A "year of lunacy"

The great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig was referring to Germany in 1923, defined by hyperinflation, violence, a political system on the verge of collapse, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and separatist movements threatening to rip apart the German nation. Most observers found it miraculous that the Weimar Republic—the first German democracy—was able to survive, though some of the more astute realized that the feral undercurrents unleashed that year could lead to much worse. Best-selling author Volker Ullrich draws on letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, and other sources to present a riveting chronicle of one of the most difficult years any modern democracy has ever faced.

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"Such madness in such gigantic proportions.”—Stefan Zweig

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