Hitler and the Nazi Party didn’t need a coup to attain power. He gained it by outsmarting Germany’s Weimar ruling class and the new business class known as the Conservative Elite. Their greed, combined with their ignorance, contributed to Hitler’s rise to power and the Third Reich. 

Against many harsh odds, Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797) became an African writer. He used his experience as a former enslaved person to teach and encourage the British abolition movement. 

Known as the “Limping Lady,” Hall became a pioneer in the intelligence industry. She posed as a milkmaid, charwoman, and farmworker to move through rural areas unnoticed. Hall sometimes pretended to be a deaf-mute. One of her most famous disguises involved dressing as a frail older woman, complete with a hunched posture, shabby clothes, and a cane. She darkened her hair and stained her teeth to complete the look. She always evaded the Gestapo.

Hitler changed German education to instill Nazi ideology in youth. He taught them to relish hatred rather than think. The so-called reforms began in the early 1930s and grew after Hitler came to power in 1933.

re you the talented older sister of a younger, talented brother who is less talented because you’re female? You are not alone in history. Maria Anna Mozart, like her younger brother Wolfgang, showed a brilliant talent for the harpsichord, fortepiano, and composition. However, she couldn’t be the odds against her father and brother because she was a girl.

Baker used her talent and celebrity status to gather intelligence for the French Resistance. She also entertained the troops and assisted the Red Cross. To smuggle classified documents written in invisible ink on sheet music. Notes pinned inside her underwear while traveling across Europe remained undetected because guards were more apt to ask for her autograph. 

Adolf Hitler began spying on political groups in Munich as a hired Weimar Army informant in mid-1919. A small nationalist group called the German Workers’ Party (DAP) caught his fancy. So much so that he became member #55, and soon became the party’s most dynamic speaker, shaping its pro-nationalist agenda by demonizing Jews, Marxists, and Democracy.

Jane Fawcett (née Hughes, 1921–2016) was the “Jill” of all trades. She is best known for her work at Bletchley Park during World War II.

After World War I, Germany owed 132 billion gold Marks in reparations ($2.84 trillion USD). Germany began printing more paper money without gold reserves, which led to hyperinflation. The U.S. 1924 Dawes Plan allowed Germany to restructure reparations and attracted foreign loans. A cultural renaissance, known as the Weimar Renaissance or the Golden Twenties, laid the groundwork for Hitler’s rise and the establishment of the Third Reich.