From the bestselling author of Travellers in the Third Reich comes a stunningly evocative portrait of Hitler’s Germany through the people of a single village.

A Village in the Third Reich
How Ordinary Lives were Transformed by the Rise of Fascism
Julia Boyd (with Angelika Patel)
Elliott & Thompson / HB / £25 / 5 May 2022

Oberstdorf is a beautiful village high up in the Bavarian Alps, a place where for hundreds of years ordinary people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even here, in the farthest corner of Germany, National Socialism sought to control not only people’s lives but also their minds.

By putting one village under the microscope, this book evocatively portrays the momentous period of Nazism in Germany. Why did Germans respond to Hitler in the manner that they did? How did their attitudes change as the war progressed? And when all hope was gone and their country lay in ruins, how did they pick themselves up and start again?

Drawing on archive material, letters, interviews and memoirs, A Village in the Third Reich is an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler, of the descent into totalitarianism and of the tragedies that befell all of those touched by Nazism. In its pages we meet the Jews who survived – and those who didn’t; the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime; and a blind boy whose life was thought ‘not worth living’.

About Julie Boyd

Julia Boyd is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People. Her previous books include A Dance with the Dragon: The Vanished World of Peking's Foreign Colony, The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Woman Physician and Hannah Riddell: An Englishwoman in Japan. As the widow of a former diplomat, she lived in Germany from 1977 to 1981. She lives in London.


About Angelika Patel

Angelika Patel was born into an old Oberstdorf family. She studied History and German Literature before taking an MBA at INSEAD at Fontainebleu. She is the author of Ein Dorf im Spiegel seiner Zeit (A Village in the Mirror of its Time): Oberstdorf 1918–1952. She lives in London and Oberstdorf.

Praise for Sunday Times bestseller Travellers in the Third Reich

‘A compelling historical narrative . . . both flatters and challenges our hindsight. [Boyd] lets her voices, skilfully orchestrated, speak for themselves, which they do with great eloquence.’ – Daily Telegraph

‘Fascinating . . . surreal scenes pepper Boyd’s deep trawl of travellers’ tales from the scores of visitors who were drawn to the ‘new Germany’ in the 1930s.’ – Spectator

‘Contains many amazing anecdotes . . . It warns us that we, with our all-seeing hindsight, might ourselves have been fooled or beguiled or inclined to make excuses, had we been there at the time. I can thoroughly recommend it as a contribution to knowledge and an absorbing and stimulating book in itself.’ – Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday
 

‘Meticulously researched…. thought-provoking reading.’ – Caroline Moorehead, Literary Review

‘A fascinating book.’ – Robert Elms, BBC Radio London

‘To a younger generation it seems incomprehensible that after the tragic Great War people and political leaders allowed themselves to march into the abyss again. Julia Boyd’s book, drawing on wide experience and forensic research, seeks to answer some of these questions.’ – Randolph Churchill

‘With an almost novelistic touch, [Boyd] presents a range of stories of human interest . . . The uncomfortable moral of Travellers in the Third Reich is that people see and hear only what they already want to see and hear.’ – David Pryce-Jones, Standpoint

‘Fascinating . . . This absorbing and beautifully organised book is full of small encounters that jolt the reader into a historical past that seems still very near.’ – Lucy Lethbridge, The Tablet

 
‘In the 1930s the most cultured and technologically advanced country in Europe tumbled into the abyss. In this deeply researched book Julia Boyd lets us view Germany's astonishing fall through foreign eyes. Her vivid tapestry of human stories is a delightful, often moving read. It also offers sobering lessons for our own day when strong leaders are again all the rage.’ – Professor David Reynolds, author of The Long Shadow: The Great War and the 20th Century

‘Drawing on the unpublished experiences of outsiders inside the Third Reich, Julia Boyd provides dazzling new perspectives on the Germany that Hitler built. Her book is a tour de force of historical research.’ – Dr Piers Brendon, author of The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s

‘A truly fascinating read.’ – Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent 

‘A revealing and original account’ – Sir John Tusa
 

‘A glorious read for anyone with an interest in the history of the twentieth century.’ – Sir Christopher Mallaby, former ambassador to Germany and France

‘Unique, original and engagingly written.’ – Dr Zare Steiner, author of The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933