In Weimar Republic 2.0 (2022), I traced the threads tying the collapse of the Weimar Republic (1919‑1933) to the fraying edges of modern democracy. Like a compass in a storm, pointing out the shoals and reefs that could lie hidden beneath familiar waters. Weimar did not implode in a single night of dramatic fireworks; it unraveled in small, human‑sized blunders, the sort that make history sigh and mutter, “I told you so.” ...
The Weimar Republic—that plucky little democratic experiment that popped up in Germany after the Kaiser buggered off and everyone else was too busy starving to argue. It’s become the go-do historical analogy for every hand-wringer who thinks the rise of the far-right in Europe or the occasional American political tantrum means we’re all doomed to replay the 1930s. But let’s be real: history doesn’t repeat itself. At best, it drunkenly stumbles into the same pub, orders the same drink, and then vomits on the carpet in a slightly different pattern. ...