With January 30, 1933, as its starting point, this book addresses a topic that has become highly relevant. Lothar Machtan faithfully reconstructs the final weeks of Germany’s first democracy, painting a portrait of a state culture teetering on the brink of collapse.
Image gallery
Lothar Machtan: Die Januarverbrecher
His focus is consistently on the actors of the time: driven by a thirst for revenge, a lust for power, and fear, they unleashed a “showdown” that drowned out the warning signs of a political meltdown—and ultimately turned the surrender of state power to Hitler into an irreversible act of irresponsibility.
One thing becomes clear: The Weimar Republic did not fail. The “January criminals” on Wilhelmstraße maliciously allowed it to collapse, only to then, out of strategic calculation, hand over the cleanup to the leader of the National Socialists. A cautionary tale that shows what can happen when control of power slips from the hands of a democratically constituted form of government.
Lothar Machtan, born in 1949 in Gelsenkirchen, studied history and political science at the University of Heidelberg. He earned his doctorate and habilitation at the University of Bremen, where he taught as a professor of modern history until 2015. In addition to Bremen, he has conducted research and taught in Konstanz, Berlin, Kassel, Halle, and at Claremont McKenna College in California.
Since 1999, he has worked part-time as a freelance writer.
Participating artists
Lothar Machtan;
Dates
August 2026
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