1930: Democracy to Dictatorship

The story of the residents of Weimar during the rise and reign of Hitler.

Weimar – On the Edge of Catastrophe is written by Katja Hoyer.
The reader is Sian Thomas.
The abridger is Julian Wilkinson.
The producer is Lu Kemp.

The coalition need the Nazi party, and Hitler negotiates control over the Ministry of the Interior (civil service and policing) and the Ministry of Education (schools and cultures). Wilhelm Frick becomes their first Nazi minister – he is sworn in in Weimar.

Meanwhile circumstances for ordinary Germans is increasingly hard. Homelessness and unemployment are rife. Carl Weirich is desperately trying to stabilise his mortgage payments and to feed his family. Reparations are having a devastating effect on Germany.

Meanwhile Frick’s sojourn in parliament is incendiary but effective. He removes opponents of the Nazi Party from public office, replacing them with his own loyalists, and does the same with professions of standing (Doctors and Police). He oversees the police standing back when Nazi troops ambush left-wing protests in the streets. The central government attempts to push back, but to no avail. Frick then goes after culture – ensuring that only ultra conservatives programme the arts in Weimar...

Weimar explores ‘the question of how and why a nation that prided itself on its culture and civility enabled the catastrophe of Nazism haunts us to this day because we fear a repeat.’ The book is about the tension between individual and collective responsibility and sounds a warning for our own times.

Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian, journalist and the author of the international bestseller Beyond the Wall as well as Blood and Iron. A visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she writes for Bloomberg and Berliner Zeitung and is a commentator on German current affairs for many British newspapers. She was born in Germany and is now based in the UK.