Ben Wilson

He is a solid conservative who regarded Adolf Hitler as a gauche, fringe upstart.

And from 1930 to 1933, he is the central obstacle to Hitler rising to power.

So between 1930 and 1933, German politics descend into almost unbelievable chaos.

It's like a fever dream.

To give you a sense of the street-level violence, in July of 1932, in a single month, just July of 1932, not all of 1932, just July,

there were 86 political murders in germany 86 all right think about charlie kirk who was killed in utah last year and like that felt so crazy that someone was being murdered for his politics in the united states or when you know the attempted assassinations against donald trump

They had 86 of those in a single month.

And most of these are between the national socialists, between the NSDAP, and the communists, the Marxists.

So it's the far right and the far left who are battling with one another.

Okay, so how does this all break down?

Okay, so the thing to understand, I've told you about the chancellor and about the president.

The president is actually the one who appoints the chancellor.

And generally,

He will appoint that chancellor from the biggest party in the Reichstag.

So generally you'll have elections.

No single party will get over 50%.

And so the parties will have to talk to each other and form a coalition.

And then the president von Hindenburg will go to the largest party within that coalition and say, okay, who do you want to be chancellor?

They'll give him a name and he will appoint that person chancellor.

Sometimes.