The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings
C. G. Jung
Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press 1976

“Who would have thought it in 1900 that it would be possible thirty years later for such things to happen in Germany as are happening today? Would you have believed that a whole nation of highly intelligent and cultivated people could be seized by the fascinating power of an archetype? I saw it coming, and I can understand it because I know the power of the collective unconscious. But on the surface it looks simply incredible. … “(p.164)

“…So much so that before our very eyes the “most industrious, efficient, and intelligent” nation in Europe could fall into a state of non compos mentis and put a poorly gifted housepainter, who was never distinguished by any particular intelligence but only by the use of the right means of mass intoxication, quite literally on the altar of totalitarianism, otherwise reserved for a theocracy, and leave him there. Evidently neither knowledge nor preparation of any kind is needed for the direction of the State, and without any military training one can be a great Field Marshal. Even intelligence blenches at the sight of it and cannot but marvel at the unprecedented “genius.” It was indeed something quite out of the ordinary when a person came along and cold-bloodedly stated that he would take over the responsibility. It was so stupefying that nobody thought of asking who was accepting responsibility, or of taking the necessary precautions against public mischief. At all events the thing promised far too much for anyone to take serious offence.” (p. 596)