Schicksalsjahr 1925. Als Hindenburg Präsident wurde

Reading and discussion

Wolfgang Niess
Moderation: Wolfgang Schorlau
If the wrong people get into the highest offices, democracies can fail. In April 1925, the Germans elected Paul von Hindenburg as their Reich President, setting off a time bomb that would explode with destructive force in 1933. Wolfgang Niess shows how this came about and describes the background to the fateful election of 1925, which afluential forces on the new right wanted to use to drive a wedge between bourgeois democrats and social democrats. Analyzing this election is the key to reinterpreting Hindenburg's role in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. Because sometimes election results only unfold their destructive potential years later. Wolfgang Niess holds a doctorate in history and was an editor and presenter at Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) and Südwestrundfunk (SWR) for many years. He is the author of numerous radio and television programs, essays and book publications on aspects of contemporary history and lives in Stuttgart. He will be joined in conversation by Stuttgart crime writer Wolfgang Schorlau, whose successful crime novels are not only thoroughly and deeply researched, but also repeatedly address controversial political issues.