I should have said “survived unscathed”. (According to the source you linked to, about 16% of the mobilized German armed forces was killed; total casualties were 64%. For the Austro-Hungarian armed forces, the table cites about 15% killed with total casualties 90%.)

Thanks for the link.

This source indicates that about 16% of Germany’s mobilized troops were killed during the 1st World War:

https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Killed-wounded-and-missing

I agree that the book (and others by him) are required reading for anyone trying to understand the “Great War”—and especially its aftermath—from the perspective of the decent German soldier caught up in a propaganda-generated, four-year-long bloodbath, a horror that was survived only by the very lucky (or the corrupt).

Not unlike the British returning soldier, with which most English speakers are understandably more familiar, the peace-time world was, for these German veterans (some of them not yet 20 years old), unrecognizable; and the continued propagandization of the war was intolerable.

Remarque’s humanity, his decency, his honesty and his refusal to perpetuate German propaganda—all of which imbue his novels—were the cause of his being declared “defeatest” and blacklisted by the National Socialists. He ultimately was hounded out of Germany before the Second WW broke out, but I believe that the Nazis, to prove a thuggish point, arrested his sister who stayed behind, and that in spite of his efforts to free her she ultimately died in prison. (Not certain of this; will have to check.)

He did have the “honor” of having his books burnt in those infamous bonfires, which one wishes were behind us but can no longer, alas, be so sure….

https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/54294.html

Not sure if it was he who mentioned this, but I read—somewhere—that one of the major reasons why the rank and file German was so inclined to embrace the right-of-center was not only because of the chaotic and seemingly hopeless financial situation but because of the utter, out-of-control licentiousness that characterized the Weimar period and the perception that any party that was going to end that long walpurgisnacht would be a positive force. (Alas, they never suspected that the National Socialists were going to implement one of a very different and destructive kind….)

Obviously, the rise of the Nazis is due to many factors; but it’s wise to remember that actions provoke reactions, in politics as well as in physics.

The problem facing the US at the moment is the sheer fury of the partisanship, though, I’m of those who believe that the Obama years provoked a reaction to right a “progressive” ship of state that was way off course and out of control. This reaction was not supposed to have had any chance of succeeding, given the forces arrayed against it; and Trump’s unexpected and shocking success has, in turn, provoked a simply insane reaction from those who assumed that “history was—is—on their side”.

It’s not pretty and I’m not certain how the country can get back to more or less of an even keel. This is what makes Jordan Peterson’s even-toned, rational voice, and others like him, so critically important.

2020 will be crucial.

I found both the Haffner and Fallada books in paper form on Amazon.

Also, Haffner’s “Little Man, What Now?” was popular enough in the US that an American movie was made from it in 1932. I reviewed it here:

https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/29967.html

It’s now available on Amazon in DVD form. The reviews are interesting, it seems to be enjoying a new popularity. Several reviewers mentioned that their kids like it a lot.

There’s also the evaporative cooling model, but that’s specifically ratcheting up group belief in the face of contrary evidence, as less confident members “evaporate” away, leaving the group “cooler”.
* * *
An interesting theory.
I thought this footnote was also interesting, in the context of discussions about What Does Manju Want?

3My own theory of Internet moderation is that you have to be willing to exclude trolls and spam to get a conversation going. You must even be willing to exclude kindly but technically uninformed folks from technical mailing lists if you want to get any work done. A genuinely open conversation on the Internet degenerates fast.

It’s the articulate trolls that you should be wary of ejecting, on this theory—they serve the hidden function of legitimizing less extreme disagreements. But you should not have so many articulate trolls that they begin arguing with each other, or begin to dominate conversations. If you have one person around who is the famous Guy Who Disagrees With Everything, anyone with a more reasonable, more moderate disagreement won’t look like the sole nail sticking out. This theory of Internet moderation may not have served me too well in practice, so take it with a grain of salt.

I’ve spent a couple of bucks to buy one Zimbabwean Ten Billion dollar bill to frame, and to keep as a constant reminder of just what can happen if a country’s economy and currency are mismanaged.

I have to add one other piece of writing on the psychological impact of the Inflation. This is from the 1932 novel ‘Little Man, What Now?’, which is centered around a likable young couple trying to survive in late-Weimar Germany. Sonny and Lammchen’s landlady cannot comprehend what happened to her savings, and it has practically unhinged her:

“Young people, before the war, we had a comfortable fifty thousand marks. And now that money’s all gone. How can it all be gone?…I sit here reckoning it up. I’ve written it all down. I sit here, reckoning. Here it says: a pound of butter, three thousand marks…can a pound of butter cost three thousand marks?…I now know that my money’s been stolen. Someone who rented here stole it…he falsified my housekeeping book so I wouldn’t notice. He turned three into three thousand without me realizing…how can fifty thousand have all gone?”

The entire book is really very good. Review:

https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/29873.html