Letters

Never underestimate the beginnings of things, no matter how insignificant; the bad and the good are often indistinguishable in their embryonic stage. But all the more reason to pay close attention to them, because the bad ones may lead to the destruction of what was once seen as indestructible.

A nano-sized virus from a sick critter (or laboratory) has thrown America into deathly chaos. And, under the cover of chaos, emboldened hordes scaled the walls of the Capitol. It had all the visual impact of a medieval tableau, minus the molten tar pouring down on the mob from the battlements of this edifice of American democracy.

However, it did not come as a surprise, because for most everything man does, there are precedents. History taught those disinclined to trust that “things will work out,” that the best possible outcome will “in the end” prevail, not to rely on hope. The downside of optimism ignores what can lie between the very beginnings and the very end.

The 6th of January reminded me of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, a/k/a the Munich Putsch, which ushered in Nazism. Germany, then, as America now, was a politically deeply fragmented country, in an unprecedented economic crisis, with unemployment around 40 percent. The putsch was a failed coup d’état by the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler and others of a fledgling young party during the early years of the newly established democracy of the Weimar Republic.

About 2,000 Nazis marched toward Munich’s Feldherrenhalle. In the ensuing confrontation with the police, 16 Nazi Party members and four police officers were killed. Hitler was injured but escaped. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.

The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of Germans for the first time and generated worldwide headlines. His arrest was followed by a widely publicized trial, which he used to expound on his party’s program. Found guilty of treason, he was sentenced to five years in prison, and used the time to write “Mein Kampf.”

Released after nine months, he reorganized and focused on obtaining power through democratic legal means rather than revolutionary force — though, out of sight, the violence continued unabated, with bloody skirmishes and assassinations of critics in the streets of Germany.

In 1933, Hitler, as leader of the largest party in parliament, was appointed chancellor. His enablers, holding their noses, planned on controlling him while using his popular appeal for their own agenda. Meanwhile, he, a disciplined tactician, set about to undo the Weimar Constitution, while murder and political assassinations escalated, protected by lies and secrecy, and the highest court in the land, packed with loyalists, was rendered useless.

He was in control until 1945.

Heide Löfken

Southampton