As the night fell

Herbert Lackner and Michael Köhlmeier in dialogueh

As the night fell

"People never came to the great evil with one big step, but with many small ones, each of which seemed too small for a great outrage. First they say, then they do.“

Herbert Lackner begins his new book with this quote from a speech by the writer Michael Köhlmeier at the Day of Remembrance against Violence and Racism in May 2018.
He accompanies Albert Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler, Elias Canetti, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan Zweig, Oskar Kokoschka and many others through the dramatic years between the First and Second World Wars. And describes what the small steps that led to the great catastrophe of the 20th century looked like and how they were perceived by the most important authors, composers, philosophers, scientists and publicists of their time.
Why were the fire signals not taken seriously, why were brute racists, rioters and rabble-rousers underestimated until it was too late? Who fertilised the soil for these excesses?

Greeting:
Franz Vranitzky, Former Federal Chancellor, Founding and Honorary President of the Bruno Kreisky Forum

Conversation:
Herbert Lackner, political scientist and publicist, former editor-in-chief of the news magazine profil, author of numerous articles on contemporary history in profil and Die Zeit
and
Michael Köhlmeier, author and storyteller who has received numerous Austrian and international awards for his novels, stories and radio plays.