Book Launch - Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe by Katja Hoyer

The Goethe-Institut London, in collaboration with the British-German Association, is delighted to invite you to an evening with historian and author Katja Hoyer, who will be in conversation with Julia Boyd about Katja’s new book, Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe.
In this timely discussion, Katja and Julia will explore the promises and contradictions of the Weimar Republic, a period marked by extraordinary cultural vibrancy, political turmoil and social change. The event will be chaired by literary editor Frederick Studemann.
Weimar looms large in German history: a crucible of democracy and dictatorship. Home to Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Nietzsche, the town gave its name to the ambitious republic born after the First World War. Yet it was also a place where Bauhaus architects reimagined modern life while, not far away, Buchenwald was carved out of a beech forest.
Drawing on rich new archival research, Katja Hoyer takes us from 1919 to 1939, following the men and women who lived through the republic and Hitler’s regime. Through their choices and compromises, hopes and failures, Weimar leads us into the heart of a town that dreamt of a better world and woke to tyranny.

KATJA HOYER is a German-British historian and journalist. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her last book Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 was a Sunday Times and Spiegel bestseller and long-listed for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize. Katja is a columnist for Berliner Zeitung and a regular contributor to British and American news outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. Her new book Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe will be published in May 2026.

JULIA BOYD is currently a trustee of Wigmore Hall and has just finished writing a history of the Hall for its 125th anniversary. She is the author of Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People.

FREDERICK STUDEMANN is Literary Editor of the Financial Times. He joined the FT in 1996 as Berlin correspondent, having also served as assistant news editor, UK correspondent, European news editor, Analysis editor and most recently as Comment & Analysis editor . He was a founding member of FT Deutschland where he ran the features and weekend section. He was a judge of the 2023 International Book Prize for Fiction in Translation; and the Chair of Judges for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

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