February 2026 "Patterns of Oppression" by Will Williams

     On August 11^th, 1919, the first president of the Weimar Republic of Germany, Friedrich Ebert, signed into effect the Weimar Constitution. This constitution detailed a representative democracy with provisions commonplace in many governments of this sort. Nationally, power was split between the executive and legislative branches. The executive branch consisted of a nationally elected president and a chancellor who was appointed by the president and was required to cosign on all legislation with the president to bring it into law. The legislative branch consisted of a bicameral Congress consisting of regionally elected representatives. Along with this system of government, the new constitution specified strong civil rights for all citizens, including suffrage for women, freedom of expression and assembly, rights to private property, and a system of due process very similar that of modern America.

     To understand how this progressive republic, in only a decade, gave way to the authoritarian Nazi regime, it is important to know the holes in the Weimar Constitution that allowed for the manipulation and abuse of the rule of law until there was none left. The German economy was in shambles after World War One, with much of the infrastructure of the country being severely damaged, which was only worsened by the complete lack of economic regulation by the Weimar Republic and resulting wealth accumulation of the elite. The market was moving, but only towards those who needed capital the least. This created a tangible atmosphere of discontent amongst Germans, who began to question the legitimacy of this new government and its ability to improve their lives in this reconstruction period. The second area of weakness of the Weimar Constitution was highlighted by the rise to power of one Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Worker’s Party, known colloquially as Nazis. Under the shadow of the Great Depression and existing economic turmoil in the country, Hitler placed himself opposite the Weimar Republic, specifically prominent political parties like the Communists, and promised to lead the German people to a prosperous future. By January of 1933, Hitler had been appointed chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg, a conservative who thought bringing a Nazi into the chancellorship would help keep the communists out of power.

     Once this happened, the stage was set, and the path to dictatorship was short. Hitler had created for himself a cult of personality, in which many Germans viewed him as their righteous savior. From this, he was able to easily antagonize leftist and communist political groups as enemies of the German state. All Hitler had left to do was seize total control of the government, from which no one would bat an eye. Many see the Reichstag fire as the event that would allow Hitler to follow through with his power grab. On the night of February 27^th, 1933, the Reichstag building, where the national legislature was held, was burnt down, an act which was quickly blamed on the Communist Party. When Hitler heard of the incident, he said, “If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the Communists, then we must crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist.” The following morning, he pushed President Hindenburg to invoke Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which enacted martial law and stripped every German citizen of their basic constitutional freedoms. With the help of his stormtroopers, protests were stamped out, the free press was abolished, and the “enemies” of the state, the communists, were arrested en masse. Many of the 81 communists in the national legislature were arrested, leaving many empty seats and giving the Nazi party greater control of government. On March 23^rd, 1933, the Enabling Act was passed, which gave Hitler and his cabinet direct legislative authority. By this time, over 40,000 political opponents of the Nazis had been arrested and sent to concentration camps. By April 1945, the Nazis murdered over six million alleged enemies of the German people, including Jews, communists, Romani, homosexuals, and people of color.

     The fascist reign of the Third Reich that followed Hitler’s rise to power is amongst the most inhumane examples of such that have been seen in modern history, but it is far from the only. Oligarchical leanings, nationalist sentiments, and democratic collapse have been mainstays on the world stage for the past 200 years, for as long as democracies themselves have manifested. Perhaps it is ingrained in the human instinct of survival that liberty, freedom, and justice for all are sentiments easily discarded by some who are in positions to make for their own gain, despite the sake of all others. Or perhaps, more simply, it is that empathy towards fellow humans is one of the more complex human psychological phenomena, one which may easily be lost if not nurtured. Either way, oppression is as old a theme for humanity as love, but the ability to fight came much more recently, and this ability is quintessential to understand as to become self-deterministic in your own life.