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Fateful Hours

The Collapse of the Weimar Republic
Brief Description
Fateful Hours tells one of the greatest dramas in world history: the failure of Germany's first democracy, culminating in the horrific rise of the Third Reich. But this tragedy was not inevitable. In this gripping new book, celebrated historian Volker Ullrich charts the many failed alternatives... Read More
Format: Hardback
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Democracies are fragile. Freedoms that seem secure can be lost. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic.

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Fateful Hours tells one of the greatest dramas in world history: the failure of Germany's first democracy, culminating in the horrific rise of the Third Reich.

But this tragedy was not inevitable. In this gripping new book, celebrated historian Volker Ullrich charts the many failed alternatives and missed opportunities that contributed to German democracy's collapse. In an immersive style that takes us to the heart of political power, Ullrich argues that, right up until January 1933, history was openβ€”just as in the present, it is up to us whether democracy lives or dies.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781805332794

Publisher: Pushkin Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 09 October 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Pushkin Press

Contributors:

  • Translated by Jefferson Chase
  • Translated by Jefferson Chase

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 384

About the Author

Volker Ullrich is a historian and journalist whose previous books include biographies of Bismarck and Napoleon, as well as a major study of Imperial Germany, The Nervous Superpower, 1871-1918. Ullrich was for many years editor of the political books review section of Die Zeit. His two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler was a German bestseller.

Jefferson Chase is a writer, translator and journalist based in Berlin. He has translated more than a dozen German texts into English, including The Writers' Castle by Uwe Neumahr, also available from Pushkin.

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