Many people are going nuts over an opinion expressed by CBS’s Margaret Brennan who claimed too much free speech was responsible for the rise of the Nazis in Germany. There was, of course, no free speech under the Nazis, once in office - a point most critics make.
However you could argue if the Weimar government had refused to allow Hitler to hold his rallies, own a newspaper, and to speak on radio - basically censored him - maybe Germany might have taken a different direction in the 1930s. That is merely a speculation Hitler caused the rise of the right.
The issue is do “great men” create history, or do historical forces create the leaders they need? I can argue it either way, perhaps it is some of both. Maybe Hitler really did create the Nazi movement. In which case Brennan has a point.
It is equally plausible the German right was fueled by the Versailles Treaty ending World War I, and Hitler was who emerged to lead the reaction to it. Perhaps something like the Nazi movement was inevitable given the Weimar inflation, the worldwide depression, and the treaty’s punishing provisions.
Later … About whether Hitler flourished in an environment of free speech, it appears he flourished in spite of considerable attempts to shut him up. See an Ed Driscoll post at Instapundit for details. Thus making the criticism of Brennan valid.
