Vermont Humanities

How Did Germany’s Weimar Democracy Become the Third Reich?

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Speakers Bureau

Image of rally in GermanyDefeated, humiliated, and in chaos, Germany after World War I was imperiled by leftist revolution and right-wing violence. Jack Mayer recounts the origins of the Third Reich through the story of Ernst Werner Techow, a member of the para-military Free Corps and the murderous Organization C, who was recruited into a clandestine assassination network trying to bring down the fledgling Weimar democracy.

Techow participated in the 1922 murder of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, the highest-ranking Jew in the Weimar Republic. But an offer of forgiveness while on trial for his life set him on a complex journey of redemption.

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About the Presenter

Talks by Jack Mayer

Image of rally in Germany

How Did Germany’s Weimar Democracy Become the Third Reich?

Jack Mayer recounts the origins of the Third Reich through the story of Ernst Werner Techow, a right-wing assassin who reversed his politics while on trial for his life.

Image of painting of a woman

Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

Dr. Jack Mayer tells the story of Irena Sendler, a Holocaust hero who rescued 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto.

Vermont Humanities*** August 5, 2016