The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922-1945, Revised Edition Paperback – November 10, 2014

In "Nazi Seizure of Power" Allen gives us a well-researched and enlightening study of mankind's most repressive and cruel regime in history, down to the lowest level. His overarching thesis here is that the common belief that Hitler came to power on a national level is a misconception, and that without ardent supporters on the local level the Third Reich never came to be. This is an expansion of Allen's dissertation at, I believe, Michigan, and he conducted this research by perusing through Nazi records of the South Hanover-Brunswick "Gau," which had been classified as "uninteresting." (The revised edition uses these) He also utilized several local newspapers and interviews of about a dozen men and women who had been present in the town of Northeim during the Nazi rise to power and administration.

Although the book is definitely targeted toward an academic audience (I read it in my junior history workshop), and a working knowledge of German history is useful, anyone with more than a casual interest in history will find this monograph enlightening. Allen himself says that because studies on the Third Reich are usually conducted at a broad, national level, it usually scares some readers away. Due to the fact that this title concentrates on a shorter span of time (it really is more of 1930-1935 than it is 1922-1945) and a smaller cast of characters, it is much easier to digest.

Allen describes the intricate propaganda system that was employed and fine-tuned at the local level in Northeim, which based success on profits at meetings and used an elaborate social reinforcement system to appeal to the locals. He also describes in vivid detail the electioneering and the violence that accompanied it in the town between the SPD and Nazi party to detail his belief that further radicalization moved more of the townspeople to the extreme right. Another one of his cornerstone theses is that the highly stratied and divided social structure of the town, as well as rampant militarism, religion, and nationalism, were crucial prerequisites in the Nazi seizure of power. The NSDAP's promise of using extreme measures to eliminate disunity and address the effects of the Depression went a long way in ensuring their victory. Allen says that the townspeople really did not know what they were getting themselves into, and it wasn't til shortly after the Nazis consolidated power in the town that they realized this was in fact not what they had hoped for.

This is not only a study of history, but also a study in the fallibility of human nature, and how the weaknesses of the masses can be exploited by using pointed and finely tuned propaganda. Allen demonstrates that the Nazis knew exactly what to say it and when to say it, and in doing so, won the support of two in three citizens of Northeim. There is much to be learned from this book, and it is so much more than facts or statistics; in the "Nazi Seizure of Power," we learn that something as shockingly terrifying as the Nazi dictatorship can happen anywhere given the right circumstances and the right message. My only complaint about this book is that it is no longer in print.

World War II and the rise of Nazism in Germany are certainly two very well covered topics. However, most history books pertaining to them deal with Germany on the national level, and so skim over or skip many of the details and minutia that contributed to their development. This book fills that gap by providing a detailed account of the rise of the Nazi party in a single town, and what happened to it after Hitler came to power.

This book, while very interesting and informative, is not meant to be read cover to cover by someone simply wanting to learn about history. Because of the limited scope of the book's study, no detail is omitted, so that much of the text deals with the back and forth of rallies and counter-rallies held by the NSDAP, the SPD, and the various other German parties. Such level of detail is hardly necessary for the average reader, but these parts can easily be skimmed, and overall the book paints a very detailed and informative picture of what life in late Weimar era Germany, the later the Third Reich, was like. It provides detailed explanations of the workings of the Nazi propaganda machine, of what politics were like in that period, what the divisions in German society were and how they shaped events, and so forth. Things that would only be mentioned in overview in a typical book on German history are given the space they deserve here, and so provide a much better understanding of the lives and motivations of ordinary Germans. Furthermore, the book gives brief summaries of what events were happening on the national level at the time, so you always have a clear understanding of the larger forces which drove local sentiment and activities.

I highly recommend this book to those interested in German history, just be aware of the specific focus of this book, as this level of detail may be unnecessary in some cases. Otherwise, enjoy. On the whole, this book reads pretty easily and is much more enjoyable and less dense than most history books I've read.