David Clay Large

The capital of the Nazi movement was not Berlin but Munich. So said the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, of this handsome Bavarian town on the banks of the lsar River. Munich, the city of baroque buildings, fine art museums, and Oktoberfest, was where Hitler felt most at home. lt was the birthplace of Nazism and became the chief cultura! shrine of the Third Reich. Why did Nazism flourish in the "Athens of the lsar"? In exploring this question, Davic Clay Large has written a compelling narrative account of the cultura! roots of the Nazi movement. His focus on Munich allows us to see that the conventional explanations for the movement's rise are not enough. Germany's defeat in World War l, the deep resentment of the Versailles peace settlement, the failure of Weimar, and the economie strains of the 1930s ali have their piace. So too does Munich's unique experience with revolutionary violence in 1918-19 when "soviet" regimes seized control of the city and then collapsed. But for Large the story is not only politica! but cultura!. The roots of Nazism run deeper than the topsoil of politica! circumstance.… (meer)