Why Nazism appealed to a conservative naval officer

Canaris's early attraction to Nazism followed a wider political pattern among conservative and Prussian-minded officers. Fear of the Soviet Union, anger over revolutionary unrest, and the belief that left-wing politicians had betrayed the armed forces made promises of stability attractive. Naval professionalism did not insulate officers from extremist politics after the First World War. Canaris's later opposition to Hitler therefore cannot be read as the work of an anti-Nazi hero who had resisted from the beginning.