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The Oligarchs Who Came to Regret Supporting Hitler (www.theatlantic.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by owlinsight@lemm.ee to c/history@lemmy.world
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By then Hitler no longer needed either Hugenberg’s corporate contacts or his Reichstag delegates. The bankers and industrialists who had once shunned the crass, divisive, right-wing extremist had gradually come to embrace him as a bulwark against the pro-union Social Democrats and the virulently anti-capitalist Communists.

Six months earlier, three weeks before Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, the banker Kurt Baron von Schröder had met with Hitler at Schröder’s villa in a fashionable quarter of Cologne. The arrangements were cloak-and-dagger: Hitler made an unscheduled, early-morning exit from a train in Bonn, entered a hotel, ate a quick breakfast, then departed in a waiting car with curtained rear windows to be driven to the Schröder villa while a decoy vehicle drove in the opposite direction.

Hitler walked out of the meeting with a 30 million reichsmark credit line that saved his political movement from bankruptcy. Once Hitler was in power, there was no longer need for secrecy or subterfuge.

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[-] teft@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Hitler addressed the assembled corporate elite, warning of the dangers of communism and trumpeting his appointment as chancellor as a “great victory” that he saw as a mandate for radical change.

Gee, I wonder who else I can think of whose "great victory is a mandate for radical change".

After Hitler departed, Schacht spoke of the need for additional campaign financing in advance of the upcoming elections. Hermann Göring added that the election, scheduled for March 5, “will surely be the last one for the next 10 years, probably even for the next 100 years.” By day’s end, the fundraiser had generated 3 million reichsmarks, the equivalent of $15 million today.

Seeing any parallels with modern times?

[-] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

Hehe, we here all already know. We knew it even before he ran for president the first time. He has literally never hidden it, he says out loud his favourite book is mien kampf, his favourite people are dictators, he has specifically said he admires the way they do things. The only time he denies it is when he has to compulsively lie about it because someone asked him a direct question. If no one is talking to him and he is just freely ranting, basically everything he says aligns with nazi ideology.

His compulsive lying somehow seems to throw off his followers, or gives them the ability to pretend they don't feel the same way as him in public and cite all his lies as the reasons they really voted for him... either way.

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago

Do we have to go that far back? Haven't putins early supporters suffered from sudden severe impact syndrome?

[-] owlinsight@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

Do we have to go that far back?

...this is quite literally the community about history. If you don't care, you are not obliged to participate :)

Haven't putins early supporters suffered from sudden severe impact syndrome?

Those are more current events, so not really the place for that

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago

woa woa. My comment was not meant to be dismissive or to argue against you posting. Sorry if it seemed that way. Was more my way of saying its not an isolated thing and its so surprising the folks that will support these guys and not be knowledgeable enough to know its a bad move.

[-] owlinsight@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago

Oh I see then, thanks for the explanation. I'm not great at understanding the tone of online comments so now I understand better what you meant! Indeed there would be countless other examples throughout history of similar events :)

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

I mean your likely fine. Online is incredibly hard because its text and you don't know the person. When talking its so often a friend or at least someone from your area so the way of talking might be more similar. I think of the southern bless your heart thing. Im pretty sure that was a sincere thing a few decades ago but not its considered some sort of backhanded compliment. folks are wierd.

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Yup. Just saw an interview of an oligarch who invested early in Gasprom and didn‘t make a dime. How? Because all profits went directly to one of Putin‘s bank accounts. I think that‘s what’s what the USA will go through too. Record profits but everyone but the very very top loses big time.

this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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