Fuhrer's ascendancy. Moreover, as Turner points out, the Nazis' standing in the polls had been eroding for months before Hitler's triumph. Students of German history and extremist movements should enjoy this fast-paced narrative.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

These two volumes, both by well-respected scholars, provide short, well-written, thoughtful accounts of why and how Hitler and the Nazis could have come to power in a Western democracy such as Germany. They are aimed at an audience more encompassing than just the circle of professional historians. Mitcham (Hitler's Field Marshals, Madison, 1993) deals with the broader aspects of the subject. Beginning with the end of World War I, he draws upon established historical research to cover the social, political, military, economic, and personal forces that contributed to Hitler's rise to power. His short account distills a huge literature into a readable study that covers the main themes effectively and understandably. Turner (editor, Hitler: Memoirs of a Confidant, Yale Univ., 1985) focuses on Hitler's actual accession to the chancellorship of Germany during January 1933. He is concerned with the main players in the politics of the takeover and in his final chapter provides an elegant summing-up of some possible answers to the enduring questions. Turner has used a variety of documentary sources, including materials newly available in the Moscow archives, to provide a model of scholarly work. Both books provide valuable insights for any library collection that includes European history; Turner's book is likely to be the definitive study of its subject for years to come.?Barbara L. Walden, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Perseus Books; 1st Printing edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201407140
• ISBN-13: 978-0201407143
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,843,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the very best books on Hitler's rise, February 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Hitler's Thirty Days To Power: Jan-33 (Paperback)

There is little I can say that would do justice to Turner's magisterial work. It is carefully researched and documented and is extraordinarily well-written. While it is very much a work of historical scholarship, it is also written with an eye toward an almost dramatic narrative style (without the embellishments which some of today's "popular historians" resort to). To be quite truthful, I got so absorbed by the book, I couldn't put it down. Of course, you know what happens in the end, but Turner's writing is so vivid and his analyses so keen that it is an absolutely riveting account. And Turner's general thesis--that Hitler's rise to power was anything but inevitable--is one that he proves (at least as far as I'm concerned) beyond a shadow of a doubt. Chance played a tremendous role, as did human error and personal folly and misjudgment. On the topic of personal folly, Turner's assessment of General Schleicher is justifiably harsh. It is almost unfathomable to ponder, for example, that Hitler's rise might not have happened had Franz von Papen not nursed an inner animosity toward Schleicher, which led him to collaboration with the Nazi leader. So many if's. But such is history. And as far as histories of the Third Reich go, those who want to understand how Hitler became Chancellor of Germany will turn to this phenomenal work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contingency Rules, February 9, 2007

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R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hitler's Thirty Days To Power: Jan-33 (Paperback)

This well written book is a case study of how luck, personalities, and even simple spite can have major effects. At the end of 1932, the Nazi party seemed to be on the threshold of decline. Its fraction of the electorate was slipping, its finances were in disarray, and there was considerable dissent from both rank and file and leaders of the party. Many were dissatisfied with Hitler's strategy of pursuing supremacy through electoral politics. Some sectors of the party wanted to pursue revolutionary violence, others, like the influential organizer Gregor Strasser, thought that Hitler was throwing away great opportunities by insisting on the Chancellorship instead of accepting important cabinet posts in right wing coalition governments. At the end of January, 1933, Hitler was ensconced as Chancellor, some of his loyal lieutenants, like Goring, occupied crucial cabinet posts, and Hitler was able to initiate the 'back door' revolution that resulted in the Nazi domination of Germany.

Hitler obtained the Chancellorship, in part, because of his obdurate refusal to accept anything less as the price of participation in a governing coalition, a product of his messianic self-confidence. Turner shows well that Hitler was handed the Chancellorship as a result of a series of backstairs plotting involving former Chancellor Papen and members of President Hindenberg's circle, notably his son Oskar. Hitler was greatly underestimated by these individuals, and was underestimated just as greatly by the then Chancellor, General von Schleicher. Hitler does deserve credit for his persistence and his ability to hold his party together but as Turner shows very well, he was phenomenally fortunate and was gifted the Chancellorship because of court politics motivated to a great extent by spite and petty jealousy.

Turner concludes with a nice and concise discussion of a counterfactual alternative to Hitler's ascent to power. As Turner points out, when democracy failed in the inter-war period, and it did so frequently, the usual result was an authoritarian state dominated by traditional conservatives and the military. Fascist movements were present in some of these countries and were incorporated into these regimes as traditional conservatives sought to draw on the popular support mobilized by fascist movements, but in Hungary, Romania, and Spain, the more traditional right/military remained in control. With more capable right wing leadership in Germany, this would have been the probable outcome. The result would have been an authoritarian but not totalitarian state, one that was anti-Semitic but not genocidal. The German state would certainly have rearmed and Turner suggests that the most likely outcome would have been a more limited war with Poland. His speculations are reasonable.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Hitler's Rise, November 29, 2000

By 

The Orange Duke "orangeduke" (Cupertino, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hitler's Thirty Days To Power: Jan-33 (Paperback)

An excellent explanation of how Hitler came to power in Germany. The best treatment of the last days before his appointment to chancellor that I have ever read. Puts the blame squarely where it belongs, on the shoulders of Hindenburg, Papen and Schleicher. Papen is treated with particular harshness. Also shows how petty personal disagreements can doom a nation. a stupendous book. A must read for anyone who thinks Hitler came to power democratically.