WHAT WEIMAR HAS IN COMMON WITH THE AFD – AND WHAT IT DOESN’T

How does a nation slide into dictatorship? Why do people not resist, or why do they resist too late? The British-German historian Katja Hoyer has researched this. Her book *Weimar: Splendour and Horror of German History* examines how the city of Goethe, Nietzsche and the Bauhaus – the cradle of German high culture – degenerated into the epicentre of Nazi barbarism. Hoyer, who previously produced a major SPIEGEL bestseller with *This Side of the Wall: A New History of the GDR 1949–1990*, takes a similar approach in *Weimar*. She combed through the city archives for accounts of ordinary people who lived through the rise and fall of the Third Reich – and how it shaped their lives.

Today, Germany once again finds itself at a loss as to why so many people – particularly in the former GDR – vote for the AfD, a party with far-right elements. In the course of her research, Hoyer not only learnt about Weimar in the 1930s; she also encountered the people of today.  "Rarely has a book on German history moved me so deeply,“ writes the German pianist and political activist Igor Levit about *Weimar*.

Katja Hoyer, Historian and author, visiting scholar at King’s College London and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Moderation

Tessa Szyszkowitz, author and journalist, writing for, amongst others, the Austrian weekly newspaper *Falter*, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.