Timothy S. Brown . Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance . (Monographs in German History, number 28.) New York : Berghahn Books . 2009 . Pp. xii, 213. $90.00.

Abstract

Ever since the breakdown of the Weimar Republic, protagonists, observers, and scholars have been particularly interested in the violent clash between Nazis and communists. For a long time, however, rather simple narratives of this story were predominant. During the Cold War, the Marxist tale of “anti-fascism” competed with positions informed by the theory of totalitarianism. In recent years, this debate has changed. Today, neither the failure of the Weimar Republic nor the experiences of totalitarian extremism need to be pressed into service to validate political legitimization. The Weimar Republic no longer plays its earlier dominant role as a paradigm for a democracy's loss of power and the “pincer” attack of two anti-democratic movements. Timothy S. Brown's book fits well into this important tendency that focuses on cultural and actor-oriented aspects of Weimar politics. It is more concerned with argument, moral persuasion, and conversion than with the political history of Nazism and communism. Concentrating on the crucial period from 1930 to 1934, the key concept is that each of the radical movements tried to “stage elements of the radicalism associated with the other” (p. 5). In this perspective, the undeniable and much observed overlaps between Nazis and communists came from the effort of each of the two movements to appeal to the rank and file of the other side by performing their own political language and symbols. Nazis employed “leftist” notions like class, while communists tried to embrace “rightist” arguments and symbols based on terms like “nation” or even “race.” By trying to outbid each other on these platforms both movements contributed to the general radicalization of Weimar political culture.