It is one of the most interesting phenomena of Hitler's political activity that it has resulted in bringing about so soon such an overwhelming and unprecedented manifestation of defensive solidarity amongst the democratic peoples.

And the final line of the article:

It would be the height of paradox if Hitler, of all persons, were destined by his statesmanship finally "to make the world safe for Democracy."

The article is surprisingly prescient.

[–] onion@feddit.de 55 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Lmao OP caught in 4k

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

In my defense, the contents were blocked by a paywall

[–] Shawdow194@kbin.run 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Like Putin uniting NATO countries

[–] Titou@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Nah, NATO is a really bad example, it's not union it's usa controlling others members

[–] eric5949@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Go tell that to France.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

When the headline of an article is a question, the answer is always "no".

Interesting that unwritten rule applied back then as well.

[–] AVincentInSpace@pawb.social 3 points 4 months ago

I'd love to read it for myself but it's paywalled. Do you think you could run it through archive.is?

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I think I get the point they're trying to make, democracy had become complacent and Hitler gave it a common threat and enemy, but in retrospect... Didn't work out that great now, did it

[–] xor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

It's difficult to quantify, but I think there is a compelling argument to be made - just off of my head, WW2 led to:

the fall of German autocracy/restoration of German democracy (though Hitler did kinda break that one in the first place)
Italian and Japanese democracy
redistribution of wealth/power in Britain
the 4th french republic
alignment of the European democracies
establishment of the UN

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 4 months ago

end of the British empire
eventual formation of the EU to replace the League of Nations

But also

invention of the nuclear bomb
by extension, escalation of the cold war
numerous coups against democratic leaders and proxy wars due to it

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 20 points 4 months ago

Italian and Japanese democracy

And, albeit on a longer timeframe, Taiwanese and South Korean democracy.

[–] djsoren19@yiffit.net 6 points 4 months ago

It worked fine at the time, the problem is that all of that motivation to defend democracy was artificial, and slowly faded from the public as the war faded into the past.

[–] Hubi@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's either an April fools article or the dumbest take ever.

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It's a real archived article from April 1, 1939

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

A real archived article from...1 April, 1939.

I don't think it's an April Fool's article, but from just the headline it would not be unreasonable to conclude that.

[–] ilost7489@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

It's a clickbait title. From what I see it basically says that Hitler gave democracies a common enemy to fight against and rally to defend their system

[–] key@lemmy.keychat.org 12 points 4 months ago

Without paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20181125112744/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/germany/1939-04-01/will-hitler-save-democracy

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 months ago

Journalism has an adage that any headline ending with a question can be answered "no" by the readet who then safely ignores it.

I guess this article was from before they figured that out

[–] Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

That authors name is Comfort Ero?

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Soon, we will get the same with Trump, Putin, etc.