The Gravediggers: 1932, The Last Winter of the Weimar Republic

(Paperback, Main)

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November 1932. With the German economy in ruins and street battles raging between political factions, the Weimar Republic is in its death throes. Its elderly president Paul von Hindenburg floats above the fray, inscrutably haunting the halls of the Reichstag. In the shadows, would-be saviours of the nation vie for control.

The great rivals are the chancellors Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher. Both are tarnished by the republic's all-too-evident failures. Each man believes he can steal a march on the other by harnessing the increasingly popular National Socialists - while reining in their most alarming elements, naturally. Adolf Hitler has ideas of his own. But if he can't impose discipline on his own rebellious foot-soldiers, what chance does he have of seizing power

Reviews

A sharply focused study of the many poor decisions that ended with Hitler's taking power. * Kirkus *
Startling ... What comes clear in the authors' account is how few understood the extent of the abyss that lay ahead ... The more the reader knows about the horrors to come, the darker The Last Winter seems. -- Andrew Stuttaford * Wall Street Journal *

Author Bio

Born in 1972 in Saarbrucken, Rudiger Barth studied Contemporary History and General Rhetoric in Tubingen. After 15 years as a journalist for the German weekly Stern, he now works as a freelance author.

Born in 1980 in Hamburg, Hauke Friederichs studied Social and Economic History and wrote his PhD thesis on piracy in the Mediterranean. He has worked for publications including Die Zeit, Stern, Geo, Epoche and P.M. History.