Darkness Falling: The Strange Death of the Weimar Republic, 1930-33 by Peter Walther

Author:Peter Walther [Walther, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Europe, Germany, Military, World War II, General, Historiography, Modern, 20th Century, political science, Political Ideologies, Fascism & Totalitarianism, social history
ISBN: 9781800242289
Google: eWUAEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Head of Zeus Ltd
Published: 2021-08-05T23:27:05.314109+00:00

a Alfred Hugenberg (1865–1951) was a businessman who was closely associated with the Krupp armaments firm. In 1920, he entered the Reichstag as a member of the German National People’s Party and in 1928 became its leader. Like other traditional conservatives, Hugenberg fatally miscalculated that he would be able to use Hitler and the NSDAP to further his own ambitions. [Translator’s note]

b The next sitting took place on 2 June 1932.

Balls of Destiny

1

‘There’s a mood of oppressive excitement,’ writes Siegfried Kracauer, who has been sent by the Frankfurter Zeitung to review one of Hanussen’s shows, ‘which just goes to prove beyond all doubt how people’s expectations of miracles have been heightened by these crisis times. As if a miracle could solve the crisis! Still, many people clearly prefer waiting in the gloom for him to appear to coming up with a systematic plan to improve their lot – now that really would be the only genuine miracle.’1 And who’d even be interested in ‘systematically improving’ his or her lot when there’s this far simpler alternative? Hanussen has devised a new routine: he throws ‘balls of destiny’ into the audience. Anyone who catches one can keep it, and in addition is given Hanussen’s autograph and the opportunity of a brief Q&A session with the magician. But it’s even simpler still if you’re given the gift of second sight yourself! All the information on this can be found in Hanussen’s newspaper. Readers who have worked their way through an interview with Thomas Mann or an account of the magician’s meeting with Gerhart Hauptmann will find on the inside pages an advertisement for a miracle plant from South America, which gives those who ingest it ‘the talent for prophecy’. It contains the hallucinogen harmine.a Hanussen has tested it on a wide range of subjects, including a musician, a scientist and a career criminal with a long string of convictions. Finally, he puts himself in a trance by taking it.

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