When Democracy Fails: What Happens When Fascism Wrecks a Nation?
Lessons from the Past on Rebuilding Trust, Accountability, and Finding a Way Forward
A country, deeply divided, is still reeling from a massive economic crisis. People are angry. They feel humiliated by the world, ignored by elites, and nostalgic for a time when they were “great.”
A charismatic demagogue rises up, promising to “make the country great again”, protect the homeland from outsiders, and purge the system of corruption.
He weaponises fear. Targets the press. Calls facts “fake.” Declares political enemies a threat to the nation. Wraps himself in flags, holds rallies full of rage, and tells the people only he can fix things. Courts pack with loyalists. Elections get shady. Checks and balances start to wobble. Civil liberties shrink. Protesters are beaten. Propaganda floods the airwaves. Enemies are everywhere.
Sound familiar?
I’m not talking about the present day. I'm talking about Germany in the 1930s.
What we’re seeing play out in our world today, we’ve seen before, and if we want to know what might come next - and more importantly, how to survive it - we’d do well to take a long, unflinching look at what happened last time.
How do you trust your fellow citizens again after they elect a madman to wreck the country? How do you uproot fascism, racism, sexism, hatred, and bigotry once it’s infested every system, every institution, every dinner table?
The answers may lie in the past.
The last time this happened... this is what happened next.
Why Did Nazi Germany collapse?
Because fascism is like a house of cards built on a landmine. It looks strong - until it doesn’t.
The Nazi regime stretched itself too far - militarily, economically, and morally (assuming it ever had morals to begin with). By 1945, Germany was broke, bombed, starving, and globally despised. Even the sky had had enough.
Astrologically, the collapse was cosmic poetry. World War II ended under a Saturn–Pluto opposition - classic “collapse and rebuild” energy. Systems die. Shadow rises. Karma calls. Germany was knee-deep in its karmic audit. Pluto was in Leo, yanking authoritarian ego into the spotlight for a final bow. Saturn, planet of consequences and cosmic side-eye, was in Cancer, asking: what kind of “fatherland” burns its own house down?
And just for dramatic flair: a lunar eclipse hit in April 1945, days before Hitler yeeted himself into history’s dumpster. Eclipses bring endings. Permanent, dramatic, no-backsies.
Let’s be real: Hitler was a delusional narcissist who thought he could conquer the world on vibes and vengeance alone. He opened two massive fronts (terrible idea), drained stolen resources (unsustainable), and built an economy on war, slavery, and denial (not exactly a five-year plan).
Spoiler alert: it did not work.
Germany stood alone, outgunned, out of fuel, and out of lies. Even the faithful stopped buying the fantasy. The Nazi machine, built on fear, brutality, and unchecked ego, finally collapsed under the weight of its own delusion.
You can only lie, murder, and gaslight your way through history for so long before reality punches back, hard, and brings friends.
Where Did All the Nazis Go? (Spoiler: Not to Mars)
Here’s the thing about fascism: it doesn’t disappear when the dictator dies or the statues come down.
When World War II ended in 1945, Nazi Germany collapsed, but the people who built it didn’t vanish. The Nazi Party had over 8 million members: civilians, teachers, police officers, judges, businessmen. That’s nearly 30% of the adult population at the time. Not “just a few bad apples.” That’s a mass movement with uniforms.
Led by the United States, the Allies launched denazification - a plan to scrub Nazi influence from public life and keep history from repeating itself.
Noble? Absolutely.
Efficient? Not even close.
Sure, the top brass were hauled into court at the Nuremberg Trials, where justice was served in full public view. But mid- and lower-level Nazis? Many quietly re-entered society. Some were hired into the new government. Others simply shrugged and said, “I was just following orders.” If you held a clipboard instead of a gun, odds are you got a new desk and a second chance.
How to Kill an Ideology (Spoiler: It’s Harder Than You Think)
You don’t just remove swastikas and expect enlightenment to blossom overnight. De-Nazifying Germany took a massive, generational reprogramming.
Put the Ringleaders On Trial
The Nuremberg Trials (1945–1946) put the full horror of the Holocaust on display and prosecuted key Nazi figures for crimes against humanity. It was a global statement: this happened, it was evil, and it cannot happen again.
Revamp the Education System
German schools got a total rewrite. Nazi propaganda was ripped out, and democratic values were sewn back in. Today, Germany leads the world in Holocaust education, not to shame, but to make sure the past is never forgotten.
Legal Lockdown
Swastikas? Banned. Hitler salutes? Illegal. Holocaust denial? A criminal offence. Germany doesn’t just flirt with fascism; it suffocates it at the door.
Cultural Detox
America flooded West Germany with jazz, Coca-Cola, cowboy movies, and freedom stories. Western values weren’t just imported - they were lived out loud on every street corner, in every radio broadcast, and across every screen.
Economic Reboot
As the ideological scrub down continued, the Allies had to rebuild the shattered economy, or risk total collapse (and a Communist takeover). So, between 1948 and 1952, the U.S. pumped billions into Europe, and Germany got a healthy share. By the mid-1950s, Germany experienced an economic miracle - rapid industrial growth, mass employment, and Volkswagens in every driveway. This prosperity was key in ensuring the toxic ideologies of the past stayed firmly in the past.
Much of this rebuilding unfolded during an early Uranus in Cancer transit—reimagining what “home” and national identity could be. It wasn’t about domination anymore; it was about healing. Messy, but absolutely necessary.
And, just to tease the future: we’ll get a similar transit in 2032. Interesting, right?
The Moral Hangover: Shame, Silence, and the Long Reckoning
Even with the buildings rebuilt and the currency flowing, Germany was spiritually shattered. The immediate post-war response? Silence. Denial.
“We didn’t know.”
“We had no choice.”
Entire families kept quiet.
But by the 1960s, the dam finally broke. The next generation started asking questions - and they weren’t whispering. Protests erupted. Grandparents were exposed. Former Nazis, hiding in plain sight, were unmasked.
Germany didn’t just move on - it turned around and faced the past, hard. Memorials were built. Former concentration camps became public education sites. Streets were renamed. Schoolchildren were taught, “Never again,” and they meant it.
Meanwhile, in East Germany…
East Germany (under Soviet control) took a different approach: pretend none of it happened.
The state branded itself “anti-fascist” and blamed everything on the West. Some ex-Nazis simply switched uniforms. There was no real reckoning - just a new kind of authoritarianism.
When the wall fell in 1989, the East had to face both the Nazi past and its own repression. The healing there started 40 years late and is still catching up.
So… Did It Work?
Mostly? Yes.
Germany is now a thriving democracy with one of the strongest economies in the world. Its political system, though far from perfect, has built-in safeguards against extremism. Its citizens are educated on their history. It is, quite literally, illegal to forget.
Astrology-wise, Germany is a living example of Saturnian discipline + Plutonic transformation. It rebuilt by doing the work. Shadow work. Soul work. Hard work.
That doesn’t mean fascism is dead. Neo-Nazi groups still exist. Hate still festers. But Germany, as a nation, chooses not to repeat its past.
It chose truth over denial. Accountability over amnesia.
History Doesn’t Repeat, But It Rhymes
Germany in the 1930s didn’t collapse overnight. It eroded - one law, one lie, one rally at a time.
It weaponised fear.
It silenced critics.
It scapegoated the vulnerable.
It normalised the unthinkable.
If you’re feeling déjà vu, you're not imagining it.
We’re now living through another Pluto return.
Old empires are cracking. Corruption is being exposed. Systems are shaking.
The last time this energy hit, a revolution was born.
The question is - will we learn, or will we repeat?
Germany’s story shows us both the danger of forgetting and the power of remembering. It reminds us that darkness doesn’t last forever. The sun breaks through the clouds eventually. Trust can be rebuilt. Community can be rebuilt. Maybe not overnight, but over time - through accountability, shared truth, and collective reckoning.
In Germany’s case, it took generations of hard work, reflection, and an unflinching pursuit of justice. It meant facing the ugliest truths head-on - no denial, no excuses. Trust came slowly, painfully, but steadily.
We may be asking ourselves the same question today: How do we rebuild from this mess?
The answer won’t come from waving a flag or holding a rally. It’ll come from rebuilding the very foundation of what we stand for - accountability, empathy, and the courage to face our past, no matter how uncomfortable.
The road ahead won’t be easy.
But what happens next?
That part’s up to us.
Very enlightening,thank you
I tell my 47 supporter friends that secret police forces (ICE), internment camps, and military activity are very costly to operate, and where they think funds will come from to pay for those as our national debt bloats.