A wake-up call from the past, by a bestselling historian
14 September 1930. While some Germans are shocked, others are ecstatic: in just two years, the NSDAP increased its vote share eightfold, and it is now the second largest party in parliament. How did it come to this? Was it the financial crisis, propaganda, the high unemployment figures? Those may be the most familiar answers, but they don’t really give us the full picture. On 23 February 2025, Germans were similarly shocked when the AfD entered the Bundestag with more than 20% of the vote – and their popularity is steadily rising.
In «Relapse», bestselling author and political activist Ruch looks back to Hitler’s first election victory, and explains how the Nazis managed the leap from unelectable faction to party of the masses. Why did the NSDAP suddenly attract so many voters? What irresistible promises did they make them? And how can we avoid falling for it again – less than a century later?