Did The Spanish Flu Pandemic Help The Nazis Take Power? – Mythbusting Berlin

“Pandemics of influenza have been recognized since earliest recorded history and, because of the mutability of the virus, still represent a formidable threat to the health of the nation.”
Paul Glezen, author of Emerging infections: pandemic influenza

As one pale rider arrived to take centre-stage in the European theatre, another seemed close to being thrown from the saddle – perhaps permanently.

While the attention of the world, in 1933, remained fixed on events in Germany – where at the start of the year, the National Socialist Party had seized power and established single-party rule – elsewhere in Europe, three British scientists managed, for the first time ever, to isolate an influenza virus.

By the early 1930s, the menace of so-called ‘Spanish Flu’ had receded – almost miraculously departing – just as the bacillus threat of Hitlerism was edging closer to its zenith.

The ability to isolate an influenza virus in 1933 meant that scientists would soon be able to provide a tailor made solution to the threat of this deadly outbreak, where previously prophylactic measures such as isolation, wearing of masks, and social distancing seemed the only methods available to limit the spread of the pandemic.

In-fact, by 1936, the same three researchers responsible for this breakthrough had managed to develop a live influenza virus vaccine – but by this time, with German remilitarisation of the Rhineland and the violation of the peace of the Treaty of Versailles, and the outbreak of the Spanish civil war dominating the headlines in Europe, concern for the lethality of what was commonly referred to as ‘Spanish flu’ had been replaced by more immediate threats.

A new political manifestation of death was stalking the European continent and threatening all-out war.

First Rome, the Berlin, now Madrid? Fascism was now spreading as rapidly as any virus – and 1936 was the year when, in Spain, it finally looked like the tide might break.