1919-1921: A New Heart

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 first uneasy steps of the new democracy.

On the 28th June 1919, the allies finalise Peace conditions The Treaty of Versailles with Germany. Germany has to disarm, and to relinquish much of its territory. They will have to pay reparations for years to come.

The National Assembly is elected, and they need to draw up a new constitution. But democracy doesn’t come easily. There is rioting and chaos in Berlin. As a safer places is needed to convene, Weimar - with its brand new rail station, and airfield, and as Germany’s cultural is chosen. Germany will be a democracy but at some cost. The Weimar Republic is born in Weimar.

Carl’s wife Friedel dies, and a year later Carl decides to write to his childhood sweetheart Marie – who accepts his hand in marriage.

After being disgraced as a gambling den, the Hotel Hohenzollern comes up for new management, and it is just the opportunity Arthur and Rosa are looking for.

And quietly in April 1919, another revolution takes place. This one led by Walter Gropius - the Bauhaus Movement is born 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.