Former security secretary Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee's incorrect and silly remark that 'democracy led to Hitler' makes it timely to recall a few facts about Germany's first democracy, the Weimar Republic. Weimar's predecessor, Imperial Germany, collapsed because of its defeat in the first world war. Although Imperial Germany had a parliament, elections and a strong opposition party in the Social Democrats, its parliament did not form the government, and the Imperial German ruling class did not have democratic values. Bismarck, the 19th-century 'Iron Chancellor' who unified Germany, contemptuously said that important questions were decided by 'blood and iron' - meaning military force - rather than parliamentary debate. This view had millions of adherents in Weimar Germany, including most army officers, who felt democracy had been forced on them by Germany's defeat, and its enemies. The communists, who attempted revolutions in Berlin and Munich in 1918, never wanted democracy either. The weak government, desperate to reimpose order, turned for help to the Freikorps - bands of demobilised soldiers who brutally crushed the revolutionaries. The Freikorps were never disarmed or disciplined, and their use inaugurated a tradition of street fighting between armed groups that continued until Hitler came to power. This filled a vacuum caused by Germany's lack of a tradition of peaceful demonstrations - banned since 1832. From the early 1920s, right-wing groups such as the Nazi Party used private armies for street fights against the communist's private army. Political assassinations were also common. Nazi support grew after the Great Depression hit Germany, and the established parties had no ready answer to the resulting unemployment. The Nazis sought power by using an election programme that promised an end to democracy, street fighting and assassination. In the last free election, in 1932, they gained only about one-third of the votes, but were invited to share power. Once in power they were able to subvert state institutions to ensure they remained there. The 1933 election, when Nazis obtained over 40 per cent of the vote, was not a free election. There is a memorable photograph, taken during the campaign, showing communist and Social Democrat activists hanging from their hands along the wall of a Nazi torture chamber, after being arrested by Nazis acting as 'auxiliary police'. It was not democracy that led to Hitler, but the authoritarian traditions of Imperial Germany - including ultranationalism, contempt for democratic institutions, glorification of military force and blind obedience to authority. The rise of Hitler has little obvious relevance to the question of when Hong Kong should democratise. Unless, perhaps, it's that an ultranationalist ideology - seeking power by intimidation, and occasional use of the ballot box - should strike a warning note here. Paul Harris is a barrister and the founder of Human Rights Monitor
