Book Reviews : The Third Reich. Edited by MAURICE BAUMONT, JOHN H. E. FRIED, and EDMOND VERMEIL. Introduction by JACQUES RUEFF. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger. 1955. Pp. xv, 910. $9.00.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900128
• Author: Robert G.L. Waite
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• Subject Matter: Articles

193

sentative.

The

omission

of

this

fact

is

mystifying

for

the

author

is

certainly

aware

of

it,

but

in

any

event

the

treatment

of

the

CGT

fission

should

be

supplemented

by

reading

the

recently

published

American

Labor

and

the

International

Labor

Movement:

1940-1953,

by

John

P.

Windmuller.

Haverford

College.

JOHN

P.

ROCHE.

The

Third

Reich.

Edited

by

MAURICE

BAUMONT,

JOHN

H.

E.

FRIED,

and

EDMOND

VERMEIL.

Introduction

by

JACQUES

RUEFF.

(New

York:

Fred-

erick

A.

Praeger.

1955.

Pp.

xv,

910.

$9.00.)

On

the

evening

of

May

first

ten

years,

those

Germans

who

were

still

alive

and

could

listen

to

their

radios

heard

somber

strains

of

the

Gotter-

ddmmerung

and

then

the

staggering

announcement

that

the

Ffhrer

was

dead.

Seven

days

later,

the

curtain

crashed

down

in

the

Wagnerian

finale,

and

the

most

amazing

drama

of

recent

history

was

over.

The

challenging

task

of

unraveling

the

causes

of

National

Socialism

was

left

to

the

his-

torians.

The

present

massive

volume

is

one

such

attempt

to

give

-

in

the

words

of

the

dust

jacket

-

a

&dquo;comprehensive

account

of

the

National

Socialist

movement

from

its

philosophical

origins

in

the

nineteenth-century

...

to

the

political

policies

which

the

Nazis

pursued....&dquo;

To

fulfill

this

ambitious

objective,

the

International

Council

for

Phi-

losophy

and

Humanistic

Studies

invited

twenty-seven

historians

from

five

countries

to

contribute

essays.

The

first,

and

most

valuable,

part

of

this

international

symposium

deals

with

the

origins

of

the

Third

Reich.

Among

the

many

questions

raised

by

the

essays

is

the

ancient

historical

problem

of

the

relative

importance

of

continuity

versus

change

as

factors

in

the

historical

process.

Professor

Gerhard

Ritter

of

Freiburg,

one

of

the

most

influential

German

historians

writing

today,

contributes

an

essay

which

is

a

flat

denial

of

the

continuity

thesis.

Ritter

insists

that

Germany

was

unprepared

for

the

rise

of

Hitler;

that

nazism

was

a

system

foreign

to

the

traditions

of

German

history;

and

that

the

&dquo;historical

origins

of

Hitlerism

are

to

be

found

outside

the

Reich.&dquo;

Indeed

he

argues

that

the

Third

Reich

&dquo;did

not

represent

a

culmination

but

rather

the

contradiction

of

tradition.&dquo;

Given

this

position,

it

is

understandably

difficult

for

Professor

Ritter

to

discuss

the

crucial

question

of

modern

German

history:

why

did

the

cul-

turally

advanced

Germans

participate

so

enthusiastically

in

a

system

of

calculated

barbarism

which

was,

according

to

Ritter,

the

very

negation

of

Germany’s

past?

Other

German

historians

take

exception

to

Professor

Ritter’s

analysis

and

stress

the

essential

continuity

of

German

intellectual

history.

Professor

Litt

of

Bonn

University,

in

a

brilliant

study

of

&dquo;National

Socialist

Use

of

Moral

Tendencies

in

Germany,&dquo;

shows

that

the

Nazis

succeeded

precisely