Politics

[ Chorus singing in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -In 1930, Germany is a liberal democracy... ♪♪ ...with elections, parliament, and the rule of law.

♪♪ Just four years later, freedom of speech is over.

Most of the political opposition is in jail, and the government is in the hands of murderers.

This is the story of how democracy died.

♪♪ To piece together how it happened, historians and experts have examined those four years, each from a different individual perspective.

-You cajole, you influence, you manipulate.

-They'll take us inside the minds of those that fought fascism... -They realized that these people are after your heads.

They want to annihilate you from existence altogether.

-...and the Nazis themselves.

-Himmler genuinely believed that he would create a racially pure Germany where the Aryan race would reign supreme.

♪♪ -The moments when history hung in the balance and the world's worst atrocities could have been prevented.

-Mass murder was no problem.

[ Gunshots ] But it was important to be socially acceptable.

♪♪ -Do people care about the truth?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -There's a black hole in the heart of Europe.

Germany, a once great nation, is on its knees.

The people, having endured years of economic hardship, are looking for change.

But no one knows what kind of change they will choose.

♪♪ -Another milestone is marked in Germany's political history.

-The 1930 general election should have brought clarity, but it didn't.

It's a total mess, the vote split between 14 different parties.

The communists.

The Social Democrats.

The center party is just about able to put together a moderate coalition government, but it's a weak one.

The only party who are happy, who make substantial gains, are the Nazis.

-[ Breathing heavily ] ♪♪ [ Speaking German ] ♪♪ -Just a few years ago, the Nazis were violent revolutionaries.

[ Gunshot ] ♪♪ [ Gunfire ] [ Indistinct shouting ] ♪♪ But their revolution failed.

♪♪ [ Gunshot ] ♪♪ And Hitler was sent to prison.

♪♪ ♪♪ But out of that failure, Hitler devised a new strategy for the Nazis -- to pretend to be a legitimate political party and destroy democracy from within.

-[ Speaking German ] -For years, though, they were seen as the lunatic fringe, until now.

In 1930, the Nazis have 18 percent of the vote.

[ "Moonlight Sonata" plays ] ♪♪ And that captures the interest of this man.

♪♪ Germany's ultimate political operative, a right-wing aristocratic general, Kurt von Schleicher.

♪♪ ♪♪ -It has been noted by many people that Schleicher, schleichen in German, means to sneak, to creep.

So in English, it would be the creeper or the sneaker, which strangely is a very accurate denomination for what he did and for what he was.

If you see politics as a game, Schleicher -- he is a master in the play of power.

[ Chorus singing in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ But Schleicher's profession is to observe everybody.

♪♪ And the Nazis appear like the deus ex machina or like jack-in-the-box.

It's something which was not foreseen and saying, "We offer you this.

Here we are, and we offer you a part of the German working class on a silver plate."

The Nazis have a kind of street cred.

And Schleicher is cynical enough, and he thinks to be clever enough to say, "This is a horse that we are going to ride."

-Schleicher wants to use the Nazis to solve a big problem -- the threat posed to the aristocratic elite from the increasingly powerful forces of the left.

So Schleicher cooks up a plan.

He wants to replace the current chancellor, supported by a moderate coalition, with his own right-wing choice.

But to do this, he needs two things -- the backing of the Nazis in the Reichstag... ♪♪ ...and the support of Germany's head of state.

♪♪ The man who has the power to hire and fire a chancellor.

♪♪ So Schleicher has to persuade President Hindenburg, an 82-year-old war veteran, to work with the Nazis.

♪♪ -Hindenburg was trying to make sense of this rather chaotic and complex situation.

You want the book?

Now.

He's not really a politician at all, is my reading on his character.

Soldiering, particularly in wartime conditions, is an exercise, amongst other things, in command.

Politics are somewhat different, particularly in a democracy.

And I could see him saying, "Oh, God, I wish for the simplicities of military command," which, of course, were not open to him.

He had to do the best he could.

Others tried to manipulate him, of course.

-If we look at politics as a game, as Schleicher does, Hindenburg simply is what, in chess, would be the king.

Everything comes down to who is close to Hindenburg.

Who is close to the king is close to power.

So Schleicher, who's one of the closest person-- if not the closest person to the president, is trying to influence and to engineer a meeting with the Nazis.

-So Schleicher persuades the president to take a meeting with Adolf Hitler.

Neither of them have any idea who they're dealing with.

♪♪ [ Upbeat instrumental music plays ] ♪♪ Hitler is living with his niece, Geli Raubal, who it's rumored he was having sex with.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Right.

Yep.

♪♪ Hitler was a narcissist.

Obsessed with power.

Belief that he was a man of destiny, and all of these things grew over time.

He was increasingly ruthless.

He was filled with hate, particularly against the Jews.

He was, in the end, a man of violence.

♪♪ -Hitler's niece, Geli, is found dead.

She shot herself in the chest with Hitler's revolver.

♪♪ -There are moments in Hitler's life when he completely loses control.

You can think, for example, of towards the end of his life in the bunker in 1945 when he completely goes to pieces.

And this also happens with the death of his half-niece, Geli Raubal, his girlfriend at the time.

♪♪ Not necessarily because he loved her and he was shocked and so on, but because he thinks his whole political career is finished.

-But just as he thinks it might all be over, only three weeks after her suicide, Schleicher has organized an audience for Hitler with President Hindenburg.

♪♪ -The key question is to sell the concept that Hitler could be used to build a right-wing coalition, which is based on a common hatred and on common enemies that they have.

♪♪ -For Hitler, this is a moment when he realizes that he has arrived.

He's now become part of the political game.

♪♪ -Hitler, no doubt, had his own personal feelings.

But I suspect Hindenburg's looking down his nose at Hitler.

There might have been a somewhat snobbish dimension to this.

Von Hindenburg is an aristocrat.

He is a general.

Indeed, he is the president of his country.

Hitler fought in the first war as a corporal.

And Hitler's time in the German army was not marked by any particular distinction.

He was rather dismissive of what he called this Austrian corporal.

♪♪ -Hitler thinks it's gone pretty well, really, He comes away from it thinking that Hindenburg now knows who he is, for one thing, and that in due course, Hindenburg would be prepared, under some circumstances, to appoint him as Reich Chancellor.

♪♪ -Hindenburg concludes Hitler is best suited for the Office of Postmaster.

"so that he can nick me from behind on my stamps."

♪♪ -Schleicher, at this moment, is annoyed.

These people are very precious.

We need them.

We would like to do politics only with, you know, general staff-trained officers like in the good old times, but unfortunately, we do live in a Republican Democratic reality.

So Schleicher thinks if plan A goes wrong, you should have a plan B.

[ Marching band music plays ] [ Chorus singing in German ] ♪♪ -While Hitler is the leader of the Nazis' political party, they also have a paramilitary wing called the storm troopers.

These disenfranchised men are used to dish out violence on the streets to their enemies... ♪♪ ...but in a way that the Nazi party can deny involvement in, all part of Hitler's secret agenda to wage war against the Nazis' political rivals.

♪♪ In this, too, Schleicher sees an opportunity.

Maybe he can persuade Hindenburg to work with the Nazis as a way of harnessing these storm troopers.

-For Schleicher, the storm troopers are precious elements, as he calls the storm troopers, because the left-wing insurgency, which is communism, socialism, the unions, probably has to be broken with force.

And these people represent this force, and they have this power.

-The German army is weak and depleted, an issue that the old man cares about.

Maybe they could use the storm troopers to bolster the ranks.

♪♪ [ Gunshot, wings flutter ] -Hindenburg regards it as his duty as president to see Germany back as a great power.

-So Schleicher is saying to Hindenburg, "The Nazis, with the storm troopers, represent a fresh start."

-With the president onboard, he now needs to persuade Hitler to join his right-wing coalition government as the junior partner.

♪♪ -Hitler really is not somebody who's going to enter any kind of coalition government unless he's at its head.

That would violate the leadership principle.

It would kind of undermine his charisma, his image, and his self-image as the man who is in charge.

♪♪ -So Hitler says no.

♪♪ What Hitler wants is another election in which he hopes to do even better.

♪♪ So Schleicher offers another deal.

He'll bring elections forward on condition Hitler doesn't vote down his right-wing coalition.

-In this moment, he perceives him as a servant, someone who is going to play a supporting role in a system which would be run by aristocrats like himself, He thinks he can somehow blackmail the Nazis, he can put pressure on the Nazis, and that sooner or later, they are going to eat from his hand.

-Whatever he thinks, Hitler's extracted as a condition of the support of the Nazis that elections should be held.

Schleicher imagined he was manipulating Hitler, whereas, in fact, it's the other way around.

-So while Schleicher plots his next chancellor, Hitler sets about winning the hearts and minds of the German people.

[ Soft piano music plays ] ♪♪ -He portrayed himself as a man of the people.

♪♪ He wasn't a toff.

He wasn't a member of the elites.

♪♪ He was a man who projected himself as an ordinary bloke, as it were, and that, I think, managed to unite many different kinds of people.

♪♪ -While Hitler's support grows, some realize that he's not the respectable politician he seems.

And one man tries to prove it in court.

[ Peaceful opera music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Hans Litten is anxious.

He saw the rise of what he believes is going to be a very dangerous movement.

Litten is a lawyer who is powered by the idea that law is important.

♪♪ He doesn't see law as just a set of rules.

He sees it as being the thing that will make the difference in creating a better society, a foundation, a rock on which it can be built.

He is talking about human rights at a time when very few people did, and he takes on his cases as though life depended on it.

♪♪ -Litten sees what the storm troopers are doing on the streets.

[ Camera shutter clicks ] ♪♪ When they attack a nightclub full of communists, dozens are injured, and four storm troopers are charged.

[ Gavel tapping ] ♪♪ Litten wants to join the dots back to the Nazi party itself.

-Hitler is saying he believes in law, he believes in a rules-based society, and he would never himself speak of violence and using violence.

But Hans Litten -- he understood what fascism was about.

He understood what Nazism was about.

And so he thinks, "How do we make this case of use in a bigger struggle?"

And he decides that a summons should be issued to get Hitler before the court.

[ Gavel tapping ] ♪♪ ♪♪ When Hitler enters the court, the storm troopers who are on trial stand up in the dock and raise their hands in the Hitler salute, and they show their dedication to their leader.

Hitler is absolutely in control.

Hitler went there prepared to say something very well-rehearsed and says that he had no knowledge at all of what these storm troopers would do.

This was a rogue group.

♪♪ How often have we had great leaders saying that, somehow, this was an out-of-control group and that this has nothing to do with them?

And Litten slowly but surely starts to unpick that.

Hitler is cross-examined for three hours.

"Who are the storm troopers?

What is expected of?

Tell me the truth."

-As Hitler continues to deny storm trooper violence as official Nazi policy, Litten produces a pamphlet.

It's a quick guide to Nazi ideology for new storm trooper recruits.

In it, there's a line that says if the Nazis can't come to power by democratic means... ♪♪ Litten plays his trump card, and he presents it to Hitler.

"Look at this.

You're telling us you are a Democrat, that you're running a democratic party?

Look what your pamphlets say."

-[ Speaking German ] -And then he gets angry.

From this position of calm leadership, he becomes the rather frothing man that we knew he was capable of being.

[ Gavel tapping ] By keeping at it, slowly and patiently, he wore down the veneer.

♪♪ And although, you know, this was not about, you know, a witness saying, "I'm guilty," you just know that someone has been reduced in size.

And I think Hitler was.

♪♪ -A reporter secretly takes this photograph.

♪♪ -The sense you have in looking at the photograph, Hitler knows that his performance was not good, that Litten had exposed to the public what this man was really like.

♪♪ -Hans Litten -- he was exactly the sort of man who Hitler rather despised -- a Jewish lawyer, a clever man, an intellectual.

They were traitors.

They were tools of a world Jewish conspiracy, vermin.

They were less than nothing.

-And so it was a great victory for Litten.

But by God, had he made an enemy in the fuehrer.

♪♪ -Back in the halls of power, Schleicher goes to work to bring down the chancellor.

♪♪ Schleicher's political game operates on different levels at once.

♪♪ He conspires with the military elite.

♪♪ He uses his influence with media and big business.

♪♪ ♪♪ He spreads gossip to weaken the chancellor's standing in political circles... ♪♪ ...telling everyone the chancellor has failed to get Germany out of its political and economic mess.

♪♪ And all the while, he continues to work on Hindenburg... ♪♪ ...the only man who can fire a chancellor... ♪♪ ...convincing him that to keep the current chancellor in power is bad for his reputation.

♪♪ -Schleicher knows about how much Hindenburg likes his own reputation.

This is another button that he can push.

The chancellor is a failure, too much under the spell of the socialist.

He should go.

-Well, I think the evidence is clear.

The chancellor cannot go on.

It could be very important for the future stability of Germany.

♪♪ -This is Schleicher at his best.

♪♪ These are ways to rule a country which are based on conspiracy, intrigue.

This is not what a republic is meant to be.

♪♪ -And so within weeks of his deal with Hitler, Schleicher has persuaded the president to fire the chancellor and accept his choice for a new chancellor.

[ Upbeat instrumental music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -What sort of person is Franz von Papen?

Well, he claims he's completely surprised that anyone should imagine him becoming chancellor of the Reich, but on the other hand, I find that quite hard to believe, that he hasn't imagined himself in that position.

You get the impression of a little bit of a popinjay.

He's always terribly well-dressed.

He always has a flower in his buttonhole.

He's always immaculately turned out and outwardly very charming.

You know, he knew how to play -- In a very Germanic way, he knew how to play the gentleman, although he has the reputation of someone with a degree of incompetence.

-Schleicher, at this point, is looking for a man who would basically do what he tells him to do, someone that he could manipulate.

Yeah, well, if we try to think with Schleicher's mind in this moment, this is a very, very understandable choice.

I would even say it was a very good choice.

♪♪ -The idea that Papen is a sort of useful idiot for other people around him is clearly nonsense.

-It's Schleicher's men and Schleicher's cabinet.

It's going to be Schleicher's politics.

-Kurt von Schleicher thought he could exploit him.

Of course, the reality is that he is... for want of a better word, prone to subterfuge.

He is cunning.

♪♪ -And because they need the Nazis' support, they turn a blind eye to the storm troopers' violence.

♪♪ [ Gunshots ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -I certainly don't get the impression that Papen is particularly moved by what's happening on the streets.

You know, he is a man who... does not see the morality of his position.

And as far as he's concerned, if there's a brawl between the Nazis and the communists, the people he wants to lose in that brawl will be the communists and not the Nazis.

For Papen, the Nazis are the ticket to power.

[ "Moonlight Sonata" plays ] ♪♪ -So Schleicher finally has what he wants -- a right-wing government, A malleable chancellor, and his political opponents on the run.

The destiny of Germany is in his hands.

-I do think that in this moment, he is... full of himself, and he he likes what he does, and I think he's quite proud and he feels this is going well.

I think he feels this is successful.

And where he goes wrong, Schleicher, is to not see that the Nazis, and particularly Hitler, were playing their own game and were not going to accept the rules set out by General Schleicher.

[ Crowd shouting ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -On Election Day, 1932, all the key players cast their vote.

Hitler, Von Papen, and President Hindenburg.

[ Indistinct chatter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -Hitler realizes that if he tells a very simple message, it doesn't matter if they're true or not.

The point is that you have to keep repeating and keep hammering them in.

"Make Germany great again.

Restore the economy."

They are empty slogans, but they're carrying a message that, although vague, is very powerful.

[ Indistinct shouting ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Crowd shouting, "Heil!"

] ♪♪ [ Horn honks ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -The results send shock waves through Germany.

♪♪ The Nazis' vote has gone from 18 to 37 percent.

♪♪ Now, with the largest party in the Reichstag, suddenly, Hitler is too big for even Schleicher to control.

-So Hitler thinks now is the time to strike.

-Now Hitler makes his big move and demands to be chancellor.

-Schleicher is worried Hitler is simply not playing by the rules that Schleicher has foreseen.

♪♪ -Hitler was a gambler.

As he said, "I always go for broke."

And the more he believed in himself, the more he was encouraged by his media and followers to believe in himself, the more he was disinclined to compromise.

-Talking to Hitler, which at the beginning was like talking to a servant, now becomes talking to someone who comes with his own claims.

So Schleicher's position starts to weaken, and things start to become shaky and slippery.

-So Schleicher responds with an even bigger move.

He knows that in the German constitution, there is a clause that says the president can suspend parliament and rule by presidential decree.

♪♪ Schleicher and Papen now persuade Hindenburg to pull that lever and exercise his emergency powers.

-Hindenburg -- he's rather horrified by the idea of Hitler as chancellor, the jumped-up little corporal from somewhere in Austria.

♪♪ -So Chancellor Papen heads to the Reichstag with the authority of the president to suspend parliament.

He just has to get the speaker's attention and then dissolve the Reichstag.

-That is all he needs to do in theory.

♪♪ -But there's a new speaker who has just been appointed.

♪♪ -Goering is very keen to be Hitler's fixer because it makes him an important political figure.

♪♪ But to be Hitler's fixer, you've got, in the end, to deliver what Hitler wants.

[ Camera shutter clicks ] -And in a moment captured in this photograph, when Papen tries to get the speaker's attention to dissolve the Reichstag, Goering looks the other way and instead calls a vote of no confidence in Papen's government.

♪♪ [ Indistinct chatter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -Goering looks at them, reads them, laughs, and says, "Sorry, your government's finished."

♪♪ -But Papen has no intention of leaving and decides to try to cling to power.

-Papen can rely on certain people.

After all, it is Schleicher who makes Papen chancellor.

Papen thought very highly of Schleicher.

♪♪ -Schleicher is ruthless when it comes to political loyalties, and he has the capacity to change coalitions, to change people as other people would change shoes or socks when the situation forces -- needs it.

♪♪ -He persuades the president they need a new chancellor.

-"It is a disaster for us.

Papen is a very stupid man," and that he simply should go.

♪♪ -So... marching orders, which Hindenburg, I suspect, would have found quite difficult.

♪♪ -But there's one thing Schleicher hasn't quite factored into his calculations that will come back to bite him.

-When Hindenburg, as president, sacks von Papen as chancellor, Hindenburg gives him a photograph.

And the superscription to the photograph, in German, "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden."

"I had a comrade."

And I find the use of the past tense rather poignant now.

♪♪ -It meant an awful lot to Papen because it was a gauge of the sympathy of the president, that Hindenburg was not entirely in his heart.

He was not happy at what had happened.

So despite the fact that he was sent packing by Hindenburg, Papen believes that this is a monstrous betrayal.

And from that moment onwards, Papen will do anything in order to bring down Schleicher and bring himself back to power.

♪♪ -For lawyer Hans Litten, the fight against the Nazis goes on.

♪♪ -After the case where he cross-examined Hitler, he became, you know, Public Enemy Number 1.

It's the classic thing that happens to somebody who stands up to be counted.

People distanced themselves from him, death threats.

He's viciously assaulted.

♪♪ Litten is feeling, I think, what all lawyers feel when they suddenly find themselves at the hard end of society's criticisms.

And yet at the same time, he knows that this is something that matters.

-Despite the harassment, Litten is winning.

He gets storm troopers convicted for the killing of a communist activist.

He successfully defends antifascists against charges of murder.

-Litten did enjoy successes.

There is no doubt that Litten is a thorn in the side of the Nazis.

It's his persistence, it's his determination, his sense that he is not going to give up on this.

He keeps trying to call Nazism to book through the courts because he feels that to succumb and to quietly skulk off would be to allow, somehow, Nazism to win, and so he keeps going.

-Now Litten's investigations begin to reveal a conspiracy between the Nazis and the police.

♪♪ In one incident, storm troopers clash with antifascists in a neighborhood called Felseneck... ♪♪ ...when a communist called Fritz Klemke is shot dead.

The storm troopers responsible are brought to trial claiming self-defense.

What Litten uncovers is explosive.

A policeman went into a tavern and deliberately left his gun on the bar.

A storm trooper picked it up, carried out the murder, and then slipped it back to the policeman.

-When you have the collusion of police providing weaponry and, in fact, being involved themselves in the commission of crime, bringing that to light was very important.

[ "Moonlight Sonata" plays ] ♪♪ -Having plotted the removal of two chancellors in less than a year, Kurt von Schleicher feels back in control.

Now, in his boldest move yet, Schleicher persuades Hindenburg that the next chancellor should be himself.

♪♪ His first objective... ♪♪ ...end Hitler's political ambitions.

♪♪ -At this moment, Schleicher starts to consider different options, even plans, it seems, to arrest Nazi leaders, to strike against them.

So he is considering options.

He's always considering options.

His career, at this point, requires it.

♪♪ -The fall of Chancellor Papen coincides with yet another general election.

And with the German economy picking up, the Nazi vote falls back.

♪♪ ♪♪ It looks like Hitler got close to being chancellor, but not close enough.

♪♪ And years of constant campaigning has left the Nazi party close to bankruptcy.

-By late 1932, Goering clearly feels the Nazi party is facing something of a crisis.

He knows that this is a leader who's stubbornly committed to becoming chancellor or nothing.

And for Goering, I think that's, you know -- it's a difficult circle to square.

And I think there are moments when Goering is really thinking, you know, "How the hell am I going to do this?"

[ Laughs ] "Is Hitler's stubbornness going to make the party fall apart?"

-Hitler has always refused to join any coalition unless he is chancellor.

But many in the Nazi party are getting impatient and want a slice of power.

♪♪ Schleicher sees this and offers rebel Nazis a part in his government, weakening Hitler further.

-So at this moment, it seems that this is successful.

He feels that he starts having all the tools in his hand to open the doors to the Nazi castle and to get into it or to get -- actually, he tries to steal from Hitler.

He tries to get a part of the support that Hitler has from the German people.

♪♪ -By the end of 1932... ♪♪ ...Hitler was at his wits' end as to what to do.

He didn't seem to be able to get any more votes.

The Nazis began to run out of money.

People began to desert them.

The Nazi party is weak.

It's declining, so there's a general feeling of crisis.

♪♪ -It should have been the beginning of the end for the Nazi party.

♪♪ With his chances of power slipping away, Hitler makes a clandestine journey... ♪♪ ...in a desperate last throw of the dice.

♪♪ -He definitely looks down on Hitler.

Hitler is another sort of animal, as far as he's concerned.

Papen is looking at Hitler to see if this man can be useful in getting his revenge against Schleicher.

-Papen offers Hitler a deal to join forces using Hitler's parliamentary strength and Papen's friendship with President Hindenburg to find a way to power.

-He sees Hitler as his means of getting back into power.

Hitler does not represent, to him, the ideal form of government.

Franz von Papen finds the ideal form of government Franz von Papen.

♪♪ -For the first time in his political career, Hitler makes a compromise.

An agreement is made that the Nazis and Papen will form a coalition government.

-Compromise wasn't really in his repertoire.

It was either total victory or total defeat.

But I think he was convinced that a von Papen deal would bring the legitimacy with which he could then take over power.

-Between Papen and Hitler, at least one thing is agreed.

Schleicher must go.

-This famous meeting, which is supposed to be a secret meeting, but it's not that secret because it leaks out immediately and Schleicher has knowledge of it.

And strangely, he reacts in a manner where he does not really feel threatened by it.

And it seems that he even thinks, "Oh, this is little Franz doing something for me, trying to negotiate with the Nazis to bring Nazi support to my government."

He does not yet understand to what extent Papen has turned against him.

♪♪ -Now Franz von Papen shows his true colors as a cunning political player in his own right... ♪♪ ...using his position as Hindenburg's new favorite to present a radical idea.

He should be vice chancellor, and the chancellor should be Adolf Hitler.

♪♪ -It's an idea he has that the only way to destroy the National Socialists is to give them a bit of power.

Let's give them a chance in government to show how dreadful they are, and then the people will lose their interest in them.

These are desperate times, and desperate schemes are dreamed up.

♪♪ -The decision rests with Hindenburg.

♪♪ -How is it that Hindenburg, from his initial rather lofty position regarding Hitler, the upstart, the Austrian corporal, to contemplating Hitler as a potential chancellor.

How do you explain the vault fast?

It's quite a journey, that one.

"Schleicher, von Papen, my reputation.

♪♪ Rise of the communists."

Eventually, Hindenburg comes to the conclusion von Papen is right.

There was no other answer, He'd run out of options at this point.

-Schleicher is out.

He has no remaining cards to play.

♪♪ Hindenburg dismisses Schleicher at the end of January, 1933.

What he says to him as the last sentence is, "General, and now let's see how the Herr is going to run with God's help."

The Herr is Hitler.

♪♪ -The Nazis are close to power.

Hans Litten is starting to realize that Germany's legal system is riddled with Nazi sympathizers.

♪♪ As his case against the police and the storm troopers comes together, the system begins to shut him down.

Crucial evidence mysteriously disappears.

The Nazi conspiracy is wider than Litten realized.

-Here we have state collusion in murder.

He presents it to the judge, and the judge accuses Litten of lying.

Hans Litten is seeing how the rule of law is now a pretense.

It becomes the ultimate evidence to him that the whole system is becoming Nazified.

♪♪ -Berlin's chief prosecutor informs him that the case against the storm troopers is being dropped for lack of evidence.

-For Litten, watching this is hell.

He sees that the destruction of democracy is taking place before his eyes, and no one is stopping it.

[ "Moonlight Sonata" plays ] [ Crowd shouting ] ♪♪ -An excited crowd gathers outside the presidential palace on learning that Hindenburg has sent for Hitler to further govern.

♪♪ -[ Speaking German ] ♪♪ -And so Hitler has, for the first time, power.

-On that evening, Hitler has this unshakeable self-belief.

One way or another, he is going to become Germany's dictator.

People like Schleicher Papen, and Hindenburg thought that they could use him, that he'd be easily manipulated.

They were, of course, wrong.

♪♪ ♪♪ -We go back to this time over and over again, because it informs our current world.

It informs our current world on a number of planes, but particularly, it is a warning to us to prevent things like this from happening again.

And we ask, "Why wasn't it that there were no people around who could actually prevent this terrible descent?"

♪♪ -Here we are in the '30s.

Violence is taking place and society becoming divided.

Do people see what's really happening?

♪♪ -The story of German politics between 1930 and 1933 is the story of the decline and fall of a democracy.

♪♪ And that's why we're so fascinated, because we know what happened afterwards.

Journalists at the time didn't know what was going to happen, but we know now, looking back, what a terrible turning point it was.

And, of course, democracy is under challenge and under threat in many countries at the moment.

We're looking for parallels.

That period does have lessons for us if we want to preserve and defend democracy in our own day.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -The moment when his murderer points the gun on him and asks him, "Are you General Schleicher," he might have realized that he created a monster.

And whatever was going to come, it would finish everything which was there before.

[ Gunshots ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪