Takeover

From the internationally acclaimed author of Hitler's Private Library, this book offers a dramatic recounting of the six critical months before Adolf Hitler seized power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin.

In the summer of 1932, the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse. One in three Germans was unemployed, and violence was rampant. Hitler's National Socialists surged at the polls. Paul von Hindenburg, an aging war hero and avowed monarchist, was a reluctant president bound by oath to uphold the constitution. The November elections offered Hitler the prospect of a Reichstag majority and the path to political power. However, the Nazis lost two million votes. As membership dwindled and financial backers withdrew, the Nazi Party threatened to fracture. Hitler even talked of suicide, and The New York Times declared he was finished. Yet somehow, in a few brief weeks, he became chancellor of Germany.

In fascinating detail and with previously unaccessed archival materials, Timothy W. Ryback tells the remarkable story of Hitler's dismantling of democracy through democratic processes. He provides fresh perspectives and insights into Hitler's personal and professional lives during these months, highlighting the complexity and uncertainty of backroom deals, unlikely alliances, stunning betrayals, an ill-timed tax audit, and a fateful weekend that changed our world forever. Above all, Ryback details why a wearied Hindenburg, who disdained the "Bohemian corporal," ultimately decided to appoint Hitler chancellor in January 1933. Within weeks, Germany was no longer a democracy.