Content and Themes
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a comprehensive historical interpretation of the Nazi era, positing that German history logically proceeded from Martin Luther to Adolf Hitler; that Hitler’s ascension to power was an expression of German national character, not of totalitarianism as an ideology that was internationally fashionable in the 1930s. Author William L. Shirer summarised his perspective: "...the course of German history... made blind obedience to temporal rulers the highest virtue of Germanic man, and put a premium on servility." This reportorial perspective, the Sonderweg interpretation of German history (special path or unique course) was then common in American scholarship. Yet, despite extensive footnotes and references, some academic critics consider its interpretation of Nazism flawed. The book also includes (identified) speculation, such as the theory that SS Chief Heinrich Müller afterward joined the NKVD of the USSR.
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