Weimar and Hitler: How did fascism take hold in Germany’s historic town? With Katja Hoyer

About this episode

Katja Hoyer discusses the rise of fascism in Weimar, Germany, through the lives of its citizens from 1919 to 1939.

The town of Weimar looms large in German history. This ancient town nestled in the heart of the country was home to some of Europe's greatest thinkers, Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Nietzsche among them. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest. German-British historian Katya Hoyer has drawn on a wealth of new archival research to tell the story of Weimar through the lives of some of its citizens from the years 1919-1939. In this episode, she talks to historian Sophie Scott-Brown about some of these vividly drawn characters who, as the events of history swept them up, became witnesses, perpetrators, victims and bystanders. How did Germany, within a few years, turn from one of the most liberal democracies in the world to a genocidal dictatorship? What choices did individual Germans make that enabled this? And what lessons can we learn to avoid repeating their mistakes? Katja Hoyer is Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical…

People in this episode

Host: Sophie Scott-Brown

Guest: Katja Hoyer

Topics covered

• fascism
• Weimar Republic
• German history
• individual choices
• liberal democracy
• genocidal dictatorship

Keywords

• Weimar
• fascism
• Germany
• history
• democracy
• Buchenwald
• Goethe
• Schiller
• choices
• dictatorship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: King's College London, Royal Historical Society

Books & works: Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe

Places: Weimar, Buchenwald

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