Germany | Forthright Radio

Dr. Timothy W. Ryback, PhD is an historian and director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague. He previously served as the Deputy-Secretary General of the Académie Diplomatique Internationale in Paris, and Director and Vice President of the Salzburg Global Seminar.

Timothy Ryback has written on European history, politics and culture for numerous publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal.

He is the author of numerous books, including Hitler’s Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life, which has appeared in more than 25 editions around the world; his book, The Last Survivor: Legacies of Dachau was a New York Times Notable Book; and Rock Around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

His latest book is TAKEOVER: HITLER’S FINAL RISE TO POWER (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024). It explores the final days of the Weimar Republic and its incredibly rapid transformation into the Third Reich of Nazis Germany in just a few months. We discuss it and two of his other books, HITLER’S PRIVATE LIBRARY: THE BOOKS THAT SHAPED HIS LIFE, and HITLER’S FIRST VICTIMS: THE QUEST FOR JUSTICE.

Although there is some disputing it, Mark Twain is generally credited with observing that “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” In researching that quip, I came across this by humorist, Max Beerbohm from 1896. “History,” it has been said, “does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another.” How many rhymes can you find in this interview with historian, Timothy Ryback, from his home in Berlin, Germany, recorded via Skype on Dec. 3, 2024?

Articles pertinent to this interview:

How Hitler Came To Power, with Timothy Ryback and Jim Bittermann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3HhfPoavwc

What Will Happen To Everyone Who is Not White, Straight, & Male If We Don’t Speak Out? https://hartmannreport.com/p/what-will-happen-to-everyone-who?utm_source=publication-search

Margaret Atwood: Democracy Under Her Eye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hij5MbcICm4

Trump Pentagon pick attacks UN and Nato and urges US to ignore Geneva conventions https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/pete-hegseth-book-attacks-nato-alliances

The deep historical forces that explain Trump’s win https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/30/the-deep-historical-forces-that-explain-trumps-win

Why I’m Not Giving up on American Democracy https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/30/opinion/trump-orban-hungary-journalists-persecution.html

Ex-official exits running for Trump team over Sebastian Gorka appointment https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/sebastian-gorka-michael-anton-trump

Montana supreme court blocks ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/11/montana-blocks-ban-gender-affirming-care-trans-minors

United States v. Skrmetti: The Trans Medical Care Case Before the Supreme Court Is About Bodily Autonomy for Everyone https://www.americanprogress.org/article/united-states-v-skrmetti-the-trans-medical-care-case-before-the-supreme-court-is-about-bodily-autonomy-for-everyone/

Nikki Giovanni poetry reading at Emory University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr7587oAdpQ

Nikki Giovanni Reads her own Poems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFP9ZNYCPs

How Nikki Giovanni’s Black American consciousness changed the world https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/14/nikki-giovanni-black-arts-literary-consciousness

How to Kill a Democracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKlkETrxCkc

Timothy Ryback – Hitler’s Private Library – Part 1 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKKfohBPy7s

Timothy Ryback – Hitler’s Private Library – Part 2 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sOIkTr4aVw

The Books He Didn’t Burn | Inside Hitler’s Private Library. Official Trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uj5O8LDB2k

Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence in the United States: What the Research Says https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2023/09/polarization-democracy-and-political-violence-in-the-united-states-what-the-research-says?lang=en

US founder of neo-Nazi network sentenced to two years of time served https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/13/neo-nazi-founder-robert-rundo-sentencing

Born in the Civil Rights era of the Southern U.S., Susan Neiman has spent most of the last four decades in Berlin. She is the Director of The Einstein Forum. Her latest book is Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Among the many things she reminds us of in her book is that the Nazi regime lasted only 12 years – from 1933 to 1945. Likewise, the period we call “Reconstruction” also lasted only 12 years from 1865 to 1877. She quotes her colleague, the late Tony Judt: the historian’s task (is) “to tell what is almost always an uncomfortable story and explain why the discomfort is part of the truth we need to live well and live properly. A well-organised society is one in which we know the truth about ourselves collectively, not one in which we tell pleasant lies about ourselves”.

What can Americans learn from the Germans about confronting and moving on from our racist past toward more social justice? Susan Neiman has much to share of what she has learned from the Germans.

What can we learn of what Southerners have done and are doing to heal the wounds of our past? Susan has much to share of what she has learned in Mississippi and Alabama.

Denouncing critics of Israel as ‘un-Jews’ or antisemites is a perversion of history https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/11/denouncing-critics-of-israel-as-un-jews-or-antisemites-is-a-perversion-of-history

Learning from the Germans: how we might atone for America’s evils https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/10/learning-from-the-germans-review-us-slavery

Mississippi Judge Allows Governor’s Race to Take Place Under Jim Crow-Era Rules https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Mississippi-governor-s-race-taking-place-under-14803204.php

The First Black Mayor Of Talladega, Alabama, Is Poised To Push His City Into The Future https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tim-ragland-talladega-alabama-first-black-mayor_n_5db9dcd7e4b066da552b4718

School principal fired for saying ‘I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual event’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/31/florida-high-school-principal-holocaust-fired

The Massacre That Spawned the Alt-Right https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/11/03/greensboro-massacre-white-nationalism-klan-229873

Far-right AfD surges to second place in German state election https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/27/far-right-afd-surges-to-second-place-in-german-state-elections

What Holocaust Restitution Taught Me About Slavery Reparations https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/27/slavery-reparations-holocaust-restitution-negotiations-229881

Make yourselves at home: the meaning of hospitality in a divided world https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/oct/29/make-yourselves-at-home-the-meaning-of-hospitality-in-a-divided-world

‘We were indifferent to the horror’: Nazi camp inmate to give testimony at trial https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/27/indifferent-horror-nazi-reistance-fighter-bruno-dey-stutthof