Fateful Hours

Democracies are fragile. Freedoms that seem secure can be lost. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic. Germany's first democracy endured for fourteen tumultuous years and culminated with the horrific rise of the Third Reich. As one commentator wrote in July 1933: Hitler had 'won the game with little effort. . . . All he had to do was huff and puff-and the edifice of German politics collapsed like a house of cards.' But this tragedy was not inevitable.