Word: papen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This cabal is crashed by the narrator, Richard Papen, a penniless transfer student who had taken some Greek. He is as close as the book comes to an objective center, but the device gets shaky because Richard is a facile, silly liar, boasting about an imaginary family oil well. He will do anything to be accepted by these sophisticates. Anything...
...have a majority in 1932, and the constitution permitted President Hindenburg to name any Chancellor he wished, authorizing him to rule by a series of presidential decrees. The first time Hindenburg summoned Hitler and asked him to support a conservative regime headed by a dapper courtier named Franz von Papen, Hitler demanded full power for himself; Hindenburg not only refused but dressed Hitler down for lacking "chivalry." In the last pre-Hitler elections in November of 1932, the Nazis lost strength, from 230 seats to 196. The party was an estimated $5 million in debt, unable to pay the storm...
Then in the first week of January, chances and hopes almost miraculously returned. Hindenburg was persuaded to try the idea of a new conservative coalition: Hitler as Chancellor, Papen as Vice Chancellor, with only two other Nazis in the Cabinet. "In this way," said the non-Nazi Minister of Economic Affairs, "we will box Hitler in." A fatal misjudgment. A month later, the Reichstag was in flames, Hitler was persuading Hindenburg to suspend civil liberties, and the most terrible chapter in 20th century history was about to open...