Sandra Scanlon and Mark Jones in conversation. In 1923 German democracy faced crises and near destruction. In this remarkable year in European history, France and Belgium militarily occupied Germany’s economic heartland, the Ruhr, triggering a series of crises that almost spiralled out of control. At their end, Adolf Hitler, then 34 years old, led a march of armed men through central Munich where he wanted use violence to destroy German democracy.

One hundred years later, these events are more relevant than ever. Contemporary democracy is in crisis. The ‘strongman’ model of political leadership is back. In 2024, the United States will elect a new President. Will Trump return to the White House? Was the march on the Capitol a re-enactment of the Hitler putsch? Are the same forces that eventually destroyed German democracy in the 1920s fueling the anger behind the surge in populism in our world today? In 1923 Hitler was defeated; can the lessons of that defeat aide us as we mobilise to protect the future of liberal democracy?

Dr Sandra Scanlon is the author of The Pro-War Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Political Conservatism. She is assistant professor in the School of History and an expert in the history of modern American political conservatism. Dr Mark Jones is the author of 1923. The Forgotten Crisis in the Year of Hitler’s Coup. He is assistant professor in the School of History and an expert in the history of Weimar Germany. Both are regular contributors to Irish and international media and their recent appearances include contributions to RTE News, RTE Radio, BBC Radio, the Irish Independent, the Spectator, Germany’s ZDF television news, and German radio Deutschlandfunk.

https://people.ucd.ie/sandra.scanlon

https://www.ucd.ie/warstudies/members/sandrascanlon/

https://people.ucd.ie/mark.jones

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