‘A master storyteller’ The Times
Democracies are fragile. Freedoms that seem secure can be lost. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic.
Fateful Hours tells one of the greatest dramas in world history: the failure of Germany’s first democracy, culminating in the horrific rise of the Third Reich.
But this tragedy was not inevitable. In this gripping new book, celebrated historian Volker Ullrich charts the many failed alternatives and missed opportunities that contributed to German democracy’s collapse. In an immersive style that takes us to the heart of political power, Ullrich argues that, right up until January 1933, history was open – just as in the present, it is up to us whether democracy lives or dies.
Reviews
In his hands, the death of the Weimar Republic is a parable of missed opportunities to save liberal democracy… Elegant… A master storyteller
The Times
An engaging retelling of a momentous era of history… a close-up view of the flawed political mechanics of a time not entirely unlike our own
Spectator
Ullrich breaks new ground, laying out his case in illuminating granularity, moving inch by inch through the political machinations… Gives the reader an ominously clear view of the step-by-step buildup to Nazism, and all of the moments it could have been stopped, but wasn’t
New York Times
Immersive, masterful and profoundly disturbing… Outstanding… likely to be studied for decades or more as a standard work on the Weimar tragedy
Irish Independent
A gripping and timely warning from history
Volker Ullrich proves that German historians can also write elegantly and captivatingly. More exciting than many a thriller
Der Spiegel
An exciting non-fiction book that reads like a novel
Berlin.Table
Ullrich shows in a lively, reportage-like style that the decline of the first German democracy from 1918 to 1933 was not inevitable. An important book
HÖRZU
A vivid book with lessons for today
Die Welt
