Black's History Week

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Weimar Republic and whether its collapse blinds us to its achievements.

Picture: DDP poster for the Reichstag elections. May, 1928. "Clean up the Reich! Vote German Democrat!" Germany. (Photo by: PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

How was Germany governed during the pressures of the First World War and what caused the shortages that delivered so much hardship to its civilians? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about wartime in the Kaiser's Reich.

How democratic was Germany in the prelude to the First World War and what were the tensions in politics and society that ensured so much trust was placed in militarism? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart about Kaiser Wilhelm II, his chancellors and the mood of a modernising country racing towards catastrophe.

Picture: German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1859 - 1941) in military uniform, circa 1900. (Photo by Estate of Emil Bieber/Klaus Niermann/Getty Images)

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of a A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the path of German unification, from the failed revolutions of 1848 to the creation of Bismarck's Reich.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the wars with revolutionary France and annexations by Napoleon reshaped the German lands.

Photo: "Blucher the Brave Extracting the Groan of Abdication from the Corsican Blood Hound", April 9, 1814. Artist Thomas Rowlandson. (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the role of Prussia in the eighteenth century and whether its ruler, Frederick, really was so great.

Picture: Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786). (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black explains to the The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, how German states that were ravaged by the Thirty Years War recovered to produce the cultural achievements of the Baroque Age.

Picture: A View in Cologne, c. 1660. Found in the collection of the National Gallery, London. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the origins and course of the Thirty Years War in the German lands.

Picture: "Death of King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden at the Battle of Lützen", 1855, by Carl Wahlbom (1810-1858)

How much of a German identity was there in the Holy Roman Empire in the 700 years between Charlemagne and the eve of the Reformation?

In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, discusses where medieval power lay with The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart.

In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the effect that Martin Luther and the Reformation had on the German lands and whether a compromise solution existed but was missed.