Nationalist/conservative German politician Franz von Papen is an infamous character in history, and for good reasons.
His political maneuverings in 1932 and 1933 helped Adolf Hitler achieve absolute political power in Germany. When he was thwarted in his own attempts to form a military dictatorship (or governing through decrees as it was called) to end the chaos of the Weimar republic, von Papen convinced his friend and one of few remaining unifying figures in Germany, president Paul von Hindenburg (war hero from WW I and field marshal), to allow Hitler to become chancellor. The ”brilliant plan” was to give conservatives 8 out of 11 cabinet posts, which would allow von Papen as vice-chancellor to control Hitler.
Well, it didn’t quite work out.
von Papen never had any popular support to speak of, the nazis on the other hand had popular support (from around 40 percent of the population), the SA (Sturmabteilung, aka brown shirts) in the streets, Hermann Göring as interior minister in Prussia where he turned the police into a pro-nazi force. And with all communist and some Social Democratic parlamentarians rounded up, Hitler could change the constitution and turn Germany into a one party state.
Then, interestingly, von Papen found the courage to give a speech in 1934 that was somewhat critical of the nazis, he wanted to end the rule of terror in the streets and restore some civil liberties. He gave it in front of a university audience in Marburg, hence it’s called the Marburg speech, and it’s generally seen as the last public speech against the nazis in Germany before 1945.
The speech got some press coverage, infuriated Hitler and twenty days later the three speech writers, old conservative friends and allies of von Papen, had been rounded up and shot by the SS (Schutzstaffel). This happened during the night of the long knives, when Hitler decapitated his own SA (according to the propaganda to stop a coup attempt by SA-leader Ernst Röhm but the real purpose was to bring the German military into the nazi fold, and to consolidate Hitler’s personal power).
So what does von Papen do when the nazis, whom he helped into power, killed three of his best friends? Does he commit suicide? Does he try to assassinate Hitler?
No.
He serves the nazis as a loyal ambassador in first Austria and later Turkey, helping to bring about the Anschluss and to keep Turkey from joining the allies. Hitler and Göring spared von Papen’s life because they thought he would be useful. And they were right.
Conclusions for the GOP:
– If you help an authoritarian demagogue into power some of your friends may get shot. But do not fret, if you are deemed useful you may become an ambassador.
– Do NOT voice any concerns or criticism after the fact. That’s no way to stay relevant. People might get shot. Become ambassador, I say.
And for the rest of us:
– A surprisingly large number of people are nihilists without understanding it. Our actual beliefs influence our actions, if they don’t they aren’t beliefs, only makeup. Self promotion and self aggrandizement, or trying to stay relevant as Lindsey Graham would put it, are roads to nihilism.
Conclusions for the rest of us:
– Never let yourself become a nihilist. Celebrate the people who aren’t nihilists, and their courage, even if they don’t share your particular beliefs, even if they are called Sasse, Romney, Raffensberger or Kinzinger.
– And please don’t fail. You are too big to fail, There is no cavalry who can save you. You were the cavalry.
