How Democracy Can Fail: Lessons from Germany

Feb 9, 2025 | Democracies can fail. Current events have raised the question of how stable or fragile democratic structures are, and whether democracy is much more vulnerable than we think. The Weimar Republic, the first democracy in Germany, ended with the rise to power of the Nazis in 1933. What happened back then? What parallels are there to the situation today, and what can we learn from the past?

Report: Ulrike Bornhak
Host: Melissa Aparicio
Edit: Frederick Willmann


It all sounds eerily familiar with what's going on in America right now. Trump thinks he has all the answers to everything just as Hitler thought he did. – © Mark Alexander