A Companion to Nazi GermanyA COMPANION TO nazi germany A Deep Exploration of the Rise, Reign, and Legacy of the Third Reich For its brief existence, National Socialist Germany was one of the most destructive regimes in the history of humankind. Since that time, scholarly debate has wrestled with multiple and complex issues. Did Nazism result from Germany's long term pathological development, or was it the most extreme outcome of European modernity? Was terror the defining force