The German Right, 1918–1930: Political Parties, Organized Interests, and Patriotic Associations in the Struggle against Weimar Democracy

The failure of the Weimar Republic and the rise of National Socialism remains one of the most challenging problems of twentieth-century European history. The German Right, 1918–1930 sheds new light on this problem by examining the role that the non-Nazi Right played in the destabilization of Weimar democracy in the period before the emergence of the Nazi Party as a mass party of middle-class protest. Larry Eugene Jones identifies a critical divide within the German Right between those prepared to work within the framework of Germany's new republican government and those irrevocably committed to its overthrow. This split was only exacerbated by the course of German economic development in the 1920s, leaving the various organizations that comprised the German Right defenceless against the challenge of National Socialism. At no point was the disunity of the non-Nazi Right in the face of Nazism more apparent than in the September 1930 Reichstag elections.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. Setting the context; 1. Revolution and realignment; 2. Infrastructure of the German right; 3. Forging a conservative synthesis; 4. Growth and consolidation; 5. The radical right; 6. 1923: a missed opportunity?; 7. From triumph to schism; 8. Stabilization from the right?; 9. Paladins of the right; 10. The forces of national revival; 11. The road back to power; 12. The burden of responsibility; 13. From defeat to crisis; 14. Reverberations and realignment; 15. The chimera of right-wing unity; 16. Schism and fragmentation; 17. The Brüning gambit; 18. The September earthquake; Conclusion. The price of disunity.

About the Author :
Larry Eugene Jones is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, where he has taught since 1968. His previous publications include the award-winning German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Party System, 1918-1933 (1988) and Hitler versus Hindenburg: The 1932 Presidential Elections and the End of the Weimar Republic (2015).

Review :
'This excellent study of the German National People's Party and the conservative Protestant milieu asks why German conservatism failed to adapt to Weimar democracy after 1919. By tracing the right over the long term, Jones deepens our understanding of its inability to provide what Nazism offered, the emotional commitment to national unity.' Shelley Baranowski, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of Akron, Ohio 'Larry Eugene Jones has long been in the front rank of historians of Weimar politics. His insightful new book on the German Right is a worthy companion to his earlier classic on the role of the nation's liberal parties in the rise of Nazism - and just as indispensable.' Peter Hayes, Professor Emeritus of German History, Northwestern University, Illinois 'This book is essential reading on Weimar's experiment in democracy and on the strategy to 'tame' Hitler and the Nazis. Based on a prodigious array of archival sources, Jones shows how political history should be written, with due attention to continuity and rupture. A stunning achievement.' James Retallack, University of Toronto 'This brings together a lifetime of research and the most advanced analysis of the democratic dilemma of German conservatism in the Weimar Republic. The failure to bridge the divide between political stabilization from the Right and outright national opposition prevented Weimar's transformation into a Tory Democracy. A timely reminder against the recent trend to write the 'history of democracy' with the politics left out.' Bernd Weisbrod, University of Göttingen 'Larry Eugene Jones's remarkable study of the German Right in the Weimar Republic constitutes an authoritative English-language history of this tremendously important and consequential subject. Based on a vast array of source material compiled over years of research from over thirty different public and private archives, as well as hundreds of other sources, it is hard to imagine another scholar matching the erudition that Jones offers his readers on this subject.' Barry Jackisch, German Studies Review '… Jones presents the most detailed and comprehensive history of 'the Right' in Weimar to date … His [narration] closely follows the twists and turns of the party's fortunes, and there is no doubt that this book will be the standard treatment of the political history of the German Right … this will remain an indispensable point of reference for historians of Weimar …' Frank Biess, H-Soz-Kult '… the broad contours of this story are well known to specialists, [but] the richness of Jones's research offers up new insights … a remarkable scholarly monograph.' Anthony McElligott, Journal of Modern History