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What Was Hitler’s Allure?

“Why does the name ‘Hitler’ still hold this magical fascination?” Cornelia Günther reviews only the second exhibition in Germany ever dedicated to Adolf Hitler.
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“‘Hitler and the Germans. Nation and Crime’ at the Deutsches Historisches Museum is only the second exhibition in Germany ever dedicated to Adolf Hitler. It seeks to answer what is perhaps the country’s most pressing question: why did the nation follow him? As the title of this exhibition implies and as its curators emphasise, Hitler’s rise to power cannot be explained without considering his support among the German people. Sir Ian Kershaw, a British biographer of Hitler and member of the exhibition’s board of historians, has classified this relationship as one that was near religious, like people with a messiah. Hitler offered a way for Germans to regain their pride after the degrading fallout from the Treaty of Versailles and the struggles of the Great Depression.”

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