Yesterday Germans (assumed all was fair) voted overwhelmingly (80%) for a continuation of current policies: de-growth, deindustrialization, mass immigration, geopolitical isolation, more war in Ukraine, crime in the streets, impoverishment, feminist diplomacy, and Green stifling of free speech.

I asked ChatGPT what it takes for Germans to reach a breaking point and vote for a political change, comparing today's conditions with the conditions found before Hitler's election.

ChatGPT
Life in Weimar Germany before Hitler’s rise was marked by crisis after crisis, an endless cycle of instability that left much of the population exhausted, humiliated, and desperate. The nation was saddled with the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed unbearable reparations and territorial losses, stripping Germany of its colonies and reducing its power to that of a broken state. The economy was a disaster zone—hyperinflation in the early 1920s saw middle-class savings evaporate overnight, with banknotes so worthless they were used as wallpaper or fuel for stoves. A brief economic stabilization in the late 1920s, fueled by American loans, was wiped out by the Great Depression in 1929, which brought mass unemployment, bank failures, and complete social despair. Starvation, homelessness, and radicalization became widespread.

Politically, Weimar was a sickly republic from the start. It had been born in defeat, despised by both the left and the right—the former seeing it as a betrayal of a true socialist revolution, the latter viewing it as an illegitimate regime imposed by foreign victors and domestic traitors. It was a republic that no one truly loved. The streets were battlegrounds between communist and nationalist militias, with assassinations, riots, and political terror becoming routine. Weak coalition governments struggled to govern, relying on emergency decrees that only made the republic seem more autocratic, further eroding faith in democracy. The cultural sphere, especially in Berlin, became infamous for excess and decadence, with cabarets, drugs, and radical art reflecting a civilization losing its grip on itself.

The people who turned to Hitler’s NSDAP were not all ideological zealots at first. Many were simply Germans who had reached a breaking point. They saw a government incapable of defending their interests, an economy that crushed them, and a world that treated Germany as a permanently guilty nation. Hitler promised national revival, economic stability, and an end to the shame of Versailles. His rise was not immediate—his failed 1923 putsch showed that Germans were not yet ready—but by 1933, after the Great Depression and constant political dysfunction, many felt they had nothing left to lose.

Germany today, despite its problems, is far from this level of desperation. The economy remains one of the strongest in Europe, despite inflation and energy concerns. Political instability exists, but not to the degree of Weimar’s street battles and assassinations. However, there are echoes—economic dissatisfaction, cultural fracture, a government increasingly reliant on restrictions rather than persuasion, and an undercurrent of anger at perceived foreign control and national decline. The key difference is that today’s Germany lacks the absolute collapse of Weimar, and the historical consciousness of the Third Reich makes any revival of similar politics much more difficult. The question is whether today’s crises continue to escalate or whether the system can adapt before reaching a point where people, once again, feel they have nothing left to lose.