Ben Wilson

You need to be building for the future and building for a time when, you know, you don't know when people will be open to your message.

You don't know when what you have to say or what you have to offer the world is going to catch on.

But you're going to build now when it seems like the world isn't ready because that day will come eventually.

And if you haven't built, then the moment is going to pass you by, right?

So start now, build for the future, be ready when your time comes.

Okay, so how does the time arrive for Hitler?

On October 3rd, 1929, Gustav Stresemann, the only real statesman in the Reichstag, the only impressive figure that people really rallied behind, died following a stroke.

And then three weeks later, on October 24th, 1929, the largest stock market in the world, Wall Street, New York, crashed.

And with it, the global economy just came crashing down.

It leads to a total crisis, not just in Germany, but everywhere.

And this was the crisis that Hitler was waiting for.

American loans to Germany, which had been the financial lifeblood of the Weimar Republic's recovery, were recalled overnight.

Businesses failed, banks collapsed, unemployment, which had been declining steadily since the mid 1920s, shot upward with terrifying speed.

By January 1930, working age unemployment had crossed 14%.

By the peak in 1932, nearly half of the workforce was either fully or partially unemployed.

Okay?

Half.

What does that mean?

It means soup kitchens.

It means bread lines.