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How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy

October 12, 2026 · 12:15 pm ET · Leave a Comment

53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy by Timothy W. Ryback.

“The chilling chronicle of how Adolf Hitler overturned a constitutional democracy in less than eight weeks.”

“Hitler banned or neutered the print press and radio; purged the civil service and installed party loyalists; suspended civil liberties; compromised the courts; imposed Reich government control over the country’s seventeen federated states; slapped draconian tariffs on trading partners; co-opted, imprisoned, or drove political opponents into exile; assumed control over the central bank; and then compelled the Reichstag, the country’s legislative body, to pass an Enabling Act granting Hitler dictatorial power.”

53 Days
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy
by Timothy W. Ryback · Atlantic Monthly Press · 2026
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