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A review by swaggle
The German Opposition to Hitler by Hans Rothfels
challenging
reflective
3.0
Hans Rothfels argues in this essay that there was a widespread opposition to Hitler. Although for obvious reasons this opposition could not manifest as a "mass movement", there were many local underground cells and significant resistances to Hitler's war aims before the war had even started, and throughout the war, dispelling notions that it was the threat of defeat which spurred resistance to action.
Rothfels argues resistance was a very nuanced and diverse, yet concrete program of resistance and ideas of a post-war Germany. Various players in the opposition are mentioned, each with unique methods of how to act against Hitler. Johannes Popitz, for example, who tried to convince Goering and Himmler to move against Hitler; or Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, whose religious morality led him to act to undermine Hitler in a radical new vision for Germany, knowing a return to Weimar era Germany would be a mistake, and a fresh approach based in Christian spirituality would need to completely uproot the challenge brought by Hitler's apparent secularism. Some of these men believed in a State Socialism for Germany while others argued for as little change to economic life as possible and keeping a neo-liberal economy in new social and international times. However all, from conservative, liberal, christian, socialist, young and old, shared the ideal of restored order and human dignity.
Religious elements of the opposition are highly emphasized in this work, even many of the socialists are a mixture of strong Catholics, Protestants and Evangelicals and that major leaders of the Kreisau circle such as Helmuth James Graf von Moltke would claim that purely moral principles were insufficient and that a belief in God was necessary to be an enemy of Hitler's regime. (p. 114) It may be that Rothfels is potentially biased towards religious opposition in his narrative. Otherwise he would have you believe nearly all of the valuable opposition to Hitler rallied around a Christian ethos of morality and all plans for a post-war Germany were infused with Christian ideals and morals.
Rothfels argues resistance was a very nuanced and diverse, yet concrete program of resistance and ideas of a post-war Germany. Various players in the opposition are mentioned, each with unique methods of how to act against Hitler. Johannes Popitz, for example, who tried to convince Goering and Himmler to move against Hitler; or Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, whose religious morality led him to act to undermine Hitler in a radical new vision for Germany, knowing a return to Weimar era Germany would be a mistake, and a fresh approach based in Christian spirituality would need to completely uproot the challenge brought by Hitler's apparent secularism. Some of these men believed in a State Socialism for Germany while others argued for as little change to economic life as possible and keeping a neo-liberal economy in new social and international times. However all, from conservative, liberal, christian, socialist, young and old, shared the ideal of restored order and human dignity.
Religious elements of the opposition are highly emphasized in this work, even many of the socialists are a mixture of strong Catholics, Protestants and Evangelicals and that major leaders of the Kreisau circle such as Helmuth James Graf von Moltke would claim that purely moral principles were insufficient and that a belief in God was necessary to be an enemy of Hitler's regime. (p. 114) It may be that Rothfels is potentially biased towards religious opposition in his narrative. Otherwise he would have you believe nearly all of the valuable opposition to Hitler rallied around a Christian ethos of morality and all plans for a post-war Germany were infused with Christian ideals and morals.