Some people didn’t take Hitler seriously, either
How’d that go?
1922 The New York Times writes about Adolf Hitler for the first time. The piece cited “several reliable, well-informed sources” who claimed his “anti-Semitism was not so genuine” and he was “merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch the masses.”
1923 Hitler attempts a coup d’état in Munich, which fails spectacularly — landing him and his accomplices in jail. While imprisoned he writes Mein Kampf, which sells millions.
1924 After serving just nine months of a five-year sentence, Hitler had been “tamed” by jail, according to authorities, and was “no longer to be feared.” He was released on parole.
1930 Upon release Hitler works to seize power through legal and democratic means. After an election was called, the Nazi party increased their seats in German parliament from 12 to 107. It was now the second largest political party in Germany.
Few saw it coming. The French were “disturbed” by the outcome. (Turns out, rightly so.) And in Germany, it “came as a great shock to many who were considered good judges of German political opinion.” Americans were shocked too: A New York Times piece lamented how six months prior, such an outcome was difficult to imagine.
1931 Hitler runs in the presidential election and Dorothy Thompson, a highly esteemed American political writer, interviewed him in Germany, noting that
“People who had laughed at Hitler a year ago now said ‘There’s a great deal of a man.’”
Describing her first impressions of him, though, it took Thompson just 50 seconds “to measure the startling insignificance of this man who has set the world agog.” When she asked what he’d do if he won the election, Hitler openly admitted his plan for dictatorship saying:
That’s transparency, for sure, but to Thompson it seemed ridiculous to think Hitler could ever achieve such a feat. She said later, “It is highly improbable that in this case he will succeed in putting through any of his more radical plans in respect to the constitution.” In fact, Hitler lost the presidential election to the incumbent, Paul von Hindenburg.
1933 Hidenberg reluctantly appoints Hitler as chancellor. A coalition government had been formed, with Alfred Hugenberg who thought he could “box Hitler in.” Thompson predicted Hitler would be “extinguished between two prelates” (Hindenburg and Hugenberg.) Some even saw Hugenberg as the real threat, a person who might “reach for unlimited power.”
The article above said it was predicted that when Hitler’s name recalls merely a passing phase, Hugenberg’s would still be well known as a significant historical figure.
1934 Hitler successfully seizes absolute power by 1934 and does what he had told Dorothy Thompson he would do—and ejects Thompson from Germany for good measure. The same year Hugenberg left government and president Hidenburg died, allowing Hitler to assume the presidency. And thus begins the horrific “passing phase.”
1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meets with Hitler, who agrees to sign the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain hoped this would keep the peace and avert war.
When Chamberlain returned to Britain he held up the agreement to a waiting press and declared “Peace for our time.” A year later, guess what? Hitler invaded Poland and World War 2 began.
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