The Downfall of Money: Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class (63 page)

‘Superb, fast-paced and readable history’
Evening Standard

During the night of 12–13 August 1961, a barbed-wire entanglement was hastily constructed through the heart of Berlin. It metamorphosed into a structure that would come to symbolise the insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Frederick Taylor tells the story of the post-war political conflict that led to a divided Berlin and unleashed an East–West crisis, which lasted until the very people the Wall had been built to imprison breached it on 9 November 1989. Weaving together history, original archive research and personal stories,
The Berlin Wall
is the definitive account of a divided city and its people in a time when humanity seemed to stand permanently on the edge of destruction.

‘A story of great drama and human interest … Hundreds tried to escape over, through, or under the wall, and Taylor tells the story of their ingenious efforts and occasional heart-stopping successes with great verve’
The Times

‘For those who wish to understand the rise of the Wall, this book is invaluable’
Independent

Dresden

Tuesday, 13 February 1945

‘In narrative power and persuasion, he has paralleled in
Dresden
what Anthony Beevor achieved in
Stalingrad
’
Independent on Sunday

At 9.51 p.m. on Tuesday 13 February 1945, Dresden’s air-raid sirens sounded as they had done many times during the Second World War. But this time was different. By the next morning, more than 4,500 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices had been dropped on the unprotected city. At least 25,000 inhabitants died in the terrifying firestorm and thirteen square miles of the city’s historic centre, including treasures and works of art, lay in ruins. In this portrait of the city, its people, and its still-controversial destruction, Frederick Taylor has drawn on archives and sources only accessible since the fall of the East German regime and talked to aircrew and survivors, from members of the German armed services and refugees fleeing the Russian advance to ordinary citizens of Dresden.

‘An absolutely magnificent work both of scholarship and of narration … Superb’
Literary Review

‘Taylor’s magnificent, all-encompassing study of the action, its origin and its aftermath is surely as close as the English language will get to a definitive, balanced examination of the subject’
Scotsman

Exorcising Hitler

The Occupation and Denazification of Germany

‘An enthralling narrative about a crucial period of modern Europe’s history’
Observer

The collapse of the Third Reich in 1945, though it had lasted for only twelve brief but terrifying years, was as cataclysmic as the fall of the Roman Empire. The twentieth century dawned on a prosperous and universally admired German nation. Yet by 1933, embittered by one lost war and a punitive peace treaty and scarred by mass unemployment, Germany embraced the dark cult of National Socialism. Within a generation, all was lost.

In
Exorcising Hitler
, Frederick Taylor tells the story of Germany’s Year Zero. Drawing on contemporary documents and eyewitness accounts, he describes the bloody, drawn-out final Allied campaign, the hunting down of the Nazi resistance, the terrifying displacement of millions in central and eastern Europe, and the hunger and near starvation of a once proud people.
Exorcising Hitler
is gripping history that explains what lies behind the strength of Germany’s democracy and economy today.

‘Popular history at its best’ Richard Evans

A lucid and harrowing tale … It avoids a simple morality tale and offers a nuanced yet readable account of perpetrators and victims alike’
****
Sunday Express

‘Essential reading for anyone who is interested in the Nazis and wants to know what happened next’ Richard Evans,
New Statesman

‘Frederick Taylor is one of the brightest historians writing today’ Philip Kerr,
Newsweek

‘
Exorcising Hitler
is full of fascinating, and often surprising, material … Taylor is diligent with his statistics, each packing a terrible punch’ Craig Brown,
Mail on Sunday

Order your copy:

By phone: +44 (0) 1256 302 699

By email:
[email protected]

Delivery is usually 3–5 working days.

Free postage and packaging for orders over £20.

Online:
www.bloomsbury.com/bookshop

Prices and availability subject to change without notice.

www.bloomsbury.com/fredericktaylor

First published in Great Britain 2013

This electronic edition published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © Frederick Taylor 2013

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN: 978-1-4088-3992-8

To find out more about our authors and their books please visit
www.bloomsbury.com
where you will find extracts, author interviews and details of forthcoming events, and to be the first to hear about latest releases and special offers, sign up for our newsletters
here
.