Dublin Festival of History Podcast

In the annals of the Third Reich, little has been said about the role played by the German nobility in the Nazis’ rise to power. Nazis and Nobles now fills this gap, providing the first systematic investigation of the role played by the nobility in German political life between Germany’s defeat in the First World War in 1918 and the consolidation of Nazi power in the 1930s.

As Stephan Malinowski shows, the German nobility was too weak to prevent the German Revolution of 1918 but strong enough to take an active part in the struggle against the Weimar Republic. In this skilful portrait of an aristocratic world that was soon to disappear, Malinowski gives us for the first time the in-depth story of the German nobility’s social decline and political radicalization in the inter-war years.

Stephan Malinowski teaches Modern European History at the University of Edinburgh. Born and raised in Berlin, he is one of Germany’s leading experts on the history of the German nobility in the 20th century.

Robert Gerwarth is Professor of Modern History at UCD and Director of its Centre for War Studies.

This event was organised in collaboration with the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland.

The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.

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The 1921 partition of Ireland had huge ramifications for almost all aspects of Irish life and was directly responsible for hundreds of deaths and injuries, with thousands displaced from their homes and many more forced from their jobs. Two new justice systems were created; the effects on the major religions were profound, with both jurisdictions adopting wholly different approaches; and major disruptions were caused in crossing the border, with invasive checks and stops becoming the norm.

Very little has been written on the actual effects of partition, the-day-to-day implications, and the complex ways that society, north and south, was truly and meaningfully affected. Cormac Moore's Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland is the most comprehensive account to date on the far-reaching effects of the partitioning of Ireland.

In this episode author and Dublin City Council historian-in-residence Cormac Moore explains how the partition of Ireland in 1920 came about. The questions are asked by Deputy City Librarian Brendan Teeling and episode was recorded via Zoom on the 3rd October 2021.

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Celebrity, with its neon glow and selfie pout, strikes us as hypermodern. But the famous and infamous have been thrilling, titillating, and outraging us for much longer than we might realise. In this ambitious history, that spans the Bronze Age to the coming of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Greg Jenner assembles a vibrant cast of over 125 actors, singers, dancers, sportspeople, freaks, demigods, ruffians, and more, in search of celebrity’s historical roots.

In this episode from the 2020 Dublin Festival of History, public historian, broadcaster, and author Greg Jenner talks about his book Dead Famous: an unexpected history of celebrity. The episode is moderated by author and journalist Anna Carey and was recorded via Zoom on the 1st October 2021

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On the brink of defeat, Hitler commissioned 10,000 V2s - ballistic rockets that carried a one-ton warhead at three times the speed of sound, which he believed would win the war.

Dr Rudi Graf who, along with his friend Werner von Braun, had once dreamt of sending a rocket to the moon, now finds himself in November 1944 in a bleak seaside town in Occupied Holland, launching V2s against London. Kay Caton-Walsh, an officer in the WAAF, has experienced first-hand the horror of a V2 strike. When 160 Londoners, mostly women and children, are killed by a single missile, the government decides to send a team of WAAFs to newly-liberated Belgium in the hope of discovering the location of the launch sites. But not all the Germans have left and Kay finds herself in mortal danger.

In this episode best-selling author Robert Harris returns to the Festival to talk about his book V2, the story of the deadliest rockets of the Second World War. The episode is moderated by journalist and broadcaster Edel Coffey and was recorded via Zoom on the 27th September 2020

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After her grandmother died, Hadley Freeman travelled to her apartment to try and make sense of a woman she’d never really known. When Hadley found a shoebox filled with her grandmother’s treasured belongings, it started a decade-long quest to find out their haunting significance and to dig deep into the extraordinary lives of Sala Glass and her three brothers. The search takes Hadley from Picasso’s archives in Paris to a secret room in a farmhouse in Auvergne to Long Island and to Auschwitz.

A moving memoir following the Glass siblings throughout the course of the 20th century as they each make their own bid for survival, House of Glass explores assimilation, identity and home – issues that are deeply relevant today.

In this episode journalist and author Hadley Freeman discusses her book ‘House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family'. The episode is moderated by journalist Sarah Carey and was recorded via Zoom on the 25th September 2020.

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In the years just before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people from across the political spectrum in Europe and America celebrated a great achievement, felt a common purpose and, very often, forged personal friendships. Yet over the following decades the euphoria evaporated, the common purpose and centre ground gradually disappeared, extremism rose once more and eventually - as this book compellingly relates - the relationships soured too.

Anne Applebaum traces this history in an unfamiliar way, looking at the trajectories of individuals caught up in the public events of the last three decades. When politics becomes polarized, which side do you back? 

In this episode Anne Applebaum returns to the Festival to talk about her book Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends. Anne is in conversation with Paschal Donohue, TD, Ireland's Minister for Finance and President of the EuroGroup. The questions are asked by Deputy City Librarian Brendan Teeling, and the episode was recorded via Zoom on the 3rd October 2021.

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At the beginning of 1940 Germany was at the pinnacle of its power. By May 1945 Hitler was dead and Germany had suffered a disastrous defeat. Hitler had failed to achieve his aim of making Germany a super power and had left her people to cope with the endless shame of the Holocaust. In The Hitler Years ~ Disaster 1940-1945, Professor Frank McDonough charts the dramatic change of fortune for the Third Reich, and challenges long-held accounts of the Holocaust and Germany's ultimate defeat.

In this special episode historian Professor Frank McDonough returns to the Festival to talk about his book The Hitler Years: Disaster 1940-1945, the second volume in his history of the Third Reich. Frank is in conversation with actor, and voice of the audiobook, Paul McGann. The episode was recorded via Zoom on 4th December 2021.

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In The Ratline, his riveting real-life thriller, Philippe Sands offers a unique account of the daily life of senior Nazi SS Brigadefuhrer Otto Freiherr von Wachter and his wife, Charlotte. Drawing on a remarkable archive of family letters and diaries, he unveils a fascinating insight into life before and during the war, as a fugitive on the run in the Alps and then in Rome, and into the Cold War.

In this episode Philippe Sands talks about The Ratline with UCD's Professor Robert Gerwarth. This event was presented in co-operation with the Holocaust Education Trust of Ireland and was recorded via Zoom on the 4th October 2021.

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At 9am on the morning of 21 November 1920, Michael Collins’ IRA gunmen killed 15 suspected British intelligence officers at various sites across Dublin City. In the afternoon Crown forces opened fire on the crowd at a Dublin v Tipperary Gaelic football match in Croke Park killing 14 people, including 3 children and a Tipperary player.

John Borgonovo and Michael Foley discuss the events of a day that changed Ireland forever.

Author of The Bloodied Field, which tells the story of what happened in Croke Park that day, Michael Foley is a journalist and author..

John Borgonovo teaches history at University College Cork and has written extensively on the Civil War period.

Padraig Yeates is a distinguished social and labour historian and the author of City in Revolution which was published in 2014.

Recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle on 26 September 2015.

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In 1914 a civilization that had blandly assumed itself to be a model for the rest of the world had collapsed into a savagery beyond any comparison. In 1939 Europeans initiated a second conflict that managed to be even worse, a war in which the killing of civilians was central and which culminated in the Holocaust. We are delighted to welcome one of Britain’s greatest historians to discuss what it meant for the Europeans who initiated and lived through such fearful times. The episode was recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle, on 1st October 2017.

Sir Ian Kershaw’s work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world’s leading experts on the Third Reich, and is particularly noted for his biographies of Hitler.

Robert Gerwarth is Professor of Modern History at UCD.

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