Nazis: The Road to Power

Hitler is now Chancellor but what matters is that Hermann Goring is Minister of the Interior with 50,000 policemen at his disposal. They immediately crack down on all Communists, placing their Members of Parliament into ‘protective custody’ – detention for their own safety – in a new camp near a Bavarian village called Dachau. But when the Reichstag, the Parliament Building, catches fire, Hitler decides this Red Uprising must be nipped in the bud. But who started the fire?

Starring Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler, Aditomiwa Edun as Sefton Delmer, Scott Karim as Hermann Göring and featuring Oscar Batterham as Rudolf Diels, Head of the Prussian Political Police.

The company:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

With Franz von Papen now willing to act as Vice Chancellor, alongside Hitler as Chancellor, can he convince Alfred Hugenberg to bring his 51 Nationalist MPs into coalition with the Nazi Party? Von Papen believes that together they will box Hitler in, that they will be “hiring him” – in fact, the Nazis demand is for merely two cabinet seats. But suddenly there’s talk of a military coup to forestall this - will President Hindenburg finally agree to appoint Hitler as Chancellor?

Starring Derek Jacobi as President Hindenburg, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler, Aditomiwa Edun as Sefton Delmer, and featuring Forbes Masson as Alfred Hugenberg and Edward Bennett as Otto von Meissner, the President’s Chief of Staff.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

The current Chancellor, General Kurt von Schleicher, and the previous, Franz von Papen, are both determined to unseat each other – once allies, they are now sworn enemies, plotting in corridors. President Hindenburg would rather see von Papen restored to the post but, like von Schleicher, he cannot form a governing majority. Meanwhile the President’s son, Oskar, once a close friend of von Schleicher, starts to see a way through...and it involves the Nazi Party.

Starring Derek Jacobi as President Hindenburg, Jack Laskey as Oskar von Hindenburg, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Aditomiwa Edun as Sefton Delmer.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

By 1932, the Nazis have 230 Members of Parliament, the largest single group but no-one will invite them into coalition and President Hindenburg refuses to even contemplate appointing Hitler as Chancellor. Yet Hitler flatly refuses any arrangement where he is not Chancellor – Vice-Chancellor will not suffice. But so many of his party members, his stormtroopers have been waiting for government jobs, government salaries – they’re pushing hard for the compromise. Can Hitler hold them off for long enough to secure total power?

Starring Derek Jacobi as President Hindenburg, Scott Karim as Hermann Goring, Andrew Woodall as von Schleicher, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Aditomiwa Edun as the Daily Express Berlin Correspondent, Sefton Delmer.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

When Hitler encounters an elegant, divorced woman at his Berlin hotel, he finds that he is unexpectedly drawn to her. Unfortunately, what he doesn’t know is that Magda Quandt is already involved with his Head of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. But that isn’t Goebbels’ only headache: the first great love of Magda’s life was Chaim Arlosoroff, fervent Zionist. Nevertheless Hitler’s Deputy, Rudolf Hess, can see a perfect compromise: if Joseph and Magda marry, she will thus become the perfect companion for a Führer who is ‘married to Germany’.

Starring Shanaya Rafaat as Magda Goebbels, Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring George Kemp as Rudolf Hess.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Hitler’s strange dealings with the opposite sex come into sharp focus when his niece, aged 23, living in Hitler’s apartment, shoots herself. Geli first moved in when she was 18 but from that moment on, Hitler refuses to let her go out on her own, even chaperoned. He nurtures hopes that she will become an opera singer and, enraged by the very idea, refuses her permission to marry. Was it suicide? Was it murder? Was it an accident?

Starring Melody Grove as Anni Winter, Hitler’s housekeeper, Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Tanvi Virmani as Geli Raubal.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

On the first sitting of the new Reichstag, the 107 Nazi Members of Parliament deliberately create chaos. But with the Nazis now the second largest group in Parliament, foreign newspapers have to start taking Hitler seriously – even if he can be hard to pin down. Rarely rising before 11am, and not often in his office, he’s more usually to be found in a nearby café, cramming his face with cream cakes. One way or another, Dorothy must land an interview with him.

Starring Laura Donnelly as Dorothy Thompson, Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and Corey Johnson as Putzi Hanfstaengl.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

By 1929, Berlin may be cross-dressing and dancing to jazz but governments still rise and fall with banana-republican regularity. As Chief Foreign Correspondent for the New York Post, it’s Dorothy Thompson’s job to report on this maelstrom. And in Berlin she meets (and too quickly marries) Sinclair Lewis, novelist, alcoholic and soon-to-be Nobel Laureate. Meanwhile, Joseph Goebbels, now Party District Chief for Berlin is generating daily street disturbances, Jewish-owned department stores are one of his favourite targets. And now forced to choose between Hitler’s Nationalism and Strasser’s Socialism, which way will he jump?

Starring Laura Donnelly as Dorothy Thompson, Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and Forbes Masson as Sinclair Lewis.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Released after just six months in prison, Hitler must now renounce violence and vow that the Nazi Party will seek power through the ballot box. But his speeches are still vitriolic and he is soon banned from public speaking again. Goebbels is drawn deeper into the party faction who advocate the Socialist in ‘National Socialist’ but how will he react when Hitler personally writes to him, seeking to bring him closer to his own standpoint? And will it mean the end of his relationship with Else?

Starring Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Joseph Alessi as Gregor Strasser, leader of the Nazis’ Socialist faction.

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Far away in the Rhineland, 26-year-old Joseph Goebbels has a PhD, an unpublished novel and a half-Jewish girlfriend, Else Janke. But he finds himself drawn to the Nazi Party and Hitler’s rhetoric. Every day in his diary (undiscovered until this century) he records his excitement as he reads about Hitler defending himself – the latter is now on trial in Munich for his totally unsuccessful coup. Given free rein by a clearly sympathetic judge, Hitler is fast turning the courtroom into his own bully pulpit.

Starring Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and featuring Sorcha Kennedy as Else

Cast:

Sound designer – ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds