Audiobooks by Katja Hoyer

Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe

"Brought to you by Penguin. From bestselling historian Katja Hoyer comes a gripping story of life during the rise and reign of Hitler through the eyes of the people of Weimar Weimar looms large in German history: a crucible of democracy and dictatorship. This ancient town nestled in the heart of the country was home to some of Europe's greatest thinkers, Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Nietzsche among them. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest. Weimar shows us a town and its people on the edge of catastrophe. Drawing on a wealth of new archival research, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer takes us from 1919 to 1939 as she tells the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler's regime. We encounter a vividly drawn cast of characters, from bookbinder Carl Weirich and hotel owners Rosa and Arthur Schmidt, to Friedrich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth. Here are fascists and socialists, artists and workers, politicians and citizens, who, as the events of history swept them up, became witnesses, perpetrators, victims and bystanders. An unforgettable picture of lives and choices in extraordinary circumstances, Weimar takes us deep into the heart of the storm – to the town that dreamt of a better world, and woke up to tyranny. © Katja Hoyer 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026"

Katja Hoyer (Author), Sam Peter Jackson (Narrator)

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[Swedish] - Ledarskap och statskonst: Studier i makt

"Machiavellis observation om ledarskapets svåra balansgång är lika relevant i vår tid, som den en gång var i 1500-talets Florens. Kinas framväxt, Rysslands attack mot Ukraina och den växande politiska och ekonomiska närvaron i den globala södern har aktualiserat frågan om vikten av kompetent ledarskap inom politiskt styre. Denna ljudbok utforskar utmaningarna för ledarskap och statskonst i en allt mer komplex värld och ställer frågan huruvida vi kan skapa politiska eliter som är kapabla att på ett säkert vis vägleda väst genom de många prövningar vi står inför. Genom att se till vårt förflutna såväl som till vår samtid undersöker världsledande forskare och skribenter hur ledarskapsidéer har utvecklats genom historien för att ge oss en större förståelse för statskonsten och för vilka färdigheter och organisationer som krävs för att driva små stater, stora imperier och allt däremellan."

Alexander Lee, Ali Ansari, Alina Polyakova, Andreas Rödder, Anna Wieslander, Benedetta Berti, Charles Moore, Claire Coutinho, Daisy Dunn, David Butterfield, Edward Stringer, Elisabeth Braw, Francis J. Gavin, Fredrik Logevall, Gudrun Persson, Henrik Meinander, Iskander Rehman, J. C. D. Clark, James Marriott, John Bew, Julian Jackson, Katja Hoyer, Kenneth Payne, Kentaro Fujimoto, Kori Schake, Kristin Ven Bruusgaard, Lucy Ward, Michael Scott, Munira Mirza, Nathan Shachar, Philip Zelikow, Rory Medcalf, Sergey Radchenko (Author), Per Runhammar (Narrator)

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Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990

"Brought to you by Penguin. The definitive new history of East Germany by an acclaimed historian In 1990, a country disappeared. For the previous forty-one years, East Germany had existed in Western minds as more of a metaphor than a place, more of a grey communist blur than a land of real people with friends and families, workplaces and homes. As Germany once again became a single state, the history of the GDR was simplified and politicised. It was nothing but Stasi spies and central planning, nothing but a wall in Berlin. In Beyond the Wall, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer looks past these outdated conceptions and toward a more comprehensive history, one that acknowledges border guards, secret police and brutal repression, as well as comprehensive welfare, unprecedented gender equality, and the deconstruction of class privilege. There were those who were silenced, she argues, and also those who felt they had been given a voice for the first time. Both deserve to be heard today. Based on first-hand accounts and extensive new research, Hoyer presents the history of the GDR as never before -- as a kaleidoscope of perspectives, experiences and stories. From the ashes of the Second World War to the fall of the USSR, this is the definitive story of the other Germany, the one beyond the Wall. ©2023 Katja Hoyer (P)2023 Penguin Audio"

Katja Hoyer (Author), Sam Peter Jackson (Narrator)

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Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918

"In a unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. Before 1871, Germany was not a nation but an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser, convincing proud Prussians, Bavarians and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France – all without destroying itself in the process? “The best biography of the Second Reich in years ... It will undoubtedly become the essential account of this vitally important part of European history” -ANDREW ROBERTS"

Katja Hoyer (Author), Kristin Atherton (Narrator)

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