Confronting Hitler By William Smaldone: Summary

In Confronting Hitler, William Smaldone traces the ebb and flow of power in Weimar Germany - illuminating a tragic tale of various ideological fractures and political failures by the German Social Democratic Party(SPD). Constructing and analyzing ten critical biographies of the SPD’s most prominent leaders, Smaldone reveals the aspects of these activists' lives that proved most consequential in shaping their political outlook during Weimar's final crisis. Through these narratives, a case-study is formed in order to better understand the collapse of various promising democratic-socialist movements throughout the 20th century. Furthermore, it becomes clear in the case of Weimar, that the failure of the Social Democrats to defend the republic

Expertly illuminating the blunders by SPD leadership — Smaldone details the disconnect between the ideology of the Social Democrats and the party’s first actions at the helm of Weimar leadership. As Friedrich Ebert, a more moderate Social Democrat, assumed the Presidency of the republic, he quickly utilized paramilitary troops “including radical anti-Communist volunteer units” to brutally crush Communist opposition to the more moderate leftism of the SPD. This early action by Ebert, not only was a demonstration of violence against fellow members of the broader coalition of German labor, but it severely undermined the Republic’s legitimacy. Moreover, even when the SPD’s policy did coincide with their ideological framework, the party leadership was often plagued by political lassitude - especially in the final years of the Weimar Republic. In 1928 leaders like Rudolf Breitscheid, the co-chairman of the Reichstag delegation, had to contend with various SPD ministers in order to maintain discipline and order within the party. As a result of this lack of internal cohesion, Breitscheid had failed on his party’s promise to deliver