Germany

A crowd of Germans outside of a Jewish-owned department store in Berlin on the first day of the Nazi boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, 1 April 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park. Public Domain.

‘Bystander Society’ by Mary Fulbrook review

Mary Fulbrook’s Bystander Society: Conformity and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust holds the ambivalent accountable.

A possible self-portrait by Caspar Hauser, c.1830. Shim Harno/Alamy Stock Photo.

The Death of Caspar Hauser

Caspar Hauser died on 17 December 1833, but was it murder or a self-inflicted wound? Hauser’s mysterious death raised as many questions as his mysterious life.

‘Before the masquerade ball, 1922’ by Max Beckmann, a Weimar era artist branded ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis. Bavarian State Painting Collections - Modern Art Collection in the Pinakothek der Moderne Munich (CC BY-SA 4.0).

‘The Weimar Years’ by Frank McDonough review

The Weimar Years: Rise and Fall 1918-1933 by Frank McDonough is a lucid overview of Germany’s tumultuous interwar years.

Adolf Hitler in Landsberg Prison following the Beer Hall Putsch, 1924. Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo.

The Beer Hall Putsch: What Hitler Learnt

In the aftermath of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, Hitler was in prison and the Nazi Party banned. But its failure taught him valuable lessons.

The Red Army storms Königsberg shortly before the collapse of the city on 9 April 1945. AFP/Getty Images

The Battle of Königsberg

For the German military command, the citizens of East Prussia were not a concern; they were a weapon.

Defendants in the dock at the Nuremberg Trials, 1945.

‘Never Again’ by Andrew I. Port review

‘Real world’ German responses to postwar genocide.

The Reichstag on fire, Berlin, February 1933.

‘February 1933’ by Uwe Wittstock review

Germany in February 1933 as it unfolded day-by-day.

The Berlin Wall, November 1989.

All Among the Watchtowers

A new book claims to be the definitive history of the GDR. Is it? And don’t we have those already?

Queuing in front of a cooperative in Leipzig, 1970s.

Stealing a Living

Theft in East Germany was so common as to be nicknamed ‘the people’s sport’. Why were citizens of the GDR so light-fingered?

At the Fürstengraben, 1779 Jena from its origins to the present day

The ‘Jena Set’

The quiet German town that formed the backdrop for the first German Romantic movement.