This Day in History: January 5, 1919

Note: This story originally ran on my blog on January 5, 2019.

One hundred years ago today, several populist far-right political groups in Germany consolidated under the name, The National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Derisively nicknamed “Nazis” by their opponents, the party slowly rose to power in the 1920’s and had complete control over the German government by the early 1930's.

While the initial Nazi party disappeared along with The Third Reich, the ideology of the party — mainly, an obsession with racial superiority — has persisted to this day. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists about 100 active American neo-Nazi organizations on its website. And a record number of political candidates with known or suspected ties to hate groups ran for political office (usually as Republicans) in 2018. Technological advances like the Internet, wi-fi, and social media have made it even easier for media-savvy “white nationalists” like Richard Spencer to gain followers and “go mainstream.”

The election of far-right (and openly racist) strong men around the world has only brought us full circle. While the Allied Powers defeated the original Nazis, it was not successful in preventing newer iterations of the original party from forming. Unless the people of the 21st century aggressively challenge racists/white supremacists and prevent them from gaining more political power, the people of the 22nd century will have to deal with this problem yet again.