I was in Germany in September and I had a casual conversation with a 90 year old man in a hotel. He was bitter about the hypocrisy of “our friends the Americans bombing us in WWII”. Not even a hint of concern for the 17 million people they killed. It was chilling.
I remember talking to an old guy in a bar in southern Bavaria in 1990. He claimed to have been at the Beer Hall Putsch. Unrepentant, unregenerate. But not hostile, and interested in striking up conversations with foreigners. An ordinary bloke. Banal.
1923 the economic situation there was dire. In those circumstances finding someone, anyone to stop the then galloping hyperinflation would have sounded to some reasonable. Didn’t see the wolf in grandmas bonnet though did they
The inflation was already being brought under control by that point, the rage and humiliation was still there. Sound familiar?