1922-1924: A Slow Creep

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.

Weimar becomes the capital of the new state of Thuringia.

The Bauhaus school mount an exhibition. Weimar is transformed with visitors from all over the world – American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, controversial French architect Le Corbusier. But this explosion of modern art is met with strong resistance in Weimar, who feel the threat to their traditional way of life, and classical culture.

Inflation in Germany starts to spiral out of control, as the weight of post-war reparation payments make life increasingly difficult for the majority of Germans. The value of the mark starts to spiral down at eye-watering speed. Determined to preserve his happiness with Marie despite the economic pressures Carl Weirich and Marie take cycle rides and go hiking. They gather windfall in the countryside for free in order to be able to eat.

In Munich a far-right Austrian firebrand attempts a revolution and fails. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is arrested two days later. In prison Hitler writes ‘Mine Kampf’ and in his absence a birthday party is held for him at the Hotel Hohenzollern – an establishment now owned by Rosa Schmidt, a Jewish woman – not that any of the attendant Nazis are aware of this.

The Bauhaus movement under increasing pressure from local authorities gives up on Weimar and moves to Dessau.

A new coalition is formed to run the new Republic, but in order to form, they need 7 seats to be filled by the Volkish MPS – three of them Nazi Party members.

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.