# What might a communist Germany in the 1930s have been like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 13, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369 "2009-03-13T21:52:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/21 "2009-03-23T16:10:42Z")
If youw ant to go down that route, that might be possible, but the majority of Germans and Germany wouldn’t have gone along with it. You might have a scenario where the federal government washed its hands of Berlin or some other parts of the country, which descended into semi-anarchy, nominally ruled over by crazies or “useful idiots” like the Spartacists. That’s somewhat believable. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/22 "2009-03-25T16:46:47Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > This was only part of [a wider wave of Bolshevik-inspired revolutions or attempted revolutions in Europe from 1917 to 1923.)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1917-23) To be fair, there were so many ‘red scares’ in that timeframe it’s hard to tell whether something was a genuine full-on revolution and what was just the authorities getting their knickers in a twist because the proles were giving them backchat. For example a riot in [Glasgow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_Battle_of_George_Square) led to the UK government deploying tanks and machine-guns on the streets while hyperventilating about a revolution on the Red Clyde - which was probably pretty unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/23 "2009-03-25T18:38:03Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > To be fair, there were so many ‘red scares’ in that timeframe it’s hard to tell whether something was a genuine full-on revolution and what was just the authorities getting their knickers in a twist because the proles were giving them backchat. For example a riot in [Glasgow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_Battle_of_George_Square) led to the UK government deploying tanks and machine-guns on the streets while hyperventilating about a revolution on the Red Clyde - which was probably pretty unlikely. There was also a [general strike](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike) in the UK in 1926 which threatened/promised revolution in the eyes of many. In _Brideshead Revisited,_ Charles Ryder joins a sort of government militia to put it down (there is no actual fighting). ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/24 "2009-03-26T09:06:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > There was also a [general strike](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike) in the UK in 1926 which threatened/promised revolution in the eyes of many. In _Brideshead Revisited,_ Charles Ryder joins a sort of government militia to put it down (there is no actual fighting). Heh. A laughably british episode. After Churchill shafts the economy by dragging Britain back onto the gold standard at a ridiculous level and wages start collapsing, the TUC calls a limited national strike while bending over backwards to be as non-threatening and non-confrontational as possible, and the government returns the favour by organising a bowler-hatted militia, calling out the army and setting up its own [propaganda rag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Gazette), run by none other than Winnie, the man who arguably started the whole thing in the first place. It’s right up there with the [Bonus Army](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army) on the list of narrowly averted revolutions. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/25 "2009-03-26T17:11:11Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > If youw ant to go down that route, that might be possible, but the majority of Germans and Germany wouldn’t have gone along with it. You might have a scenario where the federal government washed its hands of Berlin or some other parts of the country, which descended into semi-anarchy, nominally ruled over by crazies or “useful idiots” like the Spartacists. That’s somewhat believable. To whom were the Spartacists useful? ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/26 "2009-03-27T08:53:01Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > To whom were the Spartacists useful? Stalin, presumably. [Useful Idiots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot). Although there’s no denying they were also useful to the likes of the NSDAP by embodying the Red Menace and scaring the middle classes further over to the right wing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/27 "2009-03-27T13:37:06Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > Stalin, presumably. [Useful Idiots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot). > Although there’s no denying they were also useful to the likes of the NSDAP by embodying the Red Menace and scaring the middle classes further over to the right wing. The Spartacists were gone from the scene long before Stalin’s name was well-known. (Capitalism, of course, has plenty of useful idiots of its own and always has had.) ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/28 "2009-03-27T16:12:35Z")
Board wouldn’t let me post last night. The Spartacists were indeed gone by the day of Stalin\*, you comment about Capitalists was pointless, ill-informed, threadshitting, and irrelevant, and I was referring to both the proto-Nazis and the emerging “Global Communists”. \*Reason being, that they were killed off or left to go worship at the altar of the Soviet Union. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369/29 "2009-03-27T23:50:04Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > . . . you comment about Capitalists was pointless, ill-informed, threadshitting, and irrelevant . . . I am resolved to repeat it whenever and wherever I encounter the “useful idiots” talking-point henceforth. It will always be relevant in that sense and it is entirely true. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-a-communist-germany-in-the-1930s-have-been-like/489369.md?page=1)