Who were the Cassandra's in the lead up to Nazi Germany? Were there any public figures who accurately predicted the consequences of the third reich, or understood the severity of them gaining power and warned against it?

by elaineo_O

In hindsight it seems like it would not be out of the realm of possibility to see the severity of electing the Nazi party in germany before they gained power, and to understand it may result in serious consequences. Were there any public figures who predicted or warned of the consequences of the party? Who were they? Were they ignored? What was their fate?

Chip_Douglass
GeistHeller

This might be slightly outside the scope of your question, but Jacques Bainville wrote a book in 1920 called "The Political Consequences of Peace" in which he predicted the following:

  • The collapse of trust between the former Entente members as each member would go back to its former ways.
  • The fragility of a peace & new european order based on Wilson 14 points without serious commitment of the USA in the League of Nation.
  • The collapse of the Weimar Republic and the eventual rise of a "providential man" capable of reigniting the flame of Prussian Militarism, which had merely been forced to "hibernate" in a society frustrated by a defeat its own population did not believe in.
  • The utilisation by a remilitarized Germany of the "peoples right to self-determination" as a casus belly or powerful tool of political pressure against Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland and the western allies.
  • The Anschluss.
  • The incapacity of France & Britain to align their strategic goals when it comes to preserving peace in Europe.
  • The erroneousness of Keynes economical approach to his analysis of the post-WW1 balance of power.
  • The inevitability of a soviet-german treaty as both were diplomatic pariahs and had a common historical enemy in the form of Poland.
  • A German-Polish War with Danzig as trigger.

Jacques Bainville had a large influence in France, especially amongst conservative circles, but his work was more or less completely overshadowed by Keynes carthaginian peace theories on the international stage during the interwar era.

He died in 1936, to early to witness the "prophetic" nature of his work, but others did " reap the benefits". When Pétain came to power in 1940, the nationalist & conservative elements that had for two decades denounced appeasement & disarmament policies were nearly untouchable politically, until their own political shortsightedness and gross misunderstanding of the true intents of Hitler came to light.

You can read his book translated in English over here.