Weimar Germany
The Death of a Democracy

Quotes

"Brilliant and important, dark and fascinating. . . . A study of how a society that destroys truth destroys itself. A book for our times."
—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World

"A vivid picture of the life and eventual death of Weimar Germany. . . . An important and illustrative rendition of the events which defined this transient republic."
—The Jerusalem Post

"Spirited. . . . Political chapters alternate with cultural ones . . . as [Sebestyen] seeks to tell the story through the eyes of those who lived it."
—Financial Times

"[A] revisionist account of the first true attempt at democracy on German soil. . . . Sebestyen highlights the 'disastrous' mistakes made by well-intentioned politicians in over their heads. . . . In Sebestyen’s account, the unsleeping metropolis—both glitzy and gritty, tolerant of all manner of eccentricities—becomes a character in its own right: the feverish habitat of artists and addicts, writers and shysters, sexual experimenters and prostitutes, political activists and assassins. . . . Inspired by the brilliant diaries of Count Harry Kessler, a storyteller rather than a dry chronicler, Sebestyen is a charmingly gossipy writer. . . . Mesmerizing."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Sebestyen alternates between deftly explaining the turbulent political situation and exploring art, architecture, film, cabarets, and other creative pursuits. . . . An important addition to Weimar-era scholarship."
—Booklist

"[In] this lively history . . . Sebestyen recaps the Weimar democracy from its founding in the 1918 German Revolution to its fall in 1933. . . . Sebestyen blames that trajectory on fatal compromises made by moderate, pro-democracy Social Democrats and liberal parties. . . . The Weimar government, he notes . . . set a precedent for Hitler’s despotism. . . . It all adds up, Sebestyen contends, to a broad dereliction of duty: 'Democracy was weak and unstable... because there were too few democrats' willing to defend it. Along the way, Sebestyen writes evocatively of the Republic’s culture and social scenes, from nude cabaret acts and Bertolt Brecht plays to bloody street fights between brownshirts and communists. . . . Panoramic."
—Publishers Weekly

“Sebestyen has succeeded triumphantly at that hardest of historians’ tasks: defeating the tyranny of hindsight. The Weimar Republic is usually seen solely through the prism of the horrors that followed it, but this book rightly treats it as a fascinating historical period in its own right. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Sebestyen reminds us once again why he is one of the best historians writing today.”
—Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill

“Excellent. . . . Gripping. . . . This book is more than a narrative of Germany’s descent to Hitler. It is as much social history as political . . . with portraits of its rich, frenetic cultural life. . . . Reading Sebestyen’s gripping book, we encounter on page after page demagogues who employ phrases that might have come out of today’s White House.”
—Max Hastings, The Times

“A fast-paced and dramatic account of this tumultuous decade that could not be more timely. Sebestyen has brought a vast cast of characters to life and in doing so reminds us of the fragilities of civil society and democracy.”
—Tim Bouverie, prize-winning author of Allies at War and Appeasement