Paul Joseph Goebels, Hitler's close associate and propaganda minister wrote: "We come to the Reichstag not as friends, not as neutrals, but as enemies. The National Socialist [Nazi] plan to use this arsenal of democracy to bring it down . . . we are committed to the legality of means, not of ends."

(The true name of Hitler's party was National Socialist German Worker's Party, NSDAP. They did not like and did not use the nickname of NAZI. I use it here for clarity.)

The how and why of the Hitler phenomenon is the most provocative question of the 20^th century, but to cover it fully would require discussion of at least four categories of historical factors:

1) The three significant revolutions of the last 300 years, (American, French, Russian) and their consequential reinventing of social order. 

2) World War I and the Treaty of Versailles with the resulting affect on Germany.

3) Hitler's alliance with other powers in Germany . . .the reason the German people were helpless to stop him. This is illustrated in my book Silent Coup.

4) The nuts and bolts of how Hitler took the democracy apart: His semi-legal actions which destroyed the democracy from within, using the democracies own tools.

At this time I am interested only the fourth category because it is the most instructive to our own democracy.

The drive to overturn the German democracy and replace it with a Nazi dictatorship was not an accident, not the rambling of a mad man, not will of dissatisfied Germans. It was a well planned, ten-year campaign in which the Nazis planned exactly what they would do, how they would do it, and built the organization to carry it out. A Nazi "war plan" for solidifying power, known as the Boxheimer Documents, was even made public when one Nazi deputy named Schafer turned copies over to the Frankfurt police. At the very least these documents were evidence that the Nazis were willing to commit high treason. Unfortunately any effective response to this information was lost in a confusion of political considerations and nothing was done to stop the upcoming coup.

The Nazi's plan was put into action when President Paul von Hindenburg was persuaded by many factors to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Chief among the proponents of this appointment was Franz von Papen, a right-wing politician who had greater ambition than he had brilliance. Unable to defeat the left-wing without Hitler, von Papen assured Hindenburg that the conservatives would keep Hitler under control. Von Papen told critics of the appointment: "In two months we'll have driven Hitler so far into a corner that he'll squeak."

On January 30, 1933 Hindenburg officially named Hitler as German Chancellor. The stage was set and just as Goebels had promised, the Nazis would " . . . use this arsenal of democracy to bring it down . . ."

Next: Hitler's first move.