The threat to Weimar - by Ari Sclar

“Whoever has learned from the events of the past five years knows that it is not the nationalists and the monarchists who represent the real danger but the absence of substantive content and ideas in the concept of the German republic…Our republic is not yet an object of mass consciousness. Around this state, lacking any ideas and with an eternally guilty conscience, there are grouped a couple of so-called constitutional parties, likewise lacking an idea and with no better conscience, which do not lead but administer.”

• Carl von Ossietzky, “Defending the Republic: The Great Fashion,” 1924

1. How is Ossietzky’s point of view of the Weimar Republic reflected in his warning about a ‘real danger’? What is this danger? Provide TWO examples of ‘the events of the past five years’ to support your answer.

1. Does the mention of ‘guilty conscience’ and lack of ‘mass consciousness’ in the passage help explain the appeal of the Nazi Party in the 1920s?

1. How does the passage help to understand the Nazi Party rise to power in the 1930s? Cite and explain TWO policies adopted by the Nazis in power that this passage helps to understand.