I focus on Communism because it was the only thing that mattered during the period. Germany could have been left wing or right wing or anything else it liked, just like its neighbours, without facing any calamity. No doubt, Anti Semitism was widespread but, with hindsight, Herzl had been a true prophet. In any case, the sad truth is, minorities don't greatly matter. Though they have contributed much, if they perish little changes.



Europe had learned a lesson from Napoleon's 100 days. You need to occupy a defeated enemy, extract reparations in full and then leave the country in the charge of a faction which has good reason to fear and hate the Army. What worked with France would have worked with Germany. Why did the Allies not push into Germany? The obvious answer is that one Ally was missing- Russia had changed its complexion. The Allies foolishly thought they could defeat the Reds while leaving the Germans to muddle through as best they could. This was not possible. Even Turkey proved too strong for Clemenceau and Lloyd George. Britain and France subsequently went on the defensive- so there was no question of containment or collective security. Meanwhile Germany and the Soviets had quietly done a deal re. armaments and military technology. At a later point, Stalin showed a preference for military leaders, like Chiang Kai Shek, over his own fellow Reds.

An unprecedented situation arose where Germany was less 'encircled' then ever before because France had no offensive doctrine and thus could do nothing for the Poles. Churchill had preferred to take a penny of Income Tax rather than maintain Naval hegemony. The new nation states had irredentist claims against each other- Poland took a piece of Czech land when it was carved up only to be itself carved up by Stalin & Hitler.

The reason there was a war was because France- which ought to have been the ringmaster of 'encirclement'- was stupid and lazy. That's why the General staff thought they could win. They preferred to do so under a Corporal- who some believed would not want to repeat the horrors of the Great war because he himself had had a worm's eye's view of it- rather than one of their own rivals.

German heavy industry had a symbiotic relationship with the military and became infected by their revanchist over-confidence. German Economics and Sciences, unlike in England, were closely involved with the State as were the Banks. Thus the military which had been the biggest customer and patron of everybody else could promise great things in the future with some degree of credibility. As far as the Law and the Clergy were concerned- with some notable exceptions- the 'Red Menace' was sufficient excuse to uphold a doctrine of necessity or Schmittian 'state of exception'. The imbecility occasioned by the German penchant for Phenomenology meant that the famed Teutonic pedant was but grist to an equally moronic mill.



Notice, none of this would have happened without the Bolshevik revolution and the bloody shambles that Lenin and Stalin turned their territories into not once or twice but again and again and again. No 'Red Menace' means Germany could have been properly occupied and made to pay through the nose. Paradoxically, this would have boosted its capital markets, strengthened civil society and boosted exports. German economists- and Britishers like Keynes- were too stupid to see this but Ohlin proved the thing and we all now accept he was right. However the Heckscher Ohlin theorem was wrong- intraindustry trade would have grown and so business men and bankers in France and Italy and England and America would have had more rational attitudes.



Weimar wasn't so great. It destroyed the middle class by very foolishly deciding to subsidise Saarland's Civil Resistance through hyperinflation. Later, it was running an 'extend and pretend' Ponzi scheme. It dug its own grave, economically speaking. Still, had France and England adopted rational policies towards the Soviet Union- a difficult thing to do because of the utterly repulsive and murderous nature of its regime- some 'Popular Front' type containment could have been possible. Strategically, Germany should always be faced with the threat of multiple invasions including naval incursions. But nobody would develop an offensive doctrine preferring instead to talk nonsense about 'collective security'.

If you leave the doors of your house open, robbers will get in. The German army was that robber. The question is why did Europe leave all its doors and windows open? In the case of the French we know the answer. They had found a convenient door to barricade and went to sleep at their posts. Why? The hope was that the robber would turn East. What was in the East? The Red Menace. So, once again, everything comes down to the Bolshevik Revolution. But for that event, Europe could have gone on doing ethnic cleansing and adjusting its borders and muddling along somehow. Who greatly cared if Franco or Salazar, rather than some Anti-Clerical nutjob intent on raping nuns, was ruling the roost in Spain or Portugal? Those countries had ceased to count long ago. So what if Mussolini, rather than Gramsci, was administering beatings and cod-liver oil to Italians? Italy didn't matter. Europe was ceasing to matter. Unfortunately, its own stupidity and blindness meant that there was a second big war and so the rest of the world had to intervene and Germany saw itself garrisoned a truly cosmopolitan crew featuring Mongols and Malyalees and lads from Manitoba and Massachusetts. Once Europe gave up its 'world historical role' and pursued peace and prosperity, not foreign soldiers but guest workers or immigrants arrived as a reminder of its former position as global hegemon.



We know that America and Europe will play a declining part on the World Stage. If some parts of America or Europe want to indulge in hateful silliness, no one greatly cares. Provided Xi deals firmly with his dissidents and the new Saudi Crown Prince stays one jump ahead of his cousins, the world will wag on well enough.



The lesson from history is that those who do not learn from history can't possibly repeat it. Only economics matters. If we make sensible, regret minimizing, choices- we too will flourish. If not, it will be some other bunch of guys.

Turkey is a good example. It imperilled its economic rise by over-reaching and will now settle down to a diminished horizon in which pontificating 'ordo-liberals' will receive a golden shower gratis. Indeed, this is what is happening all over the world. History has spoken. Every bien pensant 'public intellectual' must be given for free what the Leader of the Free World had to pay for in a Moscow Hotel. This is an important blow for social justice and an environmentally sustainable inclusivity founded upon the twin principles of transparent subsidiarity and condign micturation.



We must rise above our narrow differences of class and creed and gender to confront not just the spectre of Fascism but also the ghost of the Grand Inquisition as well as zombie dinosaurs from the Mesozoaic era.